When he died last week at age 97, former Tennessee Republican Gov. Winfield Dunn's lightning political success of more than half-a-century ago was vividly recalled.

"The real disaster was in governorships," Nixon White House aide Pat Buchanan wrote of the midterm elections in 1970, "where the GOP lost 11 — due to defeats, retirements, and term limits."

The only two states in which Republicans picked up governorships that were previously in Democrat hands were Connecticut and Tennessee. And in Tennessee, the gain was a genuine surprise: Winfield Dunn, a dentist and Shelby County GOP chairman who had never held office before and had lost a bid for state representative in 1962, won the Republican nomination in an upset and then stunned the so-called experts by becoming the Volunteer State's first GOP governor in half-a-century.

The so-called "experts" almost universally predicted the winner of the five-candidate Republican primary would be Maxey Jarman, head of the multimillion dollar Genesco shoe corporation, major donor to candidates, and supporter of Billy Graham's Christian crusades.

Also in the race was Bill Jenkins, who had become speaker of the state House of Representatives two years before at age 28, former state party Chair Claude K. Robertson, and 1962 gubernatorial nominee Hubert Patty.

But Dunn had an advantage in that his home Shelby County was increasingly becoming a Republican and he was well-known there as a dentist and leader in community affairs. With a whopping 93% of the vote from Shelby County, Dunn topped the primary vote with 33% of the vote and led runner-up Jarman by 10,000 votes statewide.

Where the Republicans joined forces after the primary, Democrats were bitterly fractured. John Jay Hooker, high-rolling lawyer and co-owner with Minnie Pearl of the eponymous fried chicken franchise, came under fire for his business activities and came under investigation from the Securities and Exchange Commission (which Hooker, who was eventually exonerated from any wrongdoing, blamed on the Nixon administration to try to help fellow Republican Dunn). Many supporters of Hooker's primary opponent switched to Dunn in the fall and the influential Nashville Banner endorsed the GOP nominee.

With a crack campaign run by future Gov. and Sen. Lamar Alexander and fundraiser par excellence Ted Welch, Dunn edged Hooker with about 52%.

Learning from fellow Republican Govs. Ronald Reagan of California and Nelson Rockefeller of New York, Dunn moved swiftly on major policy innovations. He secured a 0.6% increase in the state sales tax — smaller than he initially wanted, but enough to give state employees a raise and spur highway construction.

To the objections of fellow conservatives that he was increasing a tax, Dunn argued his sales tax hike and resulting improved highways would result in more business and more revenue for the state. It did, as Tennessee experienced a business boomlet in the 1970s.

Dunn also reorganized state government to make it run more efficiently. He created the Department of Economic and Community Development, incorporating many disparate agencies under one roof, as well as a Department of General Services to oversee state purchases.

In effect, the GOP governor was a reformer who gave state government the same thorough cleaning he had given the teeth of hundreds of patients.

Dunn could probably have won reelection in 1974, but at the time the governor was limited to one consecutive term. After leaving office, he went to work for the HCA Healthcare company owned by the family of Republican Bill Frist and remained active in the community.

He disappointed many of his friends on the right by backing Gerald Ford for president over Reagan in 1976 — believing the incumbent president should be renominated — and by supporting GOP Gov. Don Sundquist's effort to impose a state income tax. Led by Marsha Blackburn, the income tax move was thwarted (although she and other conservatives forgave Dunn for supporting it).

In 1986, Dunn finally launched a comeback bid for his old job. While he remained generally popular, the former governor was dogged by his veto in the early 1970's of a bill to create a medical school at East Tennessee State University. The legislature overrode his veto, but Dunn nevertheless invoked the unforgiving anger of 1st District GOP Rep. Jimmy Quillen in whose district the medical school was built.

Quillen pointedly refused to endorse fellow Republican Dunn in the '86 race and the former governor lost to Democrat House Speaker Ned McWherter 54%-46%.

"What people may not know is that Dunn became a good friend to McWherter [when he was speaker and Dunn was governor]," wrote Dunn's former executive assistant Saralee Terry Woods in the Tennessee Lookout. "These two leaders put the people of Tennessee first and found ways to work together. Dunn also became friends with John Jay Hooker, the Democrat whom Dunn defeated for governor in 1970. He visited Hooker in hospice and held his hand as he lay dying."

Winfield Dunn was not as known nationally as such fellow Tennessee Republican politicians as Sens. Howard Baker, Lamar Alexander, and Fred Thompson — who dominated the state's political scene from the 1960s through the 21st century. Some might argue whether or not Dunn was a great governor, but just about every Tennessean agrees it is inarguable he was a good man.

John Gizzi is chief political columnist and White House correspondent for Newsmax. For more of his reports, Go Here Now.