Frank Forrester Church, born July 25, 1924, was a third generation Idahoan—a  heritage of greater significance when one realizes Idaho was one of the last regions to be visited by European explorers and was settled primarily by reverse migration from the West after gold was discovered in Idaho during the last half of the 19th century (Conley, 1982).  Church's father ran a small business in Boise and was a staunch Republican.

        After Church was elected to the U.S. Senate in the late 1950's, he reflected on the merits of the Democratic Party and how he became a Democrat.

…..I believe that, if we tell the story of the Democratic Party as it should be told, it will attract the loyalty and support of young people, in ever-growing numbers. The Democratic Party is the natural party for the young men and women of our land.

I believe this strongly, because I am, myself, a case in point. I was raised in a Republican family, the chief preoccupation of which was to argue politics. In order to furnish an argument, in that Republican climate, someone had to take 'the other side." Being the youngest, this burden fell to me. And so I began to study the history of the Democratic Party. For several years I studied, and argued, and studied some more. The more I learned about the Democratic Party, the more attracted I was to it. It was not too long until--to the astonishment of the family--I had become the best converted Democrat you ever saw! (Church, F., 1957, Biennial Convention)

   Photographs and quotations courtesy of the Frank Church Archives of the Albertson's Library at Boise State University.  No portion of this site may be reproduced without explicit, written permission of the author.