Winthrop Rockefeller
Winthrop A. Rockefeller (May 1, 1912 – February 22, 1973), 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.
In 1966, an odd coalition of Republicans and Democratic reform voters catapulted Rockefeller into the Governor's office. He defeated a conservative Democratic Arkansas Supreme Court justice, James D. Johnson of Conway, who preferred the appellation "Justice Jim". Rockefeller focused on the State's prison system and the lackluster educational system, providing funding for new buildings and increases in teacher salaries when the legislature allowed.
As a dramatic last act, Governor Rockefeller commuted the sentences of every prisoner on Arkansas's Death Row and urged the governors of other states to do likewise. Winthrop Rockefeller died in Palm Springs, California, at the age of sixty.
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Several global companies are headquartered in the northwest corner of Arkansas, including Wal-Mart (the world's largest public corporation by revenue in 2007), J.B. Hunt and Tyson Foods. This area of the state has experienced an economic boom since the 1970s as a result.
In recent years, automobile parts manufacturers have opened factories in eastern Arkansas to support auto plants in other states. Additionally, the city of Conway is the site of a school bus factory.
Tourism is also very important to the Arkansas economy; the official state nickname "The Natural State" was originally created (as "Arkansas Is A Natural") for state tourism advertising in the 1970s, and is still regularly used to this day.
In 1954, Republican Pratt C. Remmel polled 37 percent of the vote in the gubernatorial general election against Democrat Orval Eugene Faubus. It was a strong showing for a Republican candidate in Arkansas. Twelve years later, Rockefeller would build on Remmel's race and win the governorship for the Republican Party.
In 1955, Faubus named Rockefeller chairman of the Arkansas Industrial Development Commission (AIDC).
In 1956, Rockefeller married his second wife, Jeanette Edris Barrager Bartley McDonnell, a native of Washington State. She had previous been married to a pro football player, a lawyer, and a stockbroker. By her, he acquired two stepchildren, Anne and Bruce Bartley.
He was once recognized as the single most important influence of William Jefferson Clinton who himself became governor before being elected to the White House. Rockefeller initiated a number of philanthropies and projects for the benefit of the people of the state. He financed the building of a model school at Morrilton, and led efforts to establish a Fine Arts Center in Little Rock. He also financed the construction of medical clinics in some of the state's poorest counties, in addition to making annual gifts to the state's colleges and universities. These philanthropic activities continue to this day through the Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation.
