Frank Durward White (June 4, 1933 – May 21, 2003) was only the second Republican
governorThe Governor of the State of Arkansas is the chief executive of the state and commander-in-chief of its military forces.The current governor is Mike Beebe, who took office on January 9 2007.-Qualifications:...
of the
U.S.The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
state of
ArkansasArkansas is a state located in the southern region of the United States. Its name is an Algonquin name of the Quapaw Indians. Arkansas shares a border with six states, with its eastern border largely defined by the Mississippi River. Its diverse geography ranges from the mountainous regions of the...
since Reconstruction. He served a single two-year term from 1981 to 1983. He is one of only two people to have defeated future President
Bill ClintonWilliam Jefferson "Bill" Clinton was the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He was the third-youngest president; only Theodore Roosevelt and John F. Kennedy were younger when entering office...
in an election. The other is former U.S. Representative
John Paul HammerschmidtJohn Paul Hammerschmidt is an American politician from the U.S. state of Arkansas. A Republican, Hammerschmidt served for thirteen terms in the U.S. House of Representatives from the northwestern Arkansas district before he retired in 1993...
of
HarrisonHarrison is a city in Boone County, Arkansas, United States. It is the county seat. According to 2007 Census Bureau estimates, the population of the city was 13,108. Boone County was organized in 1869, during reconstruction after the civil war. Harrison was platted and made the county seat. It is...
.
Early years, family, education
White was born in
TexarkanaTexarkana is a city in Bowie County, Texas, United States. It effectively functions as one half of a city which crosses a state line — the other half, the city of Texarkana, Arkansas, lies on the other side of State Line Avenue. The population of the city is 34,782 at the 2000 census...
in
Bowie CountyBowie County is a county located in the U.S. state of Texas. It is part of the Texarkana, Texas - Texarkana, Arkansas Metropolitan Statistical Area. As of 2000, the population was 89,306. Its county seat is New Boston...
,
TexasTexas is the second-largest U.S. state in both area and population, and the largest state in the contiguous United States.The name had wide usage among native Americans, meaning "friends" or "allies"...
, as Durward Frank Kyle, Jr. His father died when White was six, and White's mother, the former Ida Bottoms Clark, married Loftin E. White of
Highland Park, TexasHighland Park is a town in central Dallas County, Texas, United States. The population was 8,842 at the 2000 census. Located between the Dallas North Tollway and U.S. Route 75 , four miles north of downtown Dallas....
. He took his stepfather's name and became "Frank Durward White". After the death of the stepfather in 1950, the Whites returned to Texarkana. White enrolled in the
New Mexico Military InstituteNew Mexico Military Institute is a state-supported educational institution located in Roswell, New Mexico, United States. NMMI includes a four year high school and a two year junior college. Founded in 1891 by Joseph C. Lea who selected former Confederate Col. Robert S...
in
Roswell, New MexicoRoswell is a city in and the county seat of Chaves County in the southeastern quarter of the state of New Mexico, United States. The population was 45,293 at the 2000 census. It is a center for irrigation farming, dairying, ranching, manufacturing, distribution, and petroleum production. It is...
but was subsequently recommended to the U.S. Naval Academy in
Annapolis, MarylandAnnapolis is the capital of the U.S. state of Maryland, as well as the county seat of Anne Arundel County. It has a population of 36,524 , and is situated on the Chesapeake Bay at the mouth of the Severn River, south of Baltimore and about east of Washington D.C. Annapolis is part of the...
, by then U.S. Senator John L. McClellan of Arkansas. He graduated from the academy with a
bachelor of scienceA Bachelor of Science is an undergraduate academic degree awarded for completed courses that generally last three to five years ....
degree in
engineeringEngineering is the discipline, art and profession of acquiring and applying technical, scientific and mathematical knowledge to design and implement materials, structures, machines, devices, systems, and processes that safely realize a desired objective or inventions.The American Engineers' Council...
in 1956. He also excelled in the study of
SpanishSpanish or Castilian is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that originated in northern Spain and gradually spread in the Kingdom of Castile, evolving into the principal language of government and trade in the Iberian peninsula...
