William A. Stanfill Explained

William Abner Stanfill
Jr/Sr:United States Senator
State:Kentucky
Term Start:November 19, 1945
Term End:November 5, 1946
Appointer:Simeon Willis
Predecessor:Happy Chandler
Successor:John S. Cooper
Birth Date:16 January 1892
Birth Place:Barbourville, Kentucky
Death Place:Lexington, Kentucky
Party:Republican
Alma Mater:Union College
University of Kentucky

William Abner Stanfill (January 16, 1892June 12, 1971) was briefly a member of the United States Senate from Kentucky.

Stanfill attended Union College and received a law degree from the University of Kentucky in 1912. He practiced law in Barbourville, Kentucky and Hazard, Kentucky. He served on the board of regents of Morehead State Teachers College (now Morehead State University) 1927  - 1931.

United States Senator Happy Chandler, a Democrat, resigned his Senate seat to become Commissioner of Baseball on November 1, 1945. Republican Governor of Kentucky Simeon S. Willis appointed Stanfill, a Republican, to the vacant Senate seat on November 19, 1945. Stanfill did not run for election to the seat. He served from November 19, 1945, to November 5, 1946, when his successor, John Sherman Cooper who had won the seat by election, assumed the Senate seat. Stanfill then resumed the practice of law and later retired to Lexington, Kentucky.