Arkansas - Former Governor Frank White dies - He defeated Bill Clinton in 1980 election

local television reports | May 21, 2003

[HAL9000]

According to local television reports, former Arkansas Governor Frank White died this evening.

He was nationally known as the Republican who defeated Bill Clinton in 1980 election for Arkansas governor.

MORE...

[rockinonritalin]

Arkancide!

[Arkinsaw]

I can say two good things about the man, he was a lousy politician and a nice guy.

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

His election made x42 cry like a baby.

[Fifth Business]

Private plane?

[gov_bean_ counter]

Was this the election that sent Clinton to the shrink?

[LandofLincoln]

How did he die?

sleeping on the railroad tracks?

Private plan?

Shot five times in the back in a hunting accident?

[Cicero]

Maybe he was accidentally decapitated.

[Paleo Conservative]

He defeated Bill Clinton in 1980 election

With a little help from Ronald Reagan.

[NotJustAnotherPrettyFace]

Parody/story:

It All Began (Unfortunately) in a Place Called Hope

[HAL9000]

Former Arkansas Gov. Frank White dies at 69

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) - Former Gov. Frank White, one of only two men to defeat Bill Clinton in an election, died Wednesday. He was 69.

Family members said White died at his home. No cause was released.

White, a Republican, ousted Clinton from the governor's office in 1980, after Clinton had served one term as the state's chief executive. Clinton came back to defeat White in 1982.

Clinton, who capped his political career with successful campaigns for the presidency in 1992 and 1996, also lost his first bid for elective office when he ran for Congress in 1974 against John Paul Hammerschmidt.

White has served as the state banking commissioner since 1998.

As governor, White was known as the signer of a measure approved by the Legislature requiring Arkansas teachers to include "creation science" in the curriculum if the theory of evolution was also taught.

The law was later struck down as unconstitutional by a federal judge after a trial that drew national attention.

Surviving are his wife, Gaye, and three children from a previous marriage.

[montag813]

He was nationally known as the Republican who defeated Bill Clinton in 1980 election for Arkansas governor.

I watched "The Dead Zone" last night, and I always think of Clinton when I see Christopher Walken squeeze Martin Sheen's hand and see the horrific future which will ensue with him as President. One wishes such a psychic were around to squeeze Clinton's hand and see the Twin Towers collapsing. Perhaps he could have tried to ruin Clinton the way the Sheen character was ruined in the film.

[stylin19a]

It was this defeat that x42i got to practice his apology/reformation lolapalooza tour...knowing it would probably come in handy later

[skinkinthegrass]

How did he die?...sleeping on the railroad tracks?...Private plan?...Shot five times in the back in a hunting accident?

Wow! ( w/ proper respect), A first..An Clinton Foe really dying naturally..must have been out of real power since '84...Little Rock Mafia wasn't in business yet... :|

[Ursus arctos horribilis]

I never knew of him, but if he bested Klintoon, he could not have been to bad of a feller.

[kcvl]

May 21, 2003

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. -- Former Governor Frank White, remembered as one of only two men to defeat Bill Clinton in an election, died tonight at his home. He was 69.

White, a Republican, ousted Clinton from the governor's office in 1980, after Clinton had served one term as the state's chief executive. Clinton came back to defeat White in 1982, and beat him again in 1986 when White made another run for governor.

As governor, White was widely remembered as the signer of a measure approved by the Legislature that required the state's teachers to include what was called ``creation science'' in the curriculum if the theory of evolution was taught.

The law was later struck down as unconstitutional by a federal judge after a trial that drew national attention to the state.

Clinton lamented White's death in a statement issued by longtime Clinton associate Skip Rutherford.

The former president said "I'm very sorry to learn of his passing. Hillary and I send our prayers to Gaye and his family. While we were opponents in the past, we established a good friendship and I liked him very much."

The only other candidate to defeat Clinton was then-Representative John Paul Hammerschmidt, a Republican that Clinton tried to oust from Congress in his first run for office in 1974.

