Winthrop Rockefeller

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Winthrop Rockefeller (May 1, 1912 – February 22, 1973) was an American politician and philanthropist who served as Arkansas' first Republican governor since Reconstruction.

He was a third-generation Rockefeller family member.

Early life

Winthrop Rockefeller Jr. and socialite, Abigail Greene "Abby" Aldrich, were born in New York City and married to philanthropists John Davison Rockefeller Jr. and socialite Abigail Greene. He is one of John D. Rockefeller's grandsons. Abby, three elder brothers John III, Nelson, and Laurance, as well as a younger brother named David. Under Gerald Ford, Nelson served as Governor of New York and Vice President of the United States.

Winthrop attended Yale University (1931-1934) before resigning to work in the oil industry. He graduated from Loomis Chaffee School in Windsor, Connecticut, prior to attending Yale.

On January 22, 1941, he enlisted as a private in the Army, while the US was still neutral during World War II. He was first assigned to the 26th Regiment of the 1st Infantry Division. He was later assigned to the 77th Infantry Division. He eventually rose to the rank of lieutenant colonel. He was a soldier in the Philippines' invasions of Guam and Leyte. After a kamikaze attack during the invasion of Okinawa, he received a Bronze Star with Oak Leaf Clusters and a Purple Heart. His portrait appears in the Infantry Officer Hall of Fame in Fort Benning, Georgia.

Personal life

Candace Johnson, née Weatherby, later to become the well-known Houston socialite Candy Mossler, was involved with Winthrop Rockefeller during his military service in the South, according to an article in Texas Monthly.

Winthrop married actor Jievute "Bobo" Paulekiute (September 6, 1916 – May 19, 2008) on February 14, 1948 (March 14, 1948). She was previously married to Boston Brahmin socialite John Sears Jr. A choir performed Negro spirituals at the wedding in Florida, and a choir at the reception performed Negro spirituals. Winthrop Paul "Win" Rockefeller's mother gave birth on September 17, 1948, on September 17, 1948.

The two met in 1950 and married in 1954. Win has been withheld from Bobo.

Jeanette Edris, a Seattle-born socialite, died on June 11, 1956, 1956. Bruce and Ann Bartley, both from a previous marriage, had two children. Winthrop and Jeanette had no children together and divorced soon after he left the governorship in 1971.

Jeanette Rockefeller, the state's First Lady, took special interest in mental health problems.

Rockefeller was diagnosed with inoperable pancreatic cancer in September 1972 and underwent a devastating round of chemotherapy. The people of Arkansas were shocked at his gaunt and haggard appearance as he returned to Arkansas.

Winthrop Rockefeller died in Palm Springs, California, on February 22, 1973, at the age of 60. His body was cremated, and his ashes were laid to rest at Winrock Farms in Morrilton, Arkansas.

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Political career

In 1953, Rockefeller founded Winrock Enterprises and Winrock Farms atop Petit Jean Peak in Conway County.

In 1954, Republican Pratt C. Remmel polled 37 percent of the vote against Democrat Orval Faubus in the gubernatorial general election. It was a good showing for a Republican candidate in Arkansas compared to previous decades in the 1940s and early 1950s. Rockefeller will build on Remmel's success and regain governorship for the Republican Party 12 years later.

Faubus appointed Rockefeller chairman of the Arkansas Industrial Development Commission in 1955 (AIDC).

A number of philanthropies and schemes were started by Rockefeller. He funded the construction of a model school in Morrilton and led efforts to establish a Fine Arts Center in the capital city of Little Rock. In addition to making annual gifts to the state's colleges and universities, he also sponsored the construction of medical clinics in some of the state's poorest counties. These philanthropic efforts continue to this day through the Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation.

