Everything about Winthrop Rockefeller totally explained
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.
Early life
Winthrop Rockefeller was born in
New Jersey to
John D. Rockefeller, Jr. and his wife, the former
Abby Greene Aldrich. His four famous brothers were:
Nelson,
David,
Laurance and
John D. III. Nelson served as
Governor of New York and
Vice President of the United States.
Winthrop attended
Yale University from 1931 to 1934 but was ejected as a result of misbehavior before earning his degree. Prior to attending Yale, he graduated from the
Loomis Chaffee School in
Windsor, Connecticut.
He enlisted into the
77th Infantry Division in early 1941 and fought in
World War II, advancing from
Private to
Colonel and earning a
Bronze Star with clusters and
Purple Heart for his actions aboard the troopship USS
Henrico, after a
kamikaze attack during the
Battle of Okinawa. His image appears in the Infantry Officer Hall of Fame at
Fort Benning, Georgia.
First marriage
On
14 February 1948, Rockefeller married for the first time. His bride was Jievute Paulekiute Sears, best known as Barbara "Bobo" Paul Sears (a.k.a. Eva Paul), a farmer's daughter and former model, showgirl, and erstwhile movie actress who had previously been the wife of Boston socialite Richard Sears, Jr. The wedding took place in Florida, and at the reception, a choir sang
Negro spirituals. Seven months after the wedding, she gave birth to the couple's only child,
Winthrop Paul, later a
Lieutenant Governor of
Arkansas.
The Rockefellers separated in 1950 and divorced in 1954. The dissolution of the marriage was acrimonious, with suggestions that Winthrop Rockefeller owned an extensive collection of pornography. As Bobo Rockefeller said of the ensuing scandal, "I want him to suffer the way he's made me suffer; as he's humiliated me before the world." During the couple's separation, she retreated to her parents' farm in Indiana and claimed that the $1 million trust fund set up for her son wasn't enough for a Rockefeller heir. "A Rockefeller wasn't born to be raised on a farm," said the socialite, who eventually received a $5.5 million settlement composed of $2 million in cash and a $3.5 million trust fund for her and her son. She later became engaged to hotelier Charles W. Mapes, Jr., though the marriage didn't take place. As Bobo Rockefeller once said, "I intend to be a Mrs. Rockefeller until the day I die."
Move to Arkansas
Rockefeller moved to central
Arkansas in 1953 and established
Winrock Enterprises and
Winrock Farms atop
Petit Jean Mountain near
Morrilton, Arkansas.
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 previously been married to a pro
American football player, a
lawyer, and a
stockbroker. By her, he acquired two stepchildren, Anne and Bruce Bartley.
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.
First political campaigns
In
1960, Rockefeller didn't seek the governorship but instead raised funds for the Republican nominee,
Henry M. Britt, a
lawyer from
Hot Springs, the seat of
Garland County. Britt barely polled 30 percent of the vote in his loss to Faubus. In
1962, he similarly supported Willis Ricketts, another in a long line of failed Republican candidates who sought to topple Faubus.
Rockefeller resigned his position with the AIDC and conducted his first campaign for governor in 1964. His campaign was ultimately unsuccessful against the powerful Faubus, but Rockefeller had energized and reformed the tiny
Republican Party and had set the stage for the future.
When Rockefeller made his second run in 1966 only 11 percent of Arkansans considered themselves
Republicans. But Arkansans had tired of Faubus after six terms as Governor and as head of the
Democratic "machine." Democrats themselves seemed to be more interested in the reforms that Rockefeller offered in his campaign than "winning another one for the party." 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". Ironically, years later, Johnson would switch to the Republican Party.
In a surprise, Rockefeller's running-mate for
lieutenant governor Maurice L. Britt, a decorated World War II veteran and a former professional football player, was narrowly elected to the second-ranking post over the Democrat James Pilkington.
Other Rockefeller running-mates, such as former Democratic State Representative
Jerry Thomasson of
Arkadelphia, who sought the office of
attorney general in 1966 and 1968, and Mrs.
Leona Troxell of
Rose Bud in
White County, who ran for state treasurer in 1968, were defeated.
Only three Republicans won election to the 100-member
Arkansas House of Representatives at the time of Rockefeller's first victory:
George E. Nowotny, Jr., of
Fort Smith,
Danny L. Patrick of
Madison County, and
James "Jim" Sheets of
Siloam Springs in
Benton County.
At the time Winthrop became
Governor of Arkansas, his brother
Nelson was already
Governor of New York, and remained so throughout Winthrop's four years in office. They are often erroneously cited as the first two brothers to be
governors at the same time, but they were actually the third case of this; the previous instances were
Levi and
Enoch Lincoln from
1827 to
1829, and
John and
William Bigler from
1852 to
1855. More recently,
George W. and
Jeb Bush were both governors from
1999 to
2000.
Governor of Arkansas
The Rockefeller administration enthusiastically embarked on a series of reforms but faced a hostile Democratic legislature. Rockefeller endured a number of personal attacks and a concerted
whispering campaign regarding his personal life.