. Though he was a Naval Academy graduate, White became a
pilotAn aviator is a person who flies aircraft for pleasure or as a profession. The first recorded use of the term was in 1887 as a variation of the French 'aviation', from the latin 'avis', coined 1863 by G. de la Landelle in "Aviation ou Navigation Aérienne"...
in the
United States Air ForceThe United States Air Force is the aerial warfare branch of the U.S. armed forces and one of the American uniformed services. Initially part of the United States Army, the USAF was formed as a separate branch of the military on 18 September 1947 under the National Security Act of 1947 - 80 P.L....
.
From his first marriage to Mary Blue Hollenberg, a member of a prominent Little Rock family, White had three children. In 1975, two years after his
divorceDivorce or dissolution of marriage is the final termination of a marriage, canceling the legal duties and responsibilities of marriage and dissolving the bonds of matrimony between two persons...
, White married Gay Daniels, who survived him. Frank and Gay acquired custody of the children from his first marriage, but they had no children together.
White was baptized as a youth in the
ChristianA Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic, religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth, who Christians believe was the Messiah prophesied in the Old Testament/Hebrew Bible, and the Son of God.The term "Christian" is also used adjectivally to...
faith at Beech Springs
BaptistA Baptist is a Christian who subscribes to a theology and may belong to a church that, among other things, is committed to believer's baptism and, with respect to church polity, favors the congregational model...
Church in Texarkana (
Miller County, ArkansasMiller County is a county located in the southwestern corner of the U.S. state of Arkansas. It is part of the Texarkana, Texas - Texarkana, Arkansas, Metropolitan Statistical Area. As of 2000, the population was 40,443. The county seat is Texarkana...
), later pastored by future Republican Governor
Michael Dale "Mike" HuckabeeMichael Dale "Mike" Huckabee is a Republican politician and political commentator for Fox News Channel and ABC Radio who served as governor of Arkansas from 1996 to 2007. Huckabee finished second in the 2008 United States Republican presidential primaries; he announced his candidacy on January 28,...
. He and Gay attended the First United Methodist Church in downtown Little Rock for a short time. They left the Methodist congregation and, with other couples, established the fundamentalist Fellowship
BibleThe Bible contains the central religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. Modern Judaism generally recognizes a single set of canonical books known as the Tanakh, or Hebrew Bible, as it is written almost entirely in the Hebrew language, with some small portions in Aramaic...
Church.
Business success
In 1961, having left the Air Force, White became an account executive for
Merrill LynchMerrill Lynch & Co., Inc. was a global financial services firm acquired by Bank of America in 2009, today known as Bank of America Merrill Lynch. The firm was acquired by Bank of America under distressed circumstances during the 2008 Financial Crisis. This article describes both the historical...
. He held that position until 1973, when he joined banker Bill Bowen in the management of Commercial National Bank in Little Rock. Bowen was a staunch Democrat who later opposed White politically though the two maintained a cordial business relationship.
White was appointed by Democratic Governor
David Hampton PryorDavid Hampton Pryor was a Democratic member of the United States House of Representatives and United States Senator from the State of Arkansas. Pryor also served as Governor of Arkansas from 1975 to 1979 and was a member of the Arkansas House of Representatives from 1960 to 1966...
to head the Arkansas Industrial Development Commission. The industrial panel was originally created by Democratic Governor
Orval Eugene FaubusOrval Eugene Faubus was a six-term Democratic Governor of Arkansas, serving from 1955 to 1967. He is best known for his 1957 stand against the desegregation of Little Rock public schools during the Little Rock Crisis, in which he defied a unanimous decision of the United States Supreme Court by...
and first directed by
Winthrop RockefellerWinthrop A. Rockefeller was a politician and philanthropist who served as the first Republican Governor of Arkansas since Reconstruction. He was a third-generation member of the Rockefeller family.-Early life:...
, who in 1966 used his experience in the AIDC to get elected as Arkansas' first Republican governor in modern times. White left the AIDC after two years and became president of Capital
Savings and Loan AssociationA savings and loan association , also known as a thrift, is a financial institution that specializes in accepting savings deposits and making mortgage and other loans...
in Little Rock. Democrats later derided White's tenure at AIDC by pointing out that the number of industries which came to the state was much reduced from earlier and later years, a situation that Republicans attributed to a national
recessionIn economics, a recession is a general slowdown in economic activity over a long period of time, or a business cycle contraction. During recessions, many macroeconomic indicators vary in a similar way...
.
