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Call To Move Polk's Body Put Off Till Next Year

Posted at 3:32 PM, May 05, 2017
and last updated 2017-05-05 16:32:27-04

A resolution calling for the body of President James K. Polk to be exhumed from the grounds of the Tennessee Capitol won't be taken up in the state House this session.

The Senate in March passed the measure calling for the bodies of the 11th president and his wife, Sarah, to be moved about 50 miles to the grounds of the James K. Polk Home and Museum in Columbia.

The House Delayed Bills Committee had voted to take up the bill even though it came to the chamber after the filing deadline, but Representative Bill Sanderson, a Kenton Republican who chairs the State Government Subcommittee, said there's not enough time to consider the measure this session.

Polk, a former Tennessee governor, died just three months after his presidential term ended in 1849.