Rockefeller had a particular interest in the reform of the Arkansas prison system. Soon after his election he'd received a shocking State Police report on the brutal conditions within the prison system. He decried the "lack of righteous indignation" about the situation and created the new Department of Corrections. He named a new warden, academic
Tom Murton, the first professional
penologist Arkansas had ever had in that role. However, he fired Murton less than a year later, when Murton's aggressive attempts to expose decades of corruption in the system subjected Arkansas to nationwide contempt.
Rockefeller also focused on the State's lackluster educational system, providing funding for new buildings and increases in teacher salaries when the legislature allowed.
At the 1968
Republican National Convention, Winthrop Rockefeller received backing from members of the Arkansas
delegation as a "
favorite son"
presidential candidate. He received all of the Arkansas's delegation's 18 votes; his brother Nelson, then concluding a major presidential bid, received 277 and together they became the first, and to date the only, brothers ever to receive votes for President at the same major-party convention.
Rockefeller won re-election in November 1968 and proposed tax increases to pay for additional reforms. Rockefeller and the legislature dueled with competing public-relations campaigns and Rockefeller's plan ultimately collapsed in the face of public indifference. Much of Rockefeller's second term was spent fighting with the opposition legislature.
With Rockefeller's reelection, the Republicans won a rare seat in the
Arkansas State Senate with the election of
Jim Caldwell of
Rogers in northwestern Arkansas.
Racial politics
During this term Rockefeller quietly and successfully completed the
integration of Arkansas schools that had been such a political bombshell only a few years before. He established the Council on Human Relations despite opposition from the legislature. Draft boards in the state boasted the highest level of racial integration of any U.S. state by the time that Rockefeller left office. When he entered office, not one
African-American had served on a draft board in the state.
End of the Rockefeller era
In the 1970 campaign, Rockefeller expected to face
Orval Faubus, who led the old-guard Democrats, but
Dale Leon Bumpers of
Charleston in
Franklin County, rose to the top of the Democratic heap by promising reforms. Bumpers' charisma and "fresh face" were too much for an incumbent Republican to overcome. Rockefeller lost his third-term bid, but he caused the Democrats to reform their own party. The Republicans were reduced to a single member of each legislative chamber, as Danny Patrick, elected with Rockefeller, went down to defeat in Madison County.
As a dramatic last act, Governor Rockefeller, a longtime
death penalty opponent commuted the sentences of every prisoner on Arkansas's
Death Row and urged the governors of other states to do likewise. Thirty-three years later, in January of 2003, Illinois'
lame duck governor,
George Ryan, would do the same, granting blanket commutations to the 167 inmates then sentenced to death in that state.
Before he left office, Rockefeller appointed a young public administrator,
Jerry Climer, to the vacant post of Pulaski County clerk. Two years later, Climer ran for secretary of state. He later founded two
Washington, D.C.-based "think tanks."
In 1972, Rockefeller persuaded
Len E. Blaylock, his former welfare commissioner known for expertise in government administration to be the Republican gubernatorial nominee. Blaylock lost to Bumpers by an even greater margin than had Rockefeller in 1970. Rockefeller that year also supported the unsuccessful candidacy of
Wayne H. Babbitt, a
North Little Rock veterinarian who became the only Republican ever to challenge the reelection of U.S. Senator
John L. McClellan.
Rockefeller hired as a $300-a-month secretary
Judy Petty, who went on to serve two terms in the state legislature and to carry the Republican standard bearer twice in races for Congress.
In
September 1972, Rockefeller was diagnosed with inoperable
cancer of the pancreas and endured a devastating round of
chemotherapy. When he returned to Arkansas the populace was shocked at the gaunt and haggard appearance of what had been a giant of a man.
Winthrop Rockefeller died in
Palm Springs, California, at the age of sixty.
Legacy
The legacy of Winthrop Rockefeller lives on in the form of numerous charities, scholarships, and the activities of the
Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation and the
Winthrop Rockefeller Charitable Trust. The foundation provides funding for projects across Arkansas to encourage economic development, education, and racial and social justice. In 1964, he founded
The Museum of Automobiles on Petit Jean Mountain, which after his death in 1973 was given to the Arkansas State Parks system and a non-profit organization was formed to run it; in March 2007 the Charitable Trust pledged $100,000 for its ongoing operations if the museum raised an equal amount by the end of 2007.
Rockefeller's political legacy lives on in both the Republican and Democratic parties of Arkansas, both of which were forced to reform due to his presence in Arkansas politics.
Rockefeller was the subject of the December 2, 1966 cover of
Time magazine.
Winthrop Rockefeller's son
Winthrop Paul "Win" Rockefeller served as Lieutenant Governor of Arkansas. Like his father, Win Rockefeller's political career was cut short by a devastating cancer.
The
Winrock Shopping Center in
Albuquerque, New Mexico is named for Rockefeller, as he developed it in a relationship with the
University of New Mexico, the owners of the property on which the
shopping center was built.
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