Campaign 1980
Early in 1980, White switched from Democrat to Republican affiliation to run for governor. First, he defeated former
State RepresentativeThe Arkansas House of Representatives is the lower house of the Arkansas General Assembly, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Arkansas. The House is composed of 100 members elected from an equal amount of constituencies across the state. Each district has an average population of 26,734...
Marshall Chrisman of
OzarkOzark is a city in Franklin County, Arkansas, United States, and one of the two county seats of Franklin County. It is part of the Fort Smith, Arkansas-Oklahoma Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 3,525 at the 2000 census, making Ozark the ninth largest municipality in the metro area...
, the seat of
Franklin CountyFranklin County is a county located in the U.S. state of Arkansas. It is part of the Fort Smith, Arkansas-Oklahoma Metropolitan Statistical Area. As of 2000, the population was 17,771. The county has two county seats, Charleston and Ozark. Franklin County was formed on December 19, 1837, and...
, for the gubernatorial nomination. In a low-turnout
open primaryIn the United States of America, an open primary is an election in which voters do not need to be a member of a particular political party in order to vote for partisan candidates in the primary election. The earliest Open Primaries in the United States were held in Nebraska and Wisconsin...
, White polled 5,867 votes (71.8 percent) to Chrisman's 2,310 (28.2 percent). Clinton also faced a stronger-than-expected challenger in his primary from the
turkeyTurkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey
, is a Eurasian country that stretches across the Anatolian peninsula in Western Asia and Thrace in the Balkan region of southeastern Europe...
farmA farm is an area of land, including various structures, devoted primarily to the practice of producing and managing food , fibers and, increasingly, fuel. It is the basic production facility in food production. Farms may be owned and operated by a single individual, family, community, corporation...
er
Monroe SchwarzloseMonroe Alfred Julius Schwarzlose was a turkey farmer in Cleveland County, Arkansas, who polled 31 percent of the vote in the 1980 Democratic primary against the incumbent Governor and future U.S. President William Jefferson Blythe "Bill" Clinton, who was seeking his second two-year term...
of
KingslandKingsland is a city in Cleveland County, Arkansas, United States. Its population was 449 at the 2000 U.S. census. It is included in the Pine Bluff, Arkansas Metropolitan Statistical Area.- Noble Residents :...
in
Cleveland CountyCleveland County is a county located in the U.S. state of Arkansas. Its population was 8,571 at the 2000 U.S. census. It is included in the Pine Bluff, Arkansas Metropolitan Statistical Area. The county seat is at Rison.-History :...
in south Arkansas. Schwarzlose's 31 percent of the primary vote foreshadowed that Clinton could be in trouble for the upcoming
general electionIn a parliamentary political system, a general election is an election in which all or most members of a given political body are up for election...
.
White hired Paula Unruh of
TulsaTulsa is the second-largest city in the state of Oklahoma and 45th-largest in the United States. With an estimated population of 385,635 in 2008, it is the principal municipality of the Tulsa Metropolitan Statistical Area, a region of 916,079 residents projected to reach one million between 2010...
to manage the campaign. She decided to focus upon (1) Clinton's unpopular increase in the cost of automobile registration tags and by (2) the
CarterJames Earl "Jimmy" Carter, Jr. served as the 39th President of the United States from 1977 to 1981 and was the recipient of the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize, the only U.S. President to have received the Prize after leaving office...
administration's sending thousands of
CubanCubans are people inhabiting or originating from Cuba. Most Cubans live in Cuba, although there is also a large Cuban diaspora, especially in the United States.-Demographics:...
refugees, some unruly, to a detention camp at Fort Chaffee, outside
Fort SmithFort Smith is the second-largest city in the U.S. state of Arkansas and one of the two county seats of Sebastian County. With a population of 80,268 at the 2000 census, it is the principal city of the Fort Smith, Arkansas-Oklahoma Metropolitan Statistical Area, a region of 288,818 residents which...
in
Sebastian CountySebastian County is a county located in the U.S. state of Arkansas. It is part of the Fort Smith, Arkansas-Oklahoma Metropolitan Statistical Area. As of 2000, the population was 115,071. The county has two county seats, Greenwood and Fort Smith...
in western Arkansas. Her decision paid big dividends, as White unseated Clinton. White received 435,684 votes (51.9 percent) to Clinton's 403,241 (48.1 percent). White won fifty-one of the state's seventy-five counties. A. Lynn Lowe of Texarkana, Clinton's Republican opponent in 1978, by contrast, had won only six counties.
