Certificate - Logan County Treasurer Election
Object number2015.029.19
Date1 January 1965
Associated LocationLittle Rock, Arkansas
MediumPaper, Ink
Dimensions13 13/16 × 8 3/8 in. (35.1 × 21.3 cm)
Credit LineOld State House Museum Collection
Terms
Oravl Eugene Faubus was born on January 7, 1910 in Madison County in the Ozark Mountains to John Samuel and Addie Joslin Faubus. In his youth, Faubus attended the Commonwealth College near Mena, AR. Faubus married Alta Haskins in 1931, they had one son. In 1938, Faubus was elected circuit clerk and recorder of Madison County. Faubus served in the army during World War II as an Army intelligence officer in five major campaigns in Europe. By the end the war Faubus attained the rank of major. After the war, Faubus was rewarded with an appointment to the state highway commission and later worked in the governor’s office as an administrative assistant. In 1955, he defeated Pratt Remmel for the governorship. While in office Faubus improved public education including pay increases for teachers, began an overhaul of the State Hospital for the mentally ill, built the Arkansas Children’s Colony, expanded state parks, and paved hundreds of miles of highway. The defining moment of Faubus’ political career was the desegregation of Central High School in September in 1957. On September 2 Faubus called the National Guard to arms to prevent the admission of nine black students to Central High School on the basis that violence threatened and the National Guard was needed to preserve the peace. A federal judge ordered the removal of the National Guard. After local police were unable to control the crowds at Central High School, President Dwight D. Eisenhower deployed the National Guard in order to restore order and enforce the court’s ruling. In a vain attempt to stop further integration, Little Rock voted to close its schools for the following year, however, bad publicity and economic decline led to the schools being reopened with token integration. Nonetheless, Faubus’ actions ensured his reelection as governor four more times. He left office in 1967. Faubus divorced Alta in 1969, and his son committed suicide in 1976. He remarried to Elizabeth Westmoreland, but she was murdered in 1983. Under Governor Frank White, Faubus was named the state director of veteran’s affairs. Faubus married Jan Hines Wittenberg in 1986. On December 14, 1994 Faubus died from complication from prostate cancer.
Status
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