Lewis Preston Collins II

Lewis Preston Collins II
26th Lieutenant Governor of Virginia
In office January 16, 1946 – September 20, 1952
Governor	William M. Tuck John S. Battle
Preceded by	William M. Tuck
Succeeded by	Allie E. S. Stephens
Member of the Virginia House of Delegates for Smyth County
In office January 8, 1936 – January 9, 1946
Preceded by	J. Tyler Frazier, Jr.
Succeeded by	Ralph L. Lincoln
Personal details
Born	Lewis Preston Collins II December 25, 1896 Lynchburg, Virginia, U.S.
Died	September 20, 1952 (aged 55) Wythe County, Virginia, U.S.
Political party	Democratic
Spouse(s)	Pauline Hull Staley
Alma mater	Washington & Lee University
Profession	lawyer, department store owner

Lewis Preston "Pat" Collins (December 25, 1896 – September 20, 1952) served as the 26th Lieutenant Governor of Virginia from 1946 to 1952. He was usually known as L. Preston Collins or Pat Collins.

Early life

Collins was born in Lynchburg, Virginia, and graduated from Washington and Lee University in 1920. He practiced law in Marion, Virginia. He also owned and operated a department store there.

Politics

In 1945 Collins narrowly lost the Democratic Party primary to select the candidate for lieutenant governor, but he and residents of Wise County challenged the outcome. They charged that there had been widespread voting irregularities in mail ballots and that the number of votes cast in two districts exceeded the number of people registered to vote four times over. On investigation, it was discovered that, among other irregularities, twenty-five of the twenty-seven poll books in the contested districts had disappeared. A judge disallowed the results in Wise County and declared Collins the winner of the nomination.

Collins easily won the general election in November 1945 and was re-elected in 1949. During his second term as lieutenant governor, he suffered a heart attack while he was being introduced as the speaker at the dedication of an elementary school near Austinville in Wythe County, and died.

Sources

• John T. Kneebone et al., eds., Dictionary of Virginia Biography (Richmond: The Library of Virginia, 1998- ), 3:379-381. ISBN 0-88490-206-4