President Roosevelt in Delaware with U.S. Sen. James M. Tunnell

Our presidents in Delaware series continues this week with a photograph of U.S. Sen. James M. Tunnell, left, with President Franklin Delano Roosevelt at a train stop in Wilmington in 1940. Roosevelt was into his unprecedented third term as president with war clouds gathering all around him. Tunnell, a Democrat, was a Sussex County native, having been born in Clarksville and later a resident of Georgetown.

He was elected in 1940, by beating fellow Sussex Countian John G. Townsend, a Republican, and took office in 1941 for a six-year term. John Williams of Millsboro defeated Tunnell in 1946 to take the seat back for the Republicans.

In addition to his political career, Tunnell was also a teacher, lawyer, banker and farmer.