1868–1944 · American newspaper editor, author and leader of the Progressive movement
William Allen White (1868–1944) was an American newspaper editor, politician and author, and a leader of the Progressive movement; from 1896 until his death he was read as a spokesman for middle America. He was a fixture of the Kansas press — at a 1937 banquet in his honour the Kansas Editorial Association called him “the most loved and most distinguished member” of it. The pallbearer joke is not one of the things he is remembered for, and he did not firmly claim it — Quote Investigator notes that “White himself expressed uncertainty in his 1940 letter.” His 1925 line is simply the earliest instance anyone has yet documented.