Two years as governor
White appointed numerous Arkansas Republicans to state positions. Former gubernatorial nominee
Ken CoonKenneth Lloyd "Ken" Coon, Sr. , is a Little Rock educator, professional psychologist, and counselor who was also a pioneer in the development of the Republican Party in the U.S. state of Arkansas. He was the GOP state chairman from 1988—1990...
was named to head the Arkansas Employment Security Division. Another former gubernatorial candidate,
Len E. BlaylockLen Everette Blaylock, Sr. , is a retired farmer, educator, small businessman, and Republican politician from tiny Nimrod in Perry County in northwestern Arkansas. He was state welfare commissioner under Governor Winthrop Rockefeller, the GOP gubernatorial nominee , the U.S...
of
Perry CountyPerry County is a U.S. county located in the U.S. state of Arkansas. Its population was 10,209 at the 2000 United States Census. The county seat is Perryville. Perry County is included in the Little Rock–North Little Rock–Conway Metropolitan Statistical Area...
was named appointments secretary. Blaylock, who had a reputation as an extremely competent administrator, screened applicants for state positions. Former
State RepresentativeThe Arkansas House of Representatives is the lower house of the Arkansas General Assembly, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Arkansas. The House is composed of 100 members elected from an equal amount of constituencies across the state. Each district has an average population of 26,734...
Preston BynumPreston Conrad Bynum is a high-powered lobbyist in Little Rock who served as a Republican member of the Arkansas House of Representatives from January 1969 - December 1980. On his first election, Bynum was one of only four Republicans in the 100-member house; when his party's delegation numbered...
of
Siloam SpringsSiloam Springs is a city in Benton County, Arkansas, United States. According to 2005 Census Bureau estimates, the population of the city was 13,990. It is part of the Fayetteville–Springdale–Rogers, AR-MO Metropolitan Statistical Area....
in usually Republican
Benton CountyBenton County is a county located in the U.S. state of Arkansas. As of the 2000 census, the population was 153,406. The U.S. Census Bureau estimates 2007 population to be 203,107. The county seat is Bentonville. Benton County was formed on 30 September 1836 and was named after Thomas Hart...
in northwestern Arkansas, became White's chief aide. Harold L. Gwatney, an automobile dealer in
JacksonvilleJacksonville is a city in Pulaski County, Arkansas, United States and a suburb of Little Rock. According to 2005 Census Bureau estimates, the population of the city was 30,506, ranking it as the state's 11th largest city, behind Bentonville. It is part of the Little Rock–North Little...
, was named to the coveted position of
adjutant generalAn Adjutant General is a military chief administrative officer.-Imperial Russia:In Imperial Russia, the General-Adjutant was a Court officer, who was usually an army general. He served as a personal aide to the Tsar and hence was a member of the Svita...
of the Arkansas National Guard. White also depended on the advice of his legislative counsel, State Representative
Carolyn PollanCarolyn Joan Clark Pollan is an American politician, and former Republican member of the Arkansas House of Representatives who served for twelve consecutive two-year terms from 1975-1999 from a portion of Sebastian County, which includes the state's second largest city of Fort Smith...
of Fort Smith. New to the legislature with the White administration was
Judy PettyJudy C. Petty, later Judy Petty Wolf , is a retired officer of the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio and a former Republican member of the Arkansas House of Representatives...
of Little Rock, who had waged a nationally watched campaign against former U.S. Representative Wilbur D. Mills in 1974.
White was far more conservative than Rockefeller. He signed a law which would have permitted the teaching of
creationismCreationism refers to the religious belief that humanity, life, the Earth, and the universe were created in some form by a supernatural being or beings, commonly a single deity...
in Arkansas
public schoolsIn most of the world, excluding England and Wales and some Commonwealth countries, a public school is an educational institution that is funded with tax revenue and most commonly administered by a local government or government agency...
. The law was subsequently overturned in 1982 in the court case
McLean v. ArkansasMcLean v. Arkansas Board of Education, 529 F. Supp. 1255, 1258-1264 , was a 1981 legal case in Arkansas which ruled that the Arkansas "Balanced Treatment for Creation-Science and Evolution-Science Act" was unconstitutional because it violated the establishment clause of the U.S. Constitution...
