US Senator, 26th and 34th Governor of Colorado. He was a United States Representative, a United States Senator, and a Governor of the State of Colorado. He was born as Edwin Carl Johnson in Scandia, Kansas, to Nelson "Nels" Johnson (1845-1909), and his wife Anna T. Johnson (1845-1924), on January 1, 1884. The family later moved to a cattle ranch in Elsie, Nebraska, in 1884, and then to Lincoln, Nebraska, when he was still a young child. He was educated locally and attended the common public schools and the Lincoln High School in Lincoln, Nebraska, where he was tutored by the famous attorney and orator William Jenning Bryan (1860-1925), who was serving as a substitute teacher at the time. Following his graduation from high school, he pursued his dream of working for the railroad, and after some time he became a train dispatcher and a telegrapher in Fairmont, Nebraska, in 1909. Sadly, he contracted tuberculosis and he had to move to Denver, Colorado, for his health and where the climate would be helpful to make him healthy again. Following his recovery from the disease, he moved to Craig, Colorado, where he homesteaded on government land beginning in 1910. He also operated the Farmers' Cooperative Milling Elevator in Craig, Colorado, and also served a term as the Assessor of Moffat County, Colorado, from 1918 to 1920, and engaged in the produce business from 1920 to 1930. He then decided to enter politics and ran for and won a seat in the Colorado State House of Representatives. A Member of the Democratic Party, he then served four terms in the Colorado State House of Representatives from 1923 to 1931. He also served as the 25th Lieutenant Governor of Colorado from January 13, 1931, to January 10, 1933, having succeeded the outgoing 24th Lieutenant Governor of Colorado George Milton Corlett (1884-1955), on January 13, 1931. After his term as the 25th Lieutenant Governor of Colorado had expired he was succeeded in office by the incoming 26th Lieutenant Governor of Colorado Ray Herbert Talbot (1896-1955), on January 10, 1933. He was then elected as the 26th Governor of Colorado having succeeded the outgoing Governor of Colorado William Herbert "Billy" Adams (1861-1954), and served in that position from January 10, 1933, to January 1, 1937. During this time, as a Member of the Democratic Party, he was also elected as a United States Senator in the United States Senate having succeeded in office the outgoing United States Senator Edward Prentiss Costigan (1874-1939), who served in that same position from March 4, 1931, to January 3, 1937. He was elected as a United States Senator to two more terms after that and served in the entire capacity from January 3, 1937, to January 3, 1955. He was not a Candidate for reelection in 1954. After his final term as a United States Senator in the United States Senate had expired he was succeeded by the incoming United States Senator Gordon Llewellyn Allott (1907-1989), on January 3, 1955. During his three terms as a United States Senator in the United States Senate, he was an intraparty critic of the New Deal policies of then-President of the United States Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1882-1945), from 1937 to 1940, Chairman of the Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce while representing the Eighty-first Congress and Eighty-Second Congresses, and a Member of the Select Committee on the Joseph McCarthy Censure while representing the Eighty-Third Congress. He then ran again for the office of the Governor of Colorado and won the election this time becoming the 34th Governor of Colorado having succeeded the outgoing Governor of Colorado Daniel Isaac J. Thornton (1911-1976), on January 11, 1955. He served in that entire capacity from January 11, 1955, to January 8, 1957. During his time in political office, he opposed then President Franklin Delano Franklin's New Deal policies, and gave a few important speeches including one on the Atomic Bomb, "God Almighty in his infinite wisdom has dropped the atomic bomb in our lap." Now for the first time the United States, "with vision and guts and plenty of atomic bombs," could "compel mankind to adopt the policy of lasting peace … or be burned to a crisp," in November of 1945, and one about the actress Ingrid Bergman for which he is probably best remembered in 1950. He criticized the extramarital affair of actress Ingrid Bergman, who was, at the time, married to Petter Lindström. The actress Ingrid Bergman's affair with Italian director Roberto Rossellini became a cause célèbre as a result of his speech, forcing her to relocate to Europe for several years. He then proposed a bill where movies would be licensed based on the perceived morality of the actors/actresses and stated that actress Ingrid Bergman "had perpetrated an assault upon the institution of marriage," and called her "a powerful influence for evil." Oddly enough, prior to the discovery of her affair, actress Ingrid Bergman had been his favorite actress. He felt that he had been deceived, and wished to ban her from any future Hollywood, California, film productions. The actress Ingrid Bergman returned to Hollywood films in the 1956 blockbuster film "Anastasia." In 1972, United States Senator Charles Harting Percy of Illinois entered an apology into the Congressional Record for his attack, which had been made on actress Ingrid Bergman twenty-two years earlier in 1950. He was not a Candidate for renomination for the office of the Governor of Colorado in 1956 and was succeeded in office by the incoming 35th Governor of Colorado Stephen Lucid Robert McNichols (1914-1997), on January 8, 1957. He retired from politics shortly thereafter but remained active as a volunteer on several Colorado State Commissions and Committees until his death. An avid sportsman, he was also the President of the Western League, a Class A Baseball League, from 1947 to 1955. He was instrumental in the construction of Bears Stadium / Mile High Stadium in Denver, Colorado. He passed away following a hernia operation at the Saint Joseph Hospital in Denver, Colorado, on May 30, 1970, at the age of 76. Following his death, his body lay in repose the State Capitol Rotunda and funeral services were held at Scottish Rite Temple in Denver, Colorado, and he was buried in the Fairmount Mausoleum in Fairmount Cemetery in Denver, Colorado. A Lutheran, he was also a Member of the Freemasons, the Odd Fellows, the Elks, and the Grange. The Eisenhower-Johnson Memorial Tunnel which opened in 1979, and carries eastbound I-70 under the Continental Divide, in the Rocky Mountains, from Summit County, Colorado, to Clear Creek County, Colorado, was named in his memory. For his contributions to sports, he was also inducted into the Colorado Sports Hall of Fame in 1968. He was also on hand as the commencement Speaker at Rangely College in Rangely, Colorado, on June 7, 1968, when, "The College Center Building will henceforth be called the Johnson Building to honor this great citizen." He was married to Ferne Claire "Blossom" Armitage Johnson (1885-1971), in Kenesaw, Nebraska, on February 17, 1907, with whom he had two children, a daughter named Gladys Johnson (later Arrance), and Janet Grayce Johnson (1920-2017, later Howsam). His wife Ferne passed away in Denver, Colorado, in November of 1971, at the age of 86, and she is buried with him in the Fairmount Mausoleum in Fairmount Cemetery in Denver, Colorado.