Paul A. Porter - Biography

Biography

Born in Joplin, Missouri, Porter's family moved to Winchester, Kentucky when he was very young. He graduated from Kentucky Wesleyan College and attained a LL.B. from the University of Kentucky College of Law. While in law school, he worked as city editor for the Lexington Herald. Fresh from law school, he joined the law firm of Judge J.M. Banton, where he was assigned to work on the Al Smith presidential campaign in Clark County, where he lived. After the election, he joined General Newspapers, where he worked on acquisitions. He was married to Bessie Edgar Banton, a friend from childhood and the daughter of J.M. Banton; they had two children. The couple divorced in 1956, and Porter later married Kathleen Winsor.

Porter served as the Democratic National Committee's head of publicity for the party's successful 1944 election campaign, which saw Democrats increase their majority in the House of Representatives and the reelection of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Prior to his work for the Democratic Party, Porter had held a number of jobs in the Roosevelt administration, starting with the Department of Agriculture, from 1933 to 1937. He left the government to work as Washington counsel for CBS, taking leave in 1940 to join the National Defense Council. In 1942, Porter left CBS to join the Office of Price Administration as deputy administrator, and then assistant director of the Office of Economic Stabilization under Fred M. Vinson.