Rockefeller did not apply for governorship in 1960, but instead raised funds for Republican nominee Henry M. Britt, a conservative lawyer from Hot Springs, who represented Garland County. In his loss to Faubus, Britt lost in every county and barely polled 30% of the statewide vote. Rockefeller was named Arkansas national committeeman in 1961, having succeeded Wallace Townsend, a lawyer in Little Rock who had been withheld in office since 1928. Rockefeller, a failed Republican presidential candidate who attempted to depose Faubus in 1962, supported Willis Ricketts, another in a long line of failed Republican candidates attempting to depose Faubus. He also supports a list of Republican legislative candidates. He quarreled with state Republican Party chairman William L. Spicer of Fort Smith over the party's course soon. Compared to Rockefeller's moderate-to-liberal outlook, Spicer favoured a more conservative approach.

Rockefeller resigned from his association with the AIDC and ran his first bid for governor against Faubus in 1964. Rockefeller's campaign ended badly, but the tiny Republican Party, which was energized and reformed, was able to set the tone for the future. Osro Cobb, a Republican former state chairman who had previously served as the Attorney General for the Eastern District of Arkansas, refused to recommend Rockefeller but urged Faubus, who later offered Cobb a temporary appointment to the Arkansas Supreme Court.

Cobb recalls that Rockefeller was a soldier who fought him in his memoirs.

Only 11% of Arkansans identified themselves Republicans when Rockefeller ran for second term in the 1966 election. However, Arkansans had gotten sick of Faubus after six years as governor and as the head of the Democratic "machine." Democrats themselves appeared to be more interested in the reforms that Rockefeller proposed in his campaign than in gaining another one for the party. When Rockefeller defeated a segregationist Democratic former Justice of the Arkansas Supreme Court, James D. Johnson of Conway, who preferred the term "Justice Jim," a bizarre alliance of Republicans and Democratic reform voters voted him into the governor's office.

He explains:

Maurice L. Britt, a decorated World War II veteran and former professional footballer, was barely elected to the second-ranking post over Democrat Circuit Judge James Pilkinton of Hope, Arkansas, in a surprise.

Former Democratic State Representative Jerry Thomasson of Arkadelphia, who fought for attorney general in 1966 and 1968, and Leona Troxell of Rose Bud, who ran for state treasurer in 1968, were disqualified.

At the time of Rockefeller's first victory, only three Republicans won the Arkansas House of Representatives: George E. Nowotny, Danny Patrick of Madison County, and Jim Sheets of Siloam Springs. Marshall Chrisman of Ozark, a Republican senator from Franklin County, served in the state House from 1969 to 1970.

In 1966, two Republicans ran for US Representative on the Rockefeller ticket. In the northwestern Third District, John Paul Hammerschmidt, the outgoing party chairman, gained. Lynn Lowe, a Texarkana farmer who later served as party chairman from 1974-1980, lost in the southern Fourth District election to Democrat David Pryor. Guy Newcomb, a Blytheville businessman, fought for the open First District Congressional seat in 1968, but was denied to Osceola attorney and Democrat William Vollie Alexander Jr.

Nelson Rockefeller, Winthrop's brother, had been governor of New York since 1959, and he has remained so throughout Winthrop's four years in office. They are often cited as the first two brothers to be governors at the same time, but they were not the first two brothers to be governors at the same time; Levi and Enoch Lincoln from 1827 to 1859, as well as William Bigler from 1852 to 1855. George W. and Jeb Bush, along with others from 1999 to 2000, were governors from 1999 to 2000.

Winthrop Rockefeller, a "favorite son" presidential nominee at the Arkansas National Convention in 1968, received support from members of the Arkansas delegation. He received all of his state's 18 votes; Nelson, then wrapping up a big presidential campaign against Richard M. Nixon, received 277. It was the first time in the twentieth century that the names of two brothers were submitted at the same time.

The Rockefeller administration was keenly embarked on a series of reforms, but was confronted by a hostile Democratic legislature. Rockefeller suffered through a series of personal attacks as well as a concerted whispering movement concerning his personal life.

