[2] He also was active in political affairs, managing the successful campaigns of Howard Baker for United States Senate in 1966 and Winfield Dunn for Governor of Tennessee in 1970.
[2] On August 4, 1976 President Gerald Ford nominated Wellford to a seat on the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit to replace William Ernest Miller, who had died on April 12, 1976.
President Jimmy Carter declined to renominate Wellford when he took office, nominating Gilbert S. Merritt Jr.
[2] On July 27, 1982, he was nominated by President Ronald Reagan, to a seat on the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit vacated by Judge Bailey Brown.
[4] On September 2, 2022, his granddaughter Eliza Fletcher, a kindergarten teacher, was kidnapped, raped and murdered while out for an early morning jog in Memphis in a case that attracted national media attention.