Slover, Samuel L. (1873-1959)

David Dennie, SMC Reference Librarian, February 2023

Samuel Leroy Slover was a titan – perhaps the titan – of the newspaper industry in Central and Eastern Virginia for roughly half of the twentieth century. Over the course of his career as a newspaperman(1), Slover owned or controlled six major newspapers in those two regions of the state.(2)

In addition to his newspaper interests, Slover was active in the television and radio businesses, served on the boards of several significant corporations (including as Chairman of the Merchants and Planters Bank in Norfolk), worked on the staff of Virginia Governor Westmoreland Davis from 1918 to 1922 (during which time Slover was awarded the rank of Colonel, which provided him a nickname for the rest of his life that he himself was reluctant to use), and served as Mayor of the City of Norfolk for one term (1933-1934), having vowed, after being elected to the post in a “surprise unanimous election” by the City Council, to serve no longer than that.(3)

Samuel LeRoy Slover was born on March 23, 1873, in the town of Clinton, Anderson County, Tennessee.(4) After attending the University of Tennessee for one year, Slover became a deputy Circuit Court Clerk for Anderson County two days after his 20th birthday. Through his activities in Tennessee Republican Party politics, Slover met the owner of the Knoxville Journal newspaper, who hired him as first an advertising salesman, then later as the newspaper’s business manager. Slover’s first foray in the newspaper business there was not successful, and he soon left Tennessee, working first as an ad salesman for a New York-based trade journal. This work brought him to Virginia, which was part of his sales territory.(5)

After meeting Richmond newspaper publisher Joseph Bryan – at which time Slover audaciously asked Bryan for financing to help Slover buy a newspaper interest in Norfolk (which Bryan declined to do) – Bryan, impressed by Slover’s initiative, hired him as an advertising salesman.(6)

While working at the Richmond Times-Dispatch newspaper, Slover met a colleague, Harvey-Laird Wilson, with whom he went into business in March 1902, when Slover became the publisher of the Newport News Times-Herald and brought Wilson along as head of the news and editorial departments.(7)

From that starting point, over the ensuing years Samuel Slover expanded his newspaper business interests, acquiring and consolidating, or helping to consolidate, newspapers throughout Eastern and Central Virginia, including: the Norfolk Public Ledger, which he merged with the Norfolk Dispatch (and later with the Portsmouth Star); the Index-Appeal, merged with the Progress in Petersburg; the Ledger-Dispatch, with the Virginian-Pilot in Norfolk; and the Times-Dispatch with the News Leader in Richmond.(8)

Slover was elected as Mayor of Norfolk in 1933, at a time when the city’s finances, at the height of the Great Depression, were in bad shape. Slover cut city employee salaries, which, as the next Mayor stated, did ease the city’s finances, but earned Slover a fair amount of enmity among those employees. In keeping with a promise he had made, Slover served only one term, and resigned as Mayor in 1934. His name was mentioned in some newspapers as a possible candidate for Virginia Governor, but Slover never expressed interest in pursuing that possibility.(9)

Slover met Fay Martin, whose father was the Norfolk County Clerk of Court(10), soon after acquiring the Norfolk Public Ledger newspaper in 1905. Slover and Martin were married in 1909 when she was 25 years old and he was eleven years her senior. They built a house on Fairfax Avenue in Norfolk, next to her parents’ home(11), where they lived together for the next 50 years.(12) Throughout their life together, the Slovers enjoyed golf, boating, duck hunting(13), and gardening at their summer home in Virginia Beach.(14) The Slovers had no children themselves, but, after the death of the husband of Fay’s sister Dorothy Batten, the Slovers helped raise their nephew Frank Batten, who later followed his uncle into the newspaper business.(15)

At various times during his career, Slover had served on the corporate boards of the Norfolk and Western Railway Co.; the Newport News Shipbuilding and Drydock Co.; the National Bank of Commerce; and the Merchants and Planters Bank. He also served as Chairman of the Virginia Navy Relief Society, and was involved in the founding of an organization that later became the Norfolk Chamber of Commerce. (16)

Samuel Slover was known for his dry, quick wit, his generosity, and his loyalty to his friends.(17)

In his later years, Colonel Slover, or just “the Colonel” (as he was often referred to), slowly began to reduce his business activities, resigning from some of the corporate board positions he had held; but he continued to serve as Chairman of the Board of his own Norfolk and Portsmouth businesses until his death.(18)

Samuel LeRoy Slover passed away on Sunday, November 29, 1959, at the age of 86.(18) He is interred in Forest Lawn Cemetery in Norfolk.(19)

Colonel Slover is memorialized by an official Virginia Historical Marker at the corner of Plume Street and Atlantic Street in downtown Norfolk(20), and by the Slover Library, across the street from the historical marker.

