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Winthrop Rockefeller
- University of Arkansas Press
- Chapter
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40 Timeline Winthrop Rockefeller, Arkansas’s thirty-seventh governor, was not born in Arkansas. Rockefeller moved to Arkansas when he was forty-two years old. His family lived in NewYork. His grandfather, John D. Rockefeller, had founded Standard Oil. All of the Rockefellers were very wealthy. Winthrop Rockefeller’s brother, Nelson, became governor of NewYork and ran more than once for president of the United States. When Rockefeller came to Arkansas , he wanted to escape the busy life of New York. He purchased land on Petit Jean Mountain near Morrilton and created a model farm. He also collected automobiles . He married Barbara Sears in 1948, but they soon divorced. His second marriage, to Jeanette Edris Rockefeller, also ended in divorce in 1971. The state’s politicians noticed the wealthy new citizen and asked him to help make Arkansas more prosperous and successful. Rockefeller was appointed by Governor Orval Faubus to theArkansas Industrial Development Commission. In nine years, partly because of Rockefeller ’s work on the commission, more than 600 new industrial plants opened in Arkansas, creating more than 90,000 new jobs. But Rockefeller thought he could do more good things for Arkansas if he had Faubus’s job. Rockefeller ran for governor as a Republican in 1964. He lost the election to Faubus, which was not a surprise. No Republican had been elected governor in Arkansas in ninety years. Rockefeller immediately announced that he would run for governor again. WINTHROP ROCKEFELLER (1912–1973) Born: May 1, 1912 Moved to Arkansas: 1953 Portrait of Winthrop Rockefeller as governor of Arkansas; circa 1970. Courtesy of the Arkansas Secretary of State’s Office 41 Two years later, Rockefeller was elected governor ofArkansas. Much of his support came from the state’s African American voters. Governor Faubus had tried to slow the desegregation of Arkansas’s public schools. Governor Rockefeller wanted to include African Americans in the life of the state. He appointed African Americans to jobs in the state government.When civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. was killed, Governor Rockefeller was the only governor in a southern state to join black leaders in publicly mourning the death. As a result, Arkansas’s cities did not experience the same kind of violent demonstrations that happened in many other cities at that time. During his four years as governor, Rockefeller also tried to fix many other problems in the state.He tried to make Arkansas’s prisons more fair and less cruel to the prisoners. He tried to eliminate illegal gambling in Arkansas. He tried to reorganize the government of the state so it would work more s m o o t h l y at a smaller cost. He also suggested a way of reorganizing taxes that he said would be more fair.The General Assembly did not approve of all his changes. The reorganization he had suggested did not happen until he was no longer governor. But the many changes Governor Rockefeller did accomplish made Arkansas a better state for all of its citizens. “It is an admission of defeat if you can’t by persuasion appeal to most people.” Governor of Arkansas: 1967–1971 Died: February 22, 1973 Morrilton Winthrop Rockefeller at the memorial service for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., on the steps of the Arkansas State Capitol; 1968. Courtesy of the UALR Center for Arkansas History and Culture ...