Buncombe Bob: The Life & Times of Robert Rice Reynolds
By Julian M. Pleasants
University of North Carolina Press, 2000, $34.95

This highly readable biography of a United States Senator from North Carolina for the period from 1933 through 1944 has been in the works by the author, according to his bibliography, since 1968, when he interviewed columnist Drew Pearson.

Since then, Pleasants, a native of Southern Pines and a graduate of Davidson College and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, has interviewed senators Ervin, Sanford, and Helms, Secretary of State Eure, Presidents of the University of North Carolina, Friday and Graham, The Pilot’s Sam Ragan, Tom Wicker of the New York Times, and others, about this notorious but seemingly unimportant lawman.

Pleasants has brought him alive through meticulous research over a long period of time and has refuted the notion that Reynolds was nothing but a sycophant.

Bob Reynolds was born in 1884 in Asheville and matriculated at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he devoted his energy to football, track, and passing math, which he did on the fourth try. He was also the sports editor of the Tar Heel Newspaper.

While a student, Reynolds went to Europe twice on cattle boats. He never graduated and, upon leaving Chapel Hill, he traveled about the country, ending up on the streets of San Francisco, a virtual vagrant. Reynolds accepted a challenge to box the Pacific coast champion and collected $100 for staying in the ring for six rounds. This was enough to get Reynolds back to Asheville, where he read law and was admitted to the North Carolina Bar in 1908.

Reynolds began a series of five marriages in 1910 in New Orleans and, over the next several years, he lived in Louisiana and New York, attending to his wife’s plantations and editing the American War News Weekly. He came back to Asheville to practice law and became active in North Carolina politics.

In 1932, when Franklin D. Roosevelt ran for president, Reynolds launched a campaign against incumbent Sen. Cam Morrison, running as an isolationist and also opposing the prohibition of alcoholic beverages. He had very limited financial resources and drove from town to town in an ancient Model T Ford, which he purposely caused to run out of water on the outskirts of each town, thus causing him to arrive with steam pouring out of the radiator or being pushed by townspeople.

Reynolds ran as the champion of the common man, accusing Morrison of representing big business, and living in a luxurious suite in the Mayflower Hotel in Washington where he ate “red Russian fish aigs.” The strategy worked, and Reynolds was victorious and went on to win the general election.

In spite of his reputation as a clown, ladies man, and playboy, Reynolds did make contributions through thoughtful suggestions for highway safety, benefits for veterans, a national approach to crime, and reforms in the District of Columbia government.

He unfortunately did not have the skills or the interest to see these suggestions through. However, he made auspicious contributions in obtaining federal funding for the Blue Ridge Parkway and the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Reynolds tied himself to FDR and supported the New Deal programs, obtaining funds for the Civilian Conservation Corps, which were used in North Carolina.

Reynolds ran for re-election in 1938 against Congressman Frank Hancock of Oxford, who immediately began an attack on Reynolds for his failure to serve in World War I, his around the world junkets, and his failure to pay attention to state and national legislative matters. Reynolds soundly trounced Hancock and went on to defeat Charles Jonas in the general election. He continued his noninterventionist policy for America and was accused by some detractors as being pro Nazi. Once the United States was attacked, however, he voted for war against Germany and Japan. In 1944, with the war apparently won, he reverted to his isolationist stance and voted against the United States entry into the United Nations. Reynolds destroyed himself with his hate-filled rhetoric of anti-Semitism and alienist views, and he decided not to run for re-election in 1944.

Pleasants concludes that Bob Reynolds was not a clown but a shrewd and clever man who used his folksy ad colorful ways to make the voters identify with him in his apparent contempt for big business, foreigners and the rich. It cannot be accurately stated that Reynolds represented the state well. He refused to do his homework and had no interest in doing what was necessary to be an effective representative.

He did just enough to keep his name before the public with issues that the majority of North Carolina voters approved at the time. Although he was very colorful, it was difficult for Pleasants, or anyone else, to make any kind of logical explanation of his character and his actions.

Reynolds, in reality, had only his personal interests as priorities, and his modus operandi is indescribable and inexplicable, especially in light of the conservative nature of North Carolina. Many compare him to Huey “Kingfish” Long, who was in the Senate at the same time; but, although both were intriguing personalities, Long was an effective and powerful senator, and Reynolds was not.

Pleasants has given us a panoramic view of North Carolina and national history during the depression and World War II years. He has not only defined Bob Reynolds as best he could with voluminous research, but has also presented other important figures of that era, including Senators Josiah Bailey and Cam Morrison, Gov. J.C.B. Ehringhaus, and President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

His research is impressive, and the book is a valuable and important addition to understanding the historical developments of North Carolina during this period. It is not only well researched, but the excellent writing skills of Pleasants are apparent throughout the volume in that his mechanical ability to present a smooth flow of characterizations, ideas and events, keeps the book from getting mired in mindless details. Because of his anomalous nature, Reynolds is a difficult subject to cover, and Pleasants does it well. I found it fascinating reading.