Frank D. White
Encyclopedia
Frank Durward White was the 41st Governor of the U.S.
state of Arkansas
since Reconstruction. He served a single two-year term from 1981 to 1983. He is one of only two people to have defeated President Bill Clinton
in an election. (The other is former U.S. Representative John Paul Hammerschmidt
of Harrison
.)
in Bowie County
, Texas
, 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, Texas
. 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 Institute
in Roswell, New Mexico
but was subsequently recommended to the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland
, by then U.S. Senator John L. McClellan of Arkansas. He graduated from the academy with a bachelor of science
degree in engineering
in 1956. He also excelled in the study of Spanish
. Though he was a Naval Academy graduate, White became a pilot
in the United States Air Force
.
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 divorce
, 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 Christian
faith at Beech Springs Baptist
Church in Texarkana (Miller County, Arkansas), later pastored by future Republican Governor Michael Dale "Mike" Huckabee
. 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 Bible
Church.
. 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.During this time, White would serve as the first Director of the Little Rock Port Authority from 1972 to 1973.
White was appointed by Democratic Governor David Hampton Pryor
to head the Arkansas Industrial Development Commission. The industrial panel was originally created by Democratic Governor Orval Eugene Faubus
and first directed by Winthrop Rockefeller
, 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 Association
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 recession
.
Marshall Chrisman, a businessman from Ozark
, the seat of Franklin County, for the gubernatorial nomination. In a low-turnout open primary
, 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 turkey
farm
er Monroe Schwarzlose
of Kingsland
in Cleveland County in south Arkansas. Schwarzlose's 31 percent of the primary vote foreshadowed that Clinton could be in trouble for the upcoming general election
.
White hired Paula Unruh of Tulsa
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 Carter
administration's sending thousands of Cuban
refugees, some unruly, to a detention camp at Fort Chaffee, outside Fort Smith
in Sebastian County 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.
was named to head the Arkansas Employment Security Division. Another former gubernatorial candidate, Len E. Blaylock
of Perry County was named appointments secretary. Blaylock, who had a reputation as an extremely competent administrator, screened applicants for state positions. Former State Representative
Preston Bynum
of Siloam Springs
in usually Republican Benton County
in northwestern Arkansas, became White's chief aide. Harold L. Gwatney, an automobile dealer in Jacksonville
, was named to the coveted position of adjutant general
of the Arkansas National Guard. White also depended on the advice of his legislative counsel, State Representative Carolyn Pollan
of Fort Smith. New to the legislature with the White administration was Judy Petty
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 creationism
in Arkansas public schools. The law was subsequently overturned in 1982 in the court case McLean v. Arkansas
. 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 Louisiana
by Republican Governor David C. Treen
, and it too was struck down by a Supreme Court decision, Edwards v. Aguillard
, in 1987.
He also opposed the proposed Equal Rights Amendment
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 Troxell
of Rose Bud
in White County
, the longtime Arkansas GOP
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" Holleman
of Wynne
in Cross County 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 highway
safety advocates.
White also clashed with U.S. Representative Edwin Bethune over the reappointment of the Little Rock-based federal Marshal
Charles H. Gray, a cousin
of U.S. Senator Dale Bumpers
. White wanted to return Blaylock to the marshal's post that he had held during the Ford
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.
: 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. Arnold
, a law professor at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock
, to succeed the temporary state party Chairman Robert "Bob" Cohee, originally of Baxter County
. 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 Governor
Maurice L. Britt in the Republican primary. In the third White v. Clinton race, Clinton again easily prevailed, once again having benefited from a nationally Democratic year. White's loss in this election dramatically damaged his political image, making it very unlikely that he could win the governorship again.
He returned to First Commercial Bank in Little Rock after his 1986 defeat as a business development executive until his retirement from the bank in 1998. White declined to seek the Republican nomination for Governor again in 1990, opting to support Sheffield Nelson in his primary race against Representative Tommy Robinson instead of running himself. That year, Clinton won election as Governor for the fifth time; two years later he would become President of the United States. Without sufficient support and resources to run for elected office again, White left elective politics, but remained active in Republican affairs. He was appointed by Governor Mike Huckabee in 1998 as State Banking Commissioner on what was supposed to be a "temporary" basis; he remained in the post until shortly before his death from a heart attack in 2003, about two weeks before his seventieth birthday.White's time in the Banking Department was noted by his practice of visiting all Arkansas' state-chartered banks at least once a year.
