A native of Niota, Harry T. Burn held public office for much of his adult life, serving in the State House of Representatives from 1919 to 1923, the State Senate from 1949 to 1953, the State Planning Commission from 1952 to 1958, and as Roane County's delegate to the Constitutional Conventions of 1953, 1959, and 1965. He is best remembered for an action during his first term in the legislature: on August 18, 1920, he changed his vote to ratify the Nineteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, and it became law, giving women the right to vote.