Vernon S. Shaffer

Vernon Spitler Shaffer (February 20, 1884 – May 3, 1958) was an American farmer and Republican politician who represented Shenandoah County part-time in the Virginia House of Delegates from 1950 until his death in 1958.^[1]

Early and family life

Shaffer was born in Page County, Virginia and educated in its public schools. He married Mary Leah Stover (1885-1973) and they lived in Maurertown, Virginia in the Shenandoah Valley region. They had at least two sons: William Robert Shaffer (1916-pre-2001) and John Vernon Shaffer (1924-2001).^[2]

Career

A chicken farmer and Republican, Shaffer was president of the Shenandoah Commercial Hatchery, Inc. He also served on the Virginia World War II Memorial Commission. His eldest son William Robert Shaffer of Woodstock, Virginia represented Shenandoah County in the House of Delegates from 1942 until 1947, when fellow Republican (and poultry dealer) William C. Lambert took over for a term. His younger son John Vernon Shaffer continued the family business and civic traditions, but joined the Presbyterian church.

Shenandoah County voters elected Vernon S. Shaffer their delegate to the Virginia General Assembly in November 1949, so he assumed that office in January. He was re-elected in 1951, 1953, 1955 and 1957. During his last three terms, the Massive Resistance crisis embroiled Virginia because the Byrd Organization (to which most state Democrats belonged, unofficially) followed the lead of U.S. Senator Harry F. Byrd, who refused to allow desegregation of Virginia's schools despite the U.S. Supreme Court's decisions in Brown v. Board of Education in 1954 and 1955. Although greatly outnumbered by Democrats (especially Byrd Democrats), Shaffer's and Republican state senator Ted Dalton's voices were among the few moderates during the 1956 legislative session that narrowly rejected an interposition resolution and later in the special legislative session that ultimately adopted the Stanley plan.^[3]

By 1956, Shenandoah County had decided to integrate its schools (which had educated both Shaffer's sons), and the Byrd Organization's Stanley plan proposed to close all schools that integrated.^[4] Shaffer and Democratic (but anti-Byrd) delegates Kathryn H. Stone of Arlington (which had also decided to integrate) and John C. Webb of Fairfax (another then fast-growing suburb of Washington, D.C.) became the only three delegates to oppose all seven anti-NAACP laws also contained in the Stanley plan.^[5]

Death and legacy

Shaffer died on May 3, 1958 and was buried at Massanutten cemetery in Woodstock, where his wife joined him in 1973.^[6]

On January 19, 1959 both the Virginia Supreme Court in Harrison v. Day and a three judge federal panel declared parts of the Stanley plan unconstitutional, and just over four years later the United States Supreme Court would declare the anti-NAACP laws unconstitutional in NAACP v. Button. Fellow RepublicanWilbur O. Riley replaced Shaffer for the remainder of his term. However, W. Howard Ellifrits, a Republican banker who had served as elected Court Clerk of Shenandoah County (a position similar to many Byrd Democrats), won election as Shenandoah county's delegate in the next general election in 1959.^[7]

References