. White rejected the court's claim that "creation science" involves the "teaching of religion in the public school system. I think it is a theory, just like evolution is, and if we're going to have true educational freedom, then I think we deserve equal treatment."
A similar law was signed in
LouisianaThe State of Louisiana is a state located in the southern region of the United States of America. Its capital is Baton Rouge and largest city is New Orleans. Louisiana is the only state divided into parishes, which are local governments equivalent to counties...
by Republican Governor
David C. TreenDavid Conner Treen, Sr. is a retired attorney and politician from Mandeville in St. Tammany Parish the first Republican governor of the U.S. state of Louisiana since Reconstruction. He is also the first Republican in modern times to have served in the U.S. House of Representatives from his state...
, and it too was struck down by a Supreme Court decision,
Edwards v. AguillardEdwards v. Aguillard, was a case heard by the Supreme Court of the United States in 1987 regarding creationism. The Court ruled that a Louisiana law requiring that creation science be taught in public schools along with evolution was unconstitutional, because the law was specifically intended to...
, in 1987.
He also opposed the proposed
Equal Rights AmendmentThe Equal Rights Amendment was a proposed amendment to the United States Constitution which was intended to guarantee that equal rights under any federal, state, or local law could not be denied on account of sex...
and refused to include the issue in a call for a special legislative session in November 1981 to consider the measure. He declined to meet with ERA proponent and former Rockefeller staffer
Leona TroxellLeona Anderson Troxell Dodd, known politically as Leona Troxell , was a native New Yorker who was a pioneer in the development of the Republican Party in her adopted state of Arkansas...
of
Rose BudRose Bud is a town in White County, Arkansas, in the United States. Tammy Tipton Bomar is the current mayor. As of the 2000 census, the town population was 429. By area, the town is the second largest municipality in White County, after Searcy.-Geography:...
in
White CountyWhite County is a county located in the U.S. state of Arkansas. As of 2000, the population was 67,165. The county seat is Searcy. White County is Arkansas's 31st county, formed on October 23, 1835, from portions of Independence, Jackson, and Pulaski counties and named for Hugh Lawson White, a...
, the longtime Arkansas
GOPThe Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the Grand Old Party or the GOP, despite being the younger of the two major parties. In the U.S...
national committeewoman, who wanted to lobby White on the issue.
White also created a controversy within his own party in 1981, when he called Faubus out of retirement to head the scandal-plagued Arkansas Veterans Affairs Department. The selection was recommended by Blaylock and endorsed by Third District U.S. Representative John Paul Hammerschmidt. Other Republicans, such as Mrs. Troxell, questioned if there was a return to "machine" politics as practiced in the Faubus administration. Even state party Chairman
Harlan "Bo" HollemanHarlan Harmon "Bo" Holleman was a farmer and seed merchant from Wynne, the seat of Cross County in eastern Arkansas, and a pioneer in the development of the modern Republican Party in his home state. He was the Arkansas state GOP chairman from December 6, 1980, until his death some sixteen months...
of
WynneWynne is the county seat and largest city of Cross County, Arkansas, United States. The population was 8,615 at the 2000 Census. Nestled between the Arkansas Delta and Crowley's Ridge, Wynne is home to the largest state park in Arkansas, Village Creek State Park...
in
Cross CountyCross County is a county located in the U.S. state of Arkansas. As of the 2000 census, the population was 19,526. The county seat is Wynne. Cross County is Arkansas's 53rd county, formed on 15 November 1862 and named for Confederate Colonel David C. Cross, a political leader in the...
in eastern Arkansas, had reservations about the selection. Blaylock, however, explained that Faubus was uniquely qualified to head the veterans department and quickly rectified problems in the agency.
White took up the cause of Arkansas truckers and haulers and obtained higher weight limits to the economic benefit of truckers, much to the consternation of
highwayA highway is a main road for travel by the public between important destinations, such as cities and states. Highway designs vary widely and can range from a two-lane road without margins to a multi-lane, grade separated motorway. In English and U.S...
safety advocates.
White also clashed with U.S. Representative Edwin Bethune over the reappointment of the Little Rock-based federal
MarshalMarshal is a word used in several official titles of various branches of society. The word derives from Old High German marah "horse" and schalh "servant", and originally meant "stable keeper"...