Scholars Diane Blair and Jay L. Barth continue: "As long as Rockefeller led the Arkansas Republicans, the party's Democrats had a centrist, reformist cast, and those whom Rockefeller had incorporated into the party continued to dominate party offices and influence presidential choices until 1980." "The appointment and election of Ronald Reagan of California as governor and governor of California as governor and governor of California pushed the state Republican Party "sharply to the right." In the post-segregation period, the Republican Party's growth in Arkansas was slower than in other southern states. Blair and Barth cite the sluggish GOP growth to "tradition," [which] is particularly relevant to rural communities. They are looking for ways to remain in the Democratic Party, but they do need to be turned off.

Rockefeller's "good-government" reform plans included: revisions of the Arkansas State Constitution, legislative reorganization, election law reform (a "little Hatch Act" to prohibit state employees from participating in political activities on the job), teacher education, adult and continuing education programs, and continuing education in the corrections system, among other topics. The legalization of recreational gambling in Hot Springs, one of Rockefeller's most widely promoted "good-government" reforms. He also made headway in streamlining state government and secured the passage of a state minimum wage bill.

Urwin argued that Rockefeller's negatives shaped "public opinion of "his personal flaws" rather than his accomplishments or a lack thereof as governor." Considered a poor administrator, he was dependent on staff, so wrongly implemented that the employees often refused to answer mail. He was always late to meetings. In May 1968, a special legislative session was particularly tumultuous. Many voters who voted for a Rockefeller in 1968 were surprised "strange, alien, and foreign," according to a Quayle poll. Many believed that Rockefeller drank too much, that he drank too much, and that he spent too little time in his office, according to the survey. Despite the wealthy Rockefeller's concern about "good government," he did not know the difficulties faced by ordinary people on restricted incomes or middle-class middle class people with limited investment opportunities.

Rockefeller had a keen interest in the reform of the Arkansas jail system. Soon after his election, he had received a shocking report from the Arkansas State Police on the abusive conditions in the jail system. He protested the "lack of righteous indignation" of the situation and established a new Department of Corrections, which opened a new Department of Corrections. Tom Murton, the state's first professional penologist, was commissioned by him. However, he dismissed Murton less than a year ago, when Murton's aggressive attempts to expose decades of abuse in the system pushed Arkansas to national contempt.

As the legislature approved, Rockefeller addressed the state's poor educational system and suggested funding increases for new buildings and teacher salaries.

Rockefeller appointed Lynn A. Davis, an FBI agent, to head the state police in Hot Springs, with orders to prohibit illegal gambling. Davis was forced out as police chief 128 days later after a stringent 10-year residency rule was broken for the appointment after dramatic raids against the mobsters. Democrats were unable to amend the law allowing Davis to serve. The No. Among the Hot Springs raids were the No. 1. The Associated Press found one news story in Arkansas in 1967.

Rockefeller's re-election was won in November 1968 after defeating Marion H. Crank, a state senator from Foreman who had won the Democratic nomination in a tense debate with Virginia Morris Johnson, wife of Jim Johnson, and the first woman to run for governor of Arkansas. Rockefeller, the newly reelected, suggested tax increases to fund additional improvements, but his second term began on January 14, 1969. Rockefeller and the legislature became involved with competing public relations campaigns, and Rockefeller's scheme eventually fell in the face of public indifference.

With Rockefeller's reelection, the Republicans gained a rare seat in the Arkansas State Senate with the election of Jim R. Caldwell of Rogers in northwestern Arkansas.

Throughout the Rockefeller administration, the state Republican Party chairman, Odell Pollard of Searcy, who once said that he and Rockefeller agreed on anything.

Much of Rockefeller's second term was spent in rebellion with the opposition legislature. He told the lawmakers in 1969 that his reelection in the previous November had resulted in a slim majority of voters having approved of tax increases. He suggested that half of the new funds requested be spent on education, 12 percent on health and welfare, ten percent on local government, and the remainder on state employee salaries and simplified services. "I am not fussing over what I am recommending." No luxury items are needed... There are no monuments to me as an individual.. As I have myself: Listen to the people's voice. Not to the selfish interests."

