In 1929, he married Catherine Ann Cheek, and moved to her native Marshall County, Tennessee, in the south central part of the state.

[2] Having joined the Democratic Party, in 1944, Ellington worked in the campaign of successful gubernatorial candidate, Jim Nance McCord.

[1] In 1952, Ellington managed the successful campaign of Frank Clement, who defeated incumbent Gordon Browning in the Democratic primary for governor, and went on to win the general election.

Clement's campaign had the support of Memphis political boss E. H. Crump, who was seeking to regain the influence he had lost after Browning defeated his candidate, McCord, four years earlier.

His opponents were Memphis mayor Edmund Orgill, Nashville attorney Clifford Allen, and Judge Andrew "Tip" Taylor.

[2] In 1961, several Tennessee State University students who had participated in the Freedom Rides, to highlight illegal segregation on interstates buses, which were covered by federal law, were expelled after Ellington ordered an investigation into their activities.

[1] Following his first term as governor, which ended in 1963, Ellington returned to the private sector, working as a vice president of the Louisville and Nashville Railroad.

[2] Governor Clement attempted to spend the state's budget surplus to ensure the Ellington administration did not inherit it.

[1] On April 4, 1968, the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. in Memphis led Ellington to immediately mobilize the National Guard, to prevent rioting in the city.

In September 1967, Ellington signed a bill repealing the Butler Act, the 1925 law that had outlawed the teaching of the Theory of Evolution in state schools.

[2] Ellington's press secretary, Hudley Crockett, was narrowly defeated by incumbent Albert Gore Sr., in the 1970 U.S. Senate primary.