Joseph W. Folk
Joseph (Holy Joe) Wingate Folk (
October 29,
1869–
May 29,
1923) was an
American lawyer, reformer, and politician from
St. Louis, Missouri. Raised in a strict
Baptist household, Joe made his reputation as a reformer and earned his nickname as 'Holy Joe' by attacking local corruption and party machines as prosecutor in St. Louis. Folk was elected Governor of
Missouri as a progressive reformer and
Democrat in
1904. He was born in
1869 in
Brownsville, Tennessee, and died aged 54 in
1923 in
New York City, and is buried at the Oakwood Cemetery in
Brownsville, Tennessee.
