The 1966 Alabama Gubernatorial Campaign

The original thesis for this paper was that governor Lurleen Wallace had, in fact, been governor in her own right, not just a surrogate for her husband, George Wallace. It soon became apparent, however, that little definitive evidence exists to support this thesis. She served as governor only 16 months, and was being treated for uterine cancer most of that time, so there was hardly any opportunity for her to accomplish a great deal in any case. In the course of the research, however, I became intrigued with the bizarre events and characters who participated in the 1966 gubernatorial campaign.

Socio-political events of the early 1960s had cast Alabama into the national spotlight. On the positive side, the Crimson Tide under legendary Coach Bear Bryant had won a pair of national football championships, while Redstone Arsenal’s rockets were answering the challenges of conquering outer space. Negatively, however, Governor George Wallace’s stand in the schoolhouse door, the church bombings in Birmingham, and the Selma March had magnified Alabama’s stubborn resistance to court-ordered integration. Largely a backwater since the Confederacy’s formation here a century before, Alabama by the mid-1960’s had found itself and its controversial, outspoken governor, occupying center stage on the national political scene. Having captured everyone’s attention, it then delightedly treated the American public to a spectacular show in the 1966 gubernatorial campaign.

Perhaps the biggest player in the race to become Alabama’s 46th governor was not even a candidate for the post. George Wallace, Alabama’s incumbent governor, had thrust himself into presidential politics in 1964 and was now poised for an all-out campaign for the White House in 1968. He desperately needed to retain the resources, the power, and the visibility of the Alabama governorship to enhance his viability as a serious Presidential candidate. The 1901 Alabama Constitution, however, prevented his succeeding himself. Unsuccessful in forcing a bill through the state legislature that would allow him to run again, Wallace faced the real likelihood of conducting a presidential campaign from a front porch in Clayton, Alabama, hardly the stage he desired.¹

At this moment, history was made on January 27, 1966, as a woman filed the necessary paperwork and declared herself a candidate for governor of Alabama.² If you’re thinking Lurleen Wallace, think again. It was not she, but Delores Price, third wife of the colorful William Ralph “Shorty” Price, who was Alabama’s first female gubernatorial candidate. Shorty Price, like Wallace, was a Barbour County native, and the two had been roommates at the University of Alabama. Early accounts describe Shorty as five feet, five inches tall,³ but in later years he advertised himself as “four feet, twelve inches.”⁴ When I saw him being carried out of Legion Field, drunk and disorderly, by several highway patrolmen, he appeared to be somewhat shorter than even that.

Fancying himself a politician, Shorty ran for a seat in the Alabama legislature in 1950. He was soundly defeated but returned to the ballot in nine other races over the years, losing them all.⁵ In the 1958 gubernatorial election, he placed 14th in a field of 14 candidates. By his last campaign for governor, in 1970, he had improved to finish sixth out of the seven hopefuls. In this last race he waited until the Saturday afternoon before the election to start his campaign activities, hoping not to peak too early. He promised that if elected he would shorten the governor’s term to two years, saying, “If you can’t steal enough to last you the rest of your life in two years, you ain’t got enough sense to have the office in the first place.”⁶

Mrs. Price’s 1966 campaign was quite short-lived. It was obvious that political opponents had induced her to run, hoping thereby to embarrass the Wallaces,⁷ and it was equally obvious that Mrs. Price wasn’t old enough to serve anyway, as she was seven years younger than the mandatory thirty years old. On March 1st, just hours before qualifying...