Governor Huckabee, a Republican like White, said "Frank's death was a great shock and personal loss to Janet and me. He was not only a mentor, Cabinet member and colleague, but a personal friend with whom I have shared wonderful times at work as well as in the duck woods. His acumen for assisting with charitable endeavors was unsurpassed by any Arkansan, living or dead. His sense of humor will be missed. With Frank gone, his laughter will be replaced by our tears. I ask all Arkansans to join me in praying for Gaye and all of Frank's family and in remembering this wonderful public servant."

After leaving the governor's office in 1983, White went to work for the Little Rock investment banking firm of Stephens Incorporated. He later joined First Commercial Bank as a senior vice president, where he served until July 1998, when Huckabee appointed him state banking commissioner.

At a dinner featuring a reunion of the state's seven then-living governors last July, White kept guests laughing with stories about his two years in the Governor's Mansion. One story involved his unexpectedly running into a group of touring school children while dressed in his underclothes.

Former Senator David Pryor, a Democrat who served as one of the state's two senators during White's tenure as governor, recalled White's lack of concern about partisan politics in his personal relationships.

Pryor said "He did not care if you were a Democrat or a Republican, he was always your friend. He was jovial. His heart was as big as he was. He will be really missed ... in this community and this state."

Pryor recalled bringing White, then a Democrat, into state government when Pryor was governor and he named White to the Arkansas Industrial Development Commission.

Pryor also recalled the time he received the phone call from White that dragged him off the Senate floor in Washington. Pryor said "He told me he was going to run for governor. I told him that there was no way he could beat Bill Clinton in the Democratic primary. That's when he told me he wasn't going to run in the Democratic primary because he was switching parties. I was stunned to say the least."

White was born Durward Frank Kyle in 1933. His mother remarried and his stepfather, Frank White, adopted him.

As a youngster, White received an appointment to the US Naval Academy. After graduation, he served for five years in the Air Force, a tour that included time in the Congo and the Central High crisis.

In 1961, he returned to Little Rock, joining a brokerage firm. Twelve years later, he joined a Little Rock bank as vice president for business development. In 1977, he became president of Capital Savings and Loan.

In addition to his wife, Gaye, White's survivors include three children from a previous marriage, Rebecca, Kyle and Elizabeth.

[Princeliberty]

Wasn't he basicly a RINO that was under the control
of the Stephens brothers like Clinton.
Didn't the Stephens brothers back him to punish
Clinton for not totally doing everything they
said and after the defeat Clintons and Stephens
made up and the Stephens put Clinton back in?

Or something like that.

[fieldmarshaldj]

R.I.P., Governor White.

[Theodore R.]

Also Frank White was originally a Democrat. I don't think he became a Republican until he decided to take on Clinton. There is a fair chance that he voted for Clinton for governor in 1978, the year Juanita Broaddrick said that "the lovable louse" raped her! I think he had also been a supporter at one time of the clintoid Governor and Senator David Pryor.

Frank White had the same problem in AR that Governor David Treen had in LA. The AR legislature was waiting in the wings for the return of "their Bill," and the LA legislature was taking its marching orders from former Governor and still Governor-in-waiting Edwin Washington Edwards. Poor White and Treen -- neither ever understood the forces at work against them. Nixon understood those forces, and look where that knowledge got him!

Both of these Republican governors signed "creation science" laws, which the Supreme Court declared unconstitutional in the case Edwards v. Aguillard.

Still, it is tragic to learn of Governor White's death.

[archy]

...must have been out of real power since '84...Little Rock Mafia wasn't in business yet... :|

Hardly the case, as the Little Rock stringpullers have been in place throughout the latter half of the Twentieth Century, really developing during the Second World War. And the *Little Rock Mafia* has had no shortage of Republican fellow travellers willing to take their share of the money either, as with Republican U.S. Attorney Asa Hutchinson's refusal to indict any of the major players in the Mena wholesale narcotics transshipment scheme.

It'll be interesting to read what's recalled of White in the next few editions of the Briefing Notebook/Bullwhiz compilations of Little Rock area journalist/PR business infobits.

-archy-/-