Sources:

1. Norfolk Ledger-Dispatch (Norfolk, VA), November 30, 1959, Page 4. “Samuel L. Slover: A Newspaperman.”

2. Find a Grave, database and images, memorial page for COL Samuel Leroy Slover.

3. The Virginian-Pilot (Norfolk, VA), November 30, 1959, Pages 1, 12. “S.L. Slover Dies; Headed Papers.”

4. Ancestry.com. Virginia, U.S., Death Records, 1912-2014. Virginia and the Virginia County, vol. 5, #10, October 1951, Pages 29, 76. “Samuel L. Slover.”

5. The Virginian-Pilot (Norfolk, VA), November 30, 1959, Page 12. “S.L. Slover Dies; Headed Papers.”

6. The Commonwealth, vol. 24, #10, Oct. 1957, Page 2. “Colonel Slover: Newspaper Builder.”

7. The Virginian-Pilot (Norfolk, VA), November 30, 1959, Page 12. “S.L. Slover Dies; Headed Papers.”

8. The Commonwealth, vol. 24, #10, Oct. 1957, Page 54. “Colonel Slover: Newspaper Builder.”

9. The Virginian-Pilot (Norfolk, VA), November 30, 1959, Page 12. “S.L. Slover Dies; Headed Papers.”

10. Ibid.

11. Martin Family History. 2001. Page 30.

12. 1959 Norfolk City Directory. Hill Directory Company. Page 636.

13. Martin Family History. 2001. Pages 33-35.

14. The Virginian-Pilot (Norfolk, VA), September 14, 1952, Page D2. “If You Have a Yen to Plant a Garden on the Ocean’s Edge, Be Sure You Have the Sporting Blood to Take What Comes.”

15. Martin Family History. 2001. Page 32, 36.

16. The Virginian-Pilot (Norfolk, VA), November 30, 1959, Page 12. “S.L. Slover Dies; Headed Papers.”

17. Ibid.

18 . The Virginian-Pilot (Norfolk, VA), November 30, 1959, Page 1. “S.L. Slover Dies; Headed Papers.”

19. Ancestry.com. Virginia, U.S., Death Records, 1912-2014. Virginia and the Virginia County, vol. 5, #10, October 1951, Pages 29, 76. “Samuel L. Slover.”

20. Historical Highway Markers. Virginia Department of Historic Resources. https://vcris.dhr.virginia.gov/HistoricMarkers/ “Col. Samuel LeRoy Slover (1873-1959).”

Major Keywords/Search Terms:

Sources:

1. Primary Sources:

a. Books and Pamphlets:

Moore, Daniel Decatur, and James O. Jones Co. Men of the South : A Work for the Newspaper Reference Library. New Orleans: Southern Biographical Association, 1922. Page 738.

City Directories:

o 1906 Norfolk, Portsmouth and Berkley City Directory. Hill Directory Company, Page 494.

o 1907 Norfolk & Portsmouth City Directory. Hill Directory Company. Page 576.

o 1911 Norfolk & Portsmouth City Directory. Hill Directory Company. Page 488.

o 1913 Norfolk & Portsmouth City Directory. Hill Directory Company. Page 619.

o 1914 Norfolk, Portsmouth and Berkley City Directory. Hill Directory Company. Page 633.

o 1959 Norfolk City Directory. Hill Directory Company. Page 636.