White died of a heart attack
in Little Rock on May 21, 2003, just two weeks before his 70th birthday and is interred there in the historic Mount Holly Cemetery
.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
state of Arkansas
Arkansas
Arkansas is a state located in the southern region of the United States. Its name is an Algonquian name of the Quapaw Indians. Arkansas shares borders with six states , and its eastern border is largely defined by the Mississippi River...
since Reconstruction. He served a single two-year term from 1981 to 1983. He is one of only two people to have defeated President Bill Clinton
Bill Clinton
William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton is an American politician who served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Inaugurated at age 46, he was the third-youngest president. He took office at the end of the Cold War, and was the first president of the baby boomer generation...
in an election. (The other is former U.S. Representative John Paul Hammerschmidt
John Paul Hammerschmidt
John 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 Harrison
Harrison, Arkansas
Harrison 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, Texas
Texarkana 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...
in Bowie County
Bowie County, Texas
Bowie 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 legal county seat is Boston, though its courthouse is located in New Boston...
, Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
, 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, Texas
Highland Park, Texas
Highland 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 Institute
New Mexico Military Institute
New Mexico Military Institute is a state-supported educational institution. NMMI is located in Roswell, New Mexico, United States. It is sometimes referred to as the West Point of the West and it is the only state-supported military college located in the western United States. NMMI includes a...
in Roswell, New Mexico
Roswell, New Mexico
Roswell 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 48,366 at the 2010 census. It is a center for irrigation farming, dairying, ranching, manufacturing, distribution, and petroleum production. It is also...
but was subsequently recommended to the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland
Annapolis, Maryland
Annapolis is the capital of the U.S. state of Maryland, as well as the county seat of Anne Arundel County. It had a population of 38,394 at the 2010 census 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...
, by then U.S. Senator John L. McClellan of Arkansas. He graduated from the academy with a bachelor of science
Bachelor of Science
A Bachelor of Science is an undergraduate academic degree awarded for completed courses that generally last three to five years .-Australia:In Australia, the BSc is a 3 year degree, offered from 1st year on...
degree in engineering
Engineering
Engineering is the discipline, art, skill and profession of acquiring and applying scientific, mathematical, economic, social, and practical knowledge, in order to design and build structures, machines, devices, systems, materials and processes that safely realize improvements to the lives of...
in 1956. He also excelled in the study of Spanish
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
. Though he was a Naval Academy graduate, White became a pilot
Aviator
An aviator is a person who flies an aircraft. The first recorded use of the term was in 1887, as a variation of 'aviation', from the Latin avis , coined in 1863 by G. de la Landelle in Aviation Ou Navigation Aérienne...
in the United States Air Force
United States Air Force
The United States Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the United States 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 September 18, 1947 under the National Security Act of...
.
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 divorce
Divorce
Divorce is the final termination of a marital union, canceling the legal duties and responsibilities of marriage and dissolving the bonds of matrimony between the parties...
, 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 Christian
Christian
A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...
faith at Beech Springs Baptist
Baptist
Baptists comprise a group of Christian denominations and churches that subscribe to a doctrine that baptism should be performed only for professing believers , and that it must be done by immersion...
Church in Texarkana (Miller County, Arkansas), later pastored by future Republican Governor Michael Dale "Mike" Huckabee
Mike Huckabee
Michael "Mike" Dale Huckabee is an American politician who served as the 44th Governor of Arkansas from 1996 to 2007. He was a candidate in the 2008 United States Republican presidential primaries, finishing second in delegate count and third in both popular vote and number of states won . He won...
. 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 Bible
Bible
The Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...
Church.
Business success
In 1961, having left the Air Force, White became an account executive for Merrill LynchMerrill Lynch
Merrill Lynch is the wealth management division of Bank of America. With over 15,000 financial advisors and $2.2 trillion in client assets it is the world's largest brokerage. Formerly known as Merrill Lynch & Co., Inc., prior to 2009 the firm was publicly owned and traded on the New York...
. 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.During this time, White would serve as the first Director of the Little Rock Port Authority from 1972 to 1973.
White was appointed by Democratic Governor David Hampton Pryor
David Pryor
David Hampton Pryor is a former Democratic member of the United States House of Representatives and United States Senator from the State of Arkansas. Pryor also served as 39th 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 Faubus
Orval Faubus
Orval Eugene Faubus was the 36th 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 ordering the...
and first directed by Winthrop Rockefeller
Winthrop Rockefeller
Winthrop 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 Association
Savings and loan association
A 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 recession
Recession
In economics, a recession is a business cycle contraction, a general slowdown in economic activity. 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 RepresentativeArkansas House of Representatives
The 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, a businessman from Ozark
Ozark, Arkansas
Ozark 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 County, for the gubernatorial nomination. In a low-turnout open primary
Open primary
An open primary is a primary election that does not require voters to be affiliated with a political party in order to vote for partisan candidates. In a traditional open primary, voters may select one party's ballot and vote for that party's nomination. As in a closed primary, the highest voted...
