Orval faubus biography of martin
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He and Alta bought the town’s weekly newspaper, the Madison County Record. Orval and Alta divorced in 1969, and he and Elizabeth Westmoreland were married soon thereafter. The tactic backfired; Faubus defeated Cherry by almost 7,000 votes. In the general election in November, he defeated Little Rock’s Republican mayor, Pratt Remmel, in a landslide.
Arkansas steadily industrialized during Faubus’s years as governor.
Faubus’s editorials on education, healthcare, and highways caught the attention of Sidney S. McMath, himself a war hero and a leader of Arkansas’s GI Revolt, a campaign that swept away many old-line politicians. He stood up for old people on welfare, throwing Cherry’s unfortunate remarks about “welfare chiselers” and “deadheads” in his face. He served as an Army intelligence officer in five major campaigns in Europe, including the Battle of the Bulge.
He lived with her in Conway (Faulkner County) until he died on December 14, 1994, of complications from prostate cancer. That post, along with later service as an administrative assistant in the governor’s office, put him in touch with political activists all over Arkansas.
However, he was unknown among the general public.
He initiated an overhaul of the embarrassingly bad State Hospital for the mentally ill; built the state’s first institution for underdeveloped children, the Arkansas Children’s Colony; expanded state parks; and forced the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to abandon plans to dam the Buffalo River. Elected to the governorship in 1954 after a runoff, Governor Faubus initially pursued a liberal course in office but to combat his political opponents who were staunch segregationists, he adopted a hard-line civil-rights position.
His parents were John Samuel and Addie Joslin Faubus. However, he also signed legislation creating the Arkansas State Sovereignty Commission in opposition to federal pressure to desegregate schools.
The defining moment of his political life was a constitutional crisis over school desegregation. His record was in some ways progressive but included significant political corruption.
On the campaign trail in 1960, he demanded to know which accomplishments of “Faubusism” his opponents would end. He briefly served as general manager of Dogpatch USA. His only child, Farrell, committed suicide in 1976. The troops stayed through the school year.
After Central High, Faubus and his allies, especially Attorney General Bruce Bennett, pursued legislation designed to bypass federal desegregation orders and limit the power of activists such as the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).
President Dwight D. Eisenhower federalized the National Guard and dispatched Army troops to restore order and enforce the court’s ruling. However, a new generation of voters and leaders had moved into place.
Faubus’s personal fortunes declined after he left office.