b. Documents/Collections:

o Biographies: Slover, Samuel L., Sargeant Memorial Collection, Norfolk Clippings Files, MSS 0000-NCF

o Box 5, Folder 7 – Biographies: Slover, Samuel L., Sargeant Memorial Collection, Norfolk Ephemera Collection, MSS 0000-NEC

o “Col. S. L. Slover Is Elected To Fill Vacancy On Council; Undecided About Accepting”, The Virginian-Pilot, March 15, 1933, Sargeant Memorial Collection, Norfolk Clippings Files, MSS 0000-NCF

o “Col. Slover’s Funeral Service Held Monday”, The Virginian-Pilot, December 1, 1959, Sargeant Memorial Collection, Norfolk Clippings Files, MSS 0000-NCF

o “Miss Fay Martin Weds Mr. Slover”, Norfolk Landmark, October 29, 1909, Sargeant Memorial Collection, Norfolk Clippings Files, MSS 0000-NCF

o “Slover Accepts Council Seat; To Be Offered Post As Mayor”, The Virginian-Pilot, March 17, 1933, Sargeant Memorial Collection, Norfolk Clippings Files, MSS 0000-NCF

o Slover Family Papers, MSS 2015-001, Sargeant Memorial Collection

o Samuel Slover Collection, MSS 2017-062, Sargeant Memorial Collection

Censuses:

o Ancestry.com. 1910 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2006. Census Place: Norfolk Ward 2, Norfolk (Independent City), Virginia; Roll: T624_1637; Page: 19A; Enumeration District: 0026; FHL microfilm: 1375650. www.ancestrylibrary.com/discoveryui-content/view/29335682:7884?tid=&pid=&queryId=ccdd14f43c8902efe23b318435bac8ec&_phsrc=deg74&_phstart=successSource

o Ancestry.com. 1920 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010. Census Place: Norfolk Madison Ward, Norfolk (Independent City), Virginia; Roll: T625_1902; Page: 2A; Enumeration District: 96. https://www.ancestrylibrary.com/discoveryui-content/view/55621396:6061?tid=&pid=&queryId=ccdd14f43c8902efe23b318435bac8ec&_phsrc=deg78&_phstart=successSource

o Ancestry.com. 1930 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2002. Census Place: Norfolk, Norfolk (Independent City), Virginia; Page: 1A; Enumeration District: 0046; FHL microfilm: 2342204. https://www.ancestrylibrary.com/discoveryui-content/view/98437028:6224?tid=&pid=&queryId=ccdd14f43c8902efe23b318435bac8ec&_phsrc=deg72&_phstart=successSource

o Ancestry.com. 1940 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2012. Norfolk, Norfolk City, Virginia; Roll: m-t0627-04312; Page: 1B; Enumeration District: 114-54. https://www.ancestrylibrary.com/discoveryui-content/view/17927215:2442?tid=&pid=&queryId=ccdd14f43c8902efe23b318435bac8ec&_phsrc=deg76&_phstart=successSource

o Ancestry.com. 1950 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2022. Norfolk, Norfolk, Virginia; Roll: 3677; Sheet Number: 6; Enumeration District: 115-92. https://www.ancestrylibrary.com/discoveryui-content/view/111359272:62308?tid=&pid=&queryId=ccdd14f43c8902efe23b318435bac8ec&_phsrc=deg73&_phstart=successSource

o Ancestry.com and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. 1880 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2010. Census Place: District 5, Anderson, Tennessee; Roll: 1244; Page: 53C; Enumeration District: 138. https://www.ancestrylibrary.com/discoveryui-content/view/9311778:6742?tid=&pid=&queryId=f9ed9cc610432661f4d7cdd8715e42ec&_phsrc=deg69&_phstart=successSource

Vital Records:

o Ancestry.com. Virginia, U.S., Death Records, 1912-2014 [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2015. https://search.ancestrylibrary.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?indiv=1&dbid=9278&h=2518570&tid=&pid=&queryId=5b00de992ecfc3d8b21e238bfb195fc7&usePUB=true&_phsrc=deg89&_phstart=successSource&_gl=1*rg8a4a*_ga*MTM3ODU3NTI3NS4xNjcwNjIxNzUx*_ga_4QT8FMEX30*MTY3NjczOTgyMy44LjEuMTY3Njc0MjcwNC4xMi4wLjA