Ernest Dumas, then president of Little Rock, said that the Rockefeller revenue package was effectively dead-on-arrival in both legislatures, although certain portions of the scheme were introduced piecemeal in the subsequent administration of Democrat Dale Bumpers. Rockefeller has been described as the "most liberal governor in Arkansas history" in light of his attempts to raise taxes to increase the size and scope of state government as well as staunch support for civil rights and opposition to capital punishment.

During this term, Rockefeller quietly and successfully concluded the integration of Arkansas schools that had only existed a few years ago. Despite opposition from the legislature, he established the Council on Human Relations. By the time that Rockefeller left office, state draft boards in the state boasted the highest rate of racial integration of any U.S. state.

In 1970, Rockefeller revealed that it had assembled a database of terrorists for use by law enforcement to avoid future outbreaks from occurring on Arkansas college and university campuses. Some of his critics, including an unsuccessful Democratic primary candidate, state House Speaker Hayes McClerkin of Texarkana, reacted angrily to the list. McClerkin argued that the list may have included names of those who only disagreed with Rockefeller politically.

Neal Sox Johnson of Nashville, Arkansas, was the first paid executive director of the Arkansas Republican Party under Rockefeller's tenure in 1970. Johnson left the position in 1973 to serve in Washington, D.C., as Ken Coon took over the party's gubernatorial banner against David Pryor.

Rockefeller was scheduled to face Orval Faubus, the former leader of the old guard, in the 1970 race, but former Charleston's previously unidentified Dale Bumpers pushed for change. A powerful Republican like Bumpers' charisma and "new look" were too much for an incumbent Republican to overcome. Rockefeller's third term was unsuccessful, but the Democrats were still obnoxious enough to oust them from office. Maurice Britt supervised the 1970s, but Sterling R. Cockrill of Little Rock, the former Democratic House Speaker in Rockefeller's first term, was installed on the Republican ticket for lieutenant governor, and he was named on the Republican ticket for lieutenant governor. Cockrill fought for the first time in 1970; he was defeated by Democrat Bob C. Riley but finished 35,000 votes ahead of Rockefeller.

Rockefeller said, reflected on his loss: "I am not ashamed of his defeat."

With the 1970 elections, the Republicans were limited to a single member of each legislative chamber, including Preston Bynum of Siloam Springs in the House and Jim Caldwell in the Senate. Danny Patrick, who served with Rockefeller in 1966 and 1968, lost in Madison and Carroll counties under the leadership of Stephen A. Smith, who at twenty-one, became Arkansas' youngest-ever state legislator, a position that Patrick himself had only held four years earlier. Smith became Bill Clinton's top aide in his first term as Governor in his first term.

Governor Rockefeller, a long-serving death penalty activist, commuted the sentences of every prisoner on Arkansas's Death Row, and urged governors of other states to do the same. In January 2003, three years later, Illinois' lame duck governor George Ryan, who was elected to death in the state, would do the same, giving blanket commutations to the 167 prisoners.

Rockefeller nominated Jerry Climer, a young public administrator, to fill the open position as Pulaski County clerk before he resigned. Climer ran for secretary of state two years ago. He later established two Washington, D.C.-based "think tanks." On January 12, 1971, he resigned from office, and the Senate was divided on January 12, 1971.

Rockefeller convinced Len E. Blaylock of Perry County, his former health commissioner with experience in government, to be the Republican presidential nominee in 1972. Blaylock lost to Bumpers by a much larger margin than had Rockefeller in 1970. That year, Rockefeller also endorsed Wayne H. Babbitt's failed candidacy, as the only Republican ever to challenge the United States' reelection. Senator John L. McClellan.

Judy Petty, a $300-per-month secretary who went on to serve two terms in the state legislature and carry the Republican flag twice in congressional elections, was hired as a rockefeller.

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