, 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 turkey
Turkey
Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...
farm
Farm
A farm is an area of land, or, for aquaculture, lake, river or sea, including various structures, devoted primarily to the practice of producing and managing food , fibres and, increasingly, fuel. It is the basic production facility in food production. Farms may be owned and operated by a single...
er Monroe Schwarzlose
Monroe Schwarzlose
Monroe 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 Kingsland
Kingsland, Arkansas
Kingsland is a city in Cleveland County, Arkansas, United States. Its population was 447 at the 2010 U.S. census. It is included in the Pine Bluff, Arkansas Metropolitan Statistical Area...
in Cleveland County in south Arkansas. Schwarzlose's 31 percent of the primary vote foreshadowed that Clinton could be in trouble for the upcoming general election
General election
In a parliamentary political system, a general election is an election in which all or most members of a given political body are chosen. The term is usually used to refer to elections held for a nation's primary legislative body, as distinguished from by-elections and local elections.The term...
.
White hired Paula Unruh of Tulsa
Tulsa, Oklahoma
Tulsa is the second-largest city in the state of Oklahoma and 46th-largest city in the United States. With a population of 391,906 as of the 2010 census, it is the principal municipality of the Tulsa Metropolitan Area, a region with 937,478 residents in the MSA and 988,454 in the CSA. Tulsa's...
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 Carter
Jimmy Carter
James Earl "Jimmy" Carter, Jr. is an American politician who served as the 39th President of the United States 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 Cuban
Cubans
Cubans or Cuban people are the inhabitants or citizens of Cuba. Cuba is a multi-ethnic nation, home to people of different ethnic and national backgrounds...
refugees, some unruly, to a detention camp at Fort Chaffee, outside Fort Smith
Fort Smith, Arkansas
Fort Smith is the second-largest city in Arkansas and one of the two county seats of Sebastian County. With a population of 86,209 in 2010, it is the principal city of the Fort Smith, Arkansas-Oklahoma Metropolitan Statistical Area, a region of 298,592 residents which encompasses the Arkansas...
in Sebastian County 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
Lynn Lowe
Aylmer Lynn Lowe, known as A. Lynn Lowe , was a farmer and politician from Garland in Miller County in southwestern Arkansas, who was a major figure in the Arkansas Republican Party...
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 CoonKen Coon
Kenneth 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. Blaylock
Len E. Blaylock
Len 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 County was named appointments secretary. Blaylock, who had a reputation as an extremely competent administrator, screened applicants for state positions. Former State Representative
Arkansas House of Representatives
The 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 Bynum
Preston Bynum
Preston Conrad Bynum is a high-powered lobbyist in Little Rock, Arkansas, who served as a Republican member of the Arkansas House of Representatives from January 1969 to December 1980. On his first election, Bynum was one of only four Republicans in the 100-member House; when his party's...
of Siloam Springs
Siloam Springs, Arkansas
Siloam Springs is a city in Benton County, Arkansas, United States. According to 2005 Census Bureau estimates, the population of the city was 13,990...
in usually Republican Benton County
Benton County, Arkansas
Benton 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 2010 population is 221,339. The county seat is Bentonville. Benton County was formed on 30 September 1836 and was named after Thomas Hart Benton, a U.S...
in northwestern Arkansas, became White's chief aide. Harold L. Gwatney, an automobile dealer in Jacksonville
Jacksonville, Arkansas
Jacksonville is a city in Pulaski County, Arkansas, United States, and a suburb of Little Rock. As of the 2010 census, the population of the city was 28,364. It is part of the Little Rock–North Little Rock–Conway Metropolitan Statistical Area....
, was named to the coveted position of adjutant general
Adjutant general
An 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 H. I. M. Retinue...
of the Arkansas National Guard. White also depended on the advice of his legislative counsel, State Representative Carolyn Pollan
Carolyn Pollan
Carolyn 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 Petty
Judy Petty Wolf
Judy 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 creationism
Creationism
Creationism is the religious beliefthat humanity, life, the Earth, and the universe are the creation of a supernatural being, most often referring to the Abrahamic god. As science developed from the 18th century onwards, various views developed which aimed to reconcile science with the Genesis...
in Arkansas public schools. The law was subsequently overturned in 1982 in the court case McLean v. Arkansas
McLean v. Arkansas
McLean v. Arkansas Board of Education, 529 F. Supp. 1255, 1258-1264 , was a 1981 legal case in Arkansas.A lawsuit was filed in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas by various parents, religious groups and organizations, biologists, and others who argued that the...
