Frederick Herman Korth (September 9, 1909 – September 14, 1998) served as the 56th U.S.
Secretary of the Navy
The secretary of the Navy (or SECNAV) is a statutory officer () and the head (chief executive officer) of the Department of the Navy, a military department (component organization) within the United States Department of Defense.
By law, the se ...
during 1962–63; he was also an Assistant Secretary of the Army in 1952–53.
Appointed as Navy Secretary by President
John F. Kennedy on January 4, 1962, Korth resigned October 14, 1963 effective November 1, 1963. Various sources cite different reasons for Secretary Korth's departure.
Life and career
Korth was born in September 1909 in
Yorktown, Texas
Yorktown is a city in DeWitt County, Texas, United States. The population was 1,810 at the 2020 census.
Geography
Yorktown is located in southwestern DeWitt County at (28.983196, –97.502415). State Highways 72 and 119 intersect on the weste ...
, the son of Eleanor Maria (Stark) and Fritz R. J. Korth, who was a banker and rancher. In later life, he lived in
Coronado Country Club Estates, El Paso, Texas and
Foxhall, Washington, D.C.
He was president of the
Continental National Bank of
Fort Worth, Texas
Fort Worth is the List of cities in Texas by population, fifth-largest city in the U.S. state of Texas and the List of United States cities by population, 13th-largest city in the United States. It is the county seat of Tarrant County, Texas, T ...
. Continental National Bank was one of a number of banks which participated in a line of credit for the
TFX (Tactical Fighter Experimental), which later emerged as the more well-known
F-111 Aardvark
The General Dynamics F-111 Aardvark is a retired supersonic, medium-range, multirole combat aircraft. Production variants of the F-111 had roles that included ground attack (e.g. interdiction), strategic bombing (including nuclear weapons ca ...
. When asked about this alleged conflict of interest at a press conference, President Kennedy responded, "...I have no evidence that Mr. Korth acted in any way improperly in the TFX matter....I have no evidence that Mr. Korth benefited improperly during his term of office in the Navy, and I have no evidence, and you have not, as I understand the press has not produced any, nor the McClellan Committee, which would indicate that in any way he acted improperly in the TFX. I have always believed that innuendoes should be justified before they are made, either by me and the Congress, or even in the press." A commentary in the May, 1985 edition of ''Proceedings'' magazine exonerates Korth for any improprieties relating to the awarding of TFX.
When he was not serving in the above
public
In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociology, sociological concept of the ''Öf ...
or
private sector
The private sector is the part of the economy, sometimes referred to as the citizen sector, which is owned by private groups, usually as a means of establishment for profit or non profit, rather than being owned by the government.
Employment
The ...
capacities, Fred Korth was a lawyer in private practice. One of his better known cases was a small one heard June 24, 1948 in the County of Tarrant, Texas, when his client, Edwin A. Ekdahl, was officially divorced from
Marguerite Frances Claverie Ekdahl (also known as Marguerite Oswald), whose son from a previous marriage was
Lee Harvey Oswald
Lee Harvey Oswald (October 18, 1939 – November 24, 1963) was a U.S. Marine veteran who assassinated John F. Kennedy, the 35th president of the United States, on November 22, 1963.
Oswald was placed in juvenile detention at the age of 12 fo ...
. Following the end of Korth's first marriage in 1964, he began a romantic relationship with heiress and socialite
Marjorie Merriweather Post
Marjorie Merriweather Post (March 15, 1887 – September 12, 1973) was an American businesswoman, socialite, and philanthropist. She was also the owner of General Foods Corporation.
Post used much of her fortune to collect art, particularly I ...
, daughter of breakfast-cereal magnate
C. W. Post, twenty years his senior. He was a co-executor of Post's will. Part of her estate was her mansion on
Palm Beach Island
Palm most commonly refers to:
* Palm of the hand, the central region of the front of the hand
* Palm plants, of family Arecaceae
**List of Arecaceae genera
* Several other plants known as "palm"
Palm or Palms may also refer to:
Music
* Palm (ba ...
,
Mar-a-Lago
Mar-a-Lago ( from the Spanish for ''sea to lake'') is a resort and national historic landmark in Palm Beach, Florida, owned by former U.S. president Donald Trump. Trump acquired Mar-a-Lago in 1985 and referred to it as his "Winter White House ...
, purchased in 1980 by
Donald Trump
Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021.
Trump graduated from the Wharton School of the University of P ...
.
On August 23, 1980, he wed widowed Charlotte Brooks Williams. Korth died in September 1998 in
El Paso, Texas
El Paso (; "the pass") is a city in and the seat of El Paso County in the western corner of the U.S. state of Texas. The 2020 population of the city from the U.S. Census Bureau was 678,815, making it the 23rd-largest city in the U.S., the ...
and is buried under a three-century-old Texas Live Oak tree on his ranch in
Karnes County, Texas
Karnes County is a county in the U.S. state of Texas. As of the 2020 census, the population was 14,710. Its county seat is Karnes City. The county is named for Henry Karnes, a soldier in the Texas Revolution. The former San Antonio and Ara ...
.
His stepdaughter, Melissa Williams O'Rourke, is the mother of former U.S. Representative
Beto O'Rourke
Robert Francis "Beto" O'Rourke ( , ; ; born September 26, 1972) is an American politician who served as the U.S. representative for from 2013 to 2019. A member of the Democratic Party, O'Rourke was the party's nominee for the U.S. Senat ...
.
See also
*
Suite 8F Group
The Suite 8F Group, also referred to as the 8F Crowd, was a network of politically active businessmen in Texas from the 1930s into the 1960s. "Suite 8F" refers to Herman Brown's Suite at the Lamar Hotel (demolished) in Houston. Herman Brown, one o ...
References
External links
NameBase linkArchive
)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Korth, Fred
1909 births
1998 deaths
United States Secretaries of the Navy
People from Yorktown, Texas