Charles H. Gray, a cousin of U.S. Senator
Dale BumpersDale Leon Bumpers is an American politician who served as Governor of Arkansas from 1971 to 1975; and then in the United States Senate from 1975 until his retirement in January 1999. He is a member of the Democratic Party. Senator Bumpers is currently counsel at the Washington, D.C...
. White wanted to return Blaylock to the marshal's post that he had held during the
FordGerald Rudolph Ford, Jr. was the 38th President of the United States, serving from 1974 to 1977, and the 40th Vice President of the United States serving from 1973 to 1974...
administration, but Bethune wanted to retain Gray on the grounds that the Democrat was "one of the top marshals in the country." Bethune won the day, and the Reagan administration reappointed Gray. Bethune still campaigned actively for White in 1982 and said that the governor's election was "the best thing that ever happened to this state."
David Vandergriff, a conservative attorney from Fort Smith, said that the rightist faction gained full control of the Arkansas GOP in 1981: "The Reagan Republicans didn't run off the Rockefeller Republicans, but they left for whatever reasons ... A lot of the Rockefeller Republicans disappeared when he left office, and those that remained have continued to fall by the wayside." In 1982, for instance, Bob Nash, the assistant director of the Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation, not only opposed White but worked frantically for Democratic gubernatorial nominee Bill Clinton.
Losing in 1982 and 1986
White was unable to secure a hold on the governorship. Chrisman challenged him again in the 1982 primary. Clinton then defeated him in the
general electionIn a parliamentary political system, a general election is an election in which all or most members of a given political body are up for election...
: 431,855 (54.7 percent) to 357,496 (45.3 percent). White won only nineteen counties in the 1982 rematch, which occurred in a nationally Democratic year.
After his defeat, White supported the selection of a former Rockefeller supporter,
Morris S. ArnoldMorris Sheppard "Buzz" Arnold is a senior-status judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit. A Republican, he was appointed to the appeals court by U.S. President George Herbert Walker Bush. His tenure began on June 1, 1992. For his first twelve years, until 2004, he...
, a law professor at the
University of Arkansas at Little RockThe University of Arkansas at Little Rock is a public research university located in Little Rock, Arkansas, United States.Established as Little Rock Junior College by the Little Rock School District in 1927, the institution became a private four-year university under the name Little Rock...
, to succeed the temporary state party Chairman Robert "Bob" Cohee, originally of
Baxter CountyBaxter County is a county located in the U.S. state of Arkansas. It is in the northern part of the state, and shares a border with Missouri. It is commonly referred to as the Twin Lakes Area due to the fact that it is bordered by two of Arkansas' largest lakes, Bull Shoals Lake and Norfork Lake...
. Cohee had become acting chairman on the death of Holleman in March 1982 and had resigned a federal position to work all year for White's unsuccessful reelection. Arnold defeated Cohee, but the Republican State Central Committee would not disclose the secret-ballot vote. Arnold did not serve the full two-year term and was succeeded by first vice-chairman Robert "Bob" Leslie.
Arkansas gubernatorial terms became four years with the 1986 general election. In 1986, Faubus unsuccessfully challenged Clinton for Democratic renomination. White defeated former
Lieutenant GovernorThe Lieutenant Governor of Arkansas presides over the Arkansas Senate with a tie-breaking vote, serves as governor when the governor is out of state, and serves as governor if the governor is impeached, removed from office, dies or is otherwise unable to discharge the office's duties.The position...
Maurice L. Britt in the Republican primary. In the second White v. Clinton race, Clinton again easily prevailed, once again having benefited from a nationally Democratic year.
State banking commissioner and death
From 1998 to 2003, White served as Arkansas Banking Commissioner, an appointment from Governor Huckabee.
White died of a
heart attackMyocardial infarction or acute myocardial infarction , commonly known as a heart attack, is the interruption of blood supply to part of the heart, causing some heart cells to die...
in Little Rock on May 21, 2003, just a few weeks before his 70th birthday and is interred there in the historic
Mount Holly CemeteryMount Holly Cemetery is the original cemetery in the Quapaw Quarter area of downtown Little Rock, Arkansas, and is the resting place for numerous Arkansans of note...
.