. 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 Louisiana
Louisiana
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 in the U.S. with political subdivisions termed parishes, which are local governments equivalent to counties...
by Republican Governor David C. Treen
David C. Treen
David Conner "Dave" Treen, Sr. , was an American attorney and politician from Mandeville, St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana – the first Republican Governor of the U.S. state of Louisiana since Reconstruction. He was the first Republican in modern times to have served in the U.S...
, and it too was struck down by a Supreme Court decision, Edwards v. Aguillard
Edwards v. Aguillard
Edwards v. Aguillard, was a legal case about the teaching of creationism that was heard by the Supreme Court of the United States in 1987. The Court ruled that a Louisiana law requiring that creation science be taught in public schools, along with evolution, was unconstitutional because the law...
, in 1987.
He also opposed the proposed Equal Rights Amendment
Equal Rights Amendment
The Equal Rights Amendment was a proposed amendment to the United States Constitution. The ERA was originally written by Alice Paul and, in 1923, it was introduced in the Congress for the first time...
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 Troxell
Leona Troxell
Leona 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 Bud
Rose Bud, Arkansas
Rose 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...
in White County
White County, Arkansas
White County is a county located in the U.S. state of Arkansas. As of 2010, the population was 77,076. 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 GOP
Republican Party (United States)
The 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 GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism 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" Holleman
Harlan Holleman
Harlan 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 Wynne
Wynne, Arkansas
Wynne 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.-Geography:Wynne lies at , the...
in Cross County 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 highway
Highway
A highway is any public road. In American English, the term is common and almost always designates major roads. In British English, the term designates any road open to the public. Any interconnected set of highways can be variously referred to as a "highway system", a "highway network", or a...
safety advocates.
White also clashed with U.S. Representative Edwin Bethune over the reappointment of the Little Rock-based federal Marshal
Marshal
Marshal , is a word used in several official titles of various branches of society. The word is an ancient loan word from Old French, cf...
Charles H. Gray, a cousin
Cousin
In kinship terminology, a cousin is a relative with whom one shares one or more common ancestors. The term is rarely used when referring to a relative in one's immediate family where there is a more specific term . The term "blood relative" can be used synonymously and establishes the existence of...
of U.S. Senator Dale Bumpers
Dale Bumpers
Dale Leon Bumpers is an American politician who served as the 38th 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 Ford
Gerald Ford
Gerald Rudolph "Jerry" 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. Future U.S President Bill Clinton then defeated him in the general electionGeneral election
In a parliamentary political system, a general election is an election in which all or most members of a given political body are chosen. The term is usually used to refer to elections held for a nation's primary legislative body, as distinguished from by-elections and local elections.The term...
: 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. Arnold
Morris S. Arnold
Morris Sheppard "Buzz" Arnold is a senior-status jurist 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 Rock
University of Arkansas at Little Rock
University of Arkansas at Little Rock , is a public research university located in Little Rock, Arkansas, United States, and the second largest university by enrollment in the state of Arkansas....
, to succeed the temporary state party Chairman Robert "Bob" Cohee, originally of Baxter County
Baxter County, Arkansas
Baxter 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 because 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 Governor
Lieutenant Governor of Arkansas
The 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 third White v. Clinton race, Clinton again easily prevailed, once again having benefited from a nationally Democratic year. White's loss in this election dramatically damaged his political image, making it very unlikely that he could win the governorship again.
He returned to First Commercial Bank in Little Rock after his 1986 defeat as a business development executive until his retirement from the bank in 1998. White declined to seek the Republican nomination for Governor again in 1990, opting to support Sheffield Nelson in his primary race against Representative Tommy Robinson instead of running himself. That year, Clinton won election as Governor for the fifth time; two years later he would become President of the United States. Without sufficient support and resources to run for elected office again, White left elective politics, but remained active in Republican affairs. He was appointed by Governor Mike Huckabee in 1998 as State Banking Commissioner on what was supposed to be a "temporary" basis; he remained in the post until shortly before his death from a heart attack in 2003, about two weeks before his seventieth birthday.White's time in the Banking Department was noted by his practice of visiting all Arkansas' state-chartered banks at least once a 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 attack
Myocardial infarction
Myocardial infarction or acute myocardial infarction , commonly known as a heart attack, results from the interruption of blood supply to a part of the heart, causing heart cells to die...
in Little Rock on May 21, 2003, just two weeks before his 70th birthday and is interred there in the historic Mount Holly Cemetery
Mount Holly Cemetery
Mount 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...
.