W. J. Deboe was born in 1849 eight miles southeast of Marion, was elected county school superintendent, and opened a law office in 1889. He served as state senator from 1893 to 1897 and was elected by the legislature to the U.S. Senate in 1897. He wrote the 17th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, providing for the popular election of U.S. senators, served three years as Marion postmaster, and died in 1927. Marion's two U.S. senators lived one block east at College and Depot Streets: Deboe, the first Kentucky Republican senator, lived on the northwest corner, and Ollie M. James, a Democrat, lived on the southwest corner. Both were prominent political leaders, and their graves are in adjoining lots in Mapleview Cemetery, one-half mile west.