o Ancestry.com. Virginia, U.S., Select Marriages, 1785-1940 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc, 2014. https://www.ancestrylibrary.com/discoveryui-content/view/3129654:60214?tid=&pid=&queryId=a65c5fa81f839b656cdb204c4d3871cb&_phsrc=deg96&_phstart=successSource

o Ancestry.com. U.S., Social Security Applications and Claims Index, 1936-2007 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2015. https://www.ancestrylibrary.com/discoveryui-content/view/3049448:60901?tid=&pid=&queryId=c30e20cd3d04d52ec4c7d42406c00073&_phsrc=deg92&_phstart=successSource

c. Newspaper/Magazines/Journals:

o “Associates Pay Slover High Tributes”, The Virginian-Pilot (Norfolk, VA), November 30, 1959, Page 13.

o “City Council Praises Late Colonel Slover”, Norfolk Ledger-Dispatch (Norfolk, VA), December 16, 1959, Page 41.

o “Friends and Associates Praise Slover As Leader, Executive, Financier, Citizen”, Norfolk Ledger-Dispatch (Norfolk, VA), November 30, 1959, Page 9.

o Grimm, Gisela, “If You Have a Yen to Plant a Garden on the Ocean’s Edge, Be Sure You Have the Sporting Blood to Take What Comes”, The Virginian-Pilot (Norfolk, VA), September 14, 1952, Page D2.

o Perkins, Henry, “Samuel L. Slover”, Virginia and the Virginia County, vol. 5, #10, October 1951, Pages 29, 76.

o “S.L. Slover Dies; Headed Papers”, The Virginian-Pilot (Norfolk, VA), November 30, 1959, Pages 1, 12.

o “S.L. Slover Funeral Held”, Norfolk Ledger-Dispatch (Norfolk, VA), November 30, 1959, Pages 1, 9.

o “Samuel L. Slover”, The Virginian-Pilot (Norfolk, VA), November 30, 1959, Page 4.

o “Samuel L. Slover: A Newspaperman”, Norfolk Ledger-Dispatch (Norfolk, VA), November 30, 1959, Page 4.

o “Slover Estate In Excess of $3,000,000”, Norfolk Ledger-Dispatch (Norfolk, VA), December 17, 1959, Page A-12.

o “Slover Resigns As N&W Director”, Norfolk Ledger-Dispatch (Norfolk, VA), May 25, 1954, Page 10.

o “Slover Subject Of Long Article In Magazine”, The Virginian-Pilot (Norfolk, VA), October 19, 1957, Page 20.

o Smith, Robert C., “Colonel Slover: Newspaper Builder”, The Commonwealth, vol. 24, #10, Oct. 1957, Pages 2, 54.

d. Photographs/Images:

o Virginian-Pilot Photograph Collection, MSS 0000-187, Packet 2052 [digitized].

o Virginian-Pilot Photograph Collection, MSS 0000-187, Packet 2425 [digitized].

o Virginian-Pilot Photograph Collection, MSS 0000-187, Packet M35.

e. Websites:

o “Col. Samuel LeRoy Slover (1873-1959)”. Historical Highway Markers. Virginia Department of Historic Resources. https://vcris.dhr.virginia.gov/HistoricMarkers/ [marker location: corner of Plume Street and Atlantic Street, Norfolk, Virginia]

o Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/63017426/samuel-leroy-slover: accessed 22 February 2023), memorial page for COL Samuel Leroy Slover (23 Mar 1873–29 Nov 1959), Find a Grave Memorial ID 63017426, citing Forest Lawn Cemetery, Norfolk, Norfolk City, Virginia, USA; Maintained by Dottie (contributor 47226067).

2. Secondary Sources:

a. Books and Pamphlets:

o Chambers, Lenoir, Joseph E. Shank, and Harold Sugg. Salt Water & Printer's Ink : Norfolk and Its Newspapers 1865-1965. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1967. Pages 248, 249-250, 251-253, 254-258, 269, 282, 289, 290, 291, 292, 293, 294, 295, 321, 327-329, 330-334, 345-349, 354, 356, 361-363, 373, 380-381, 382, 388, 389, 394.

o Martin Family History. 2001. Pages 30-36.

o Parramore, Thomas C., Peter C. Stewart, and Tommy Bogger. Norfolk : The First Four Centuries. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1994. Page 322.