Winthrop Rockefeller

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This article is about the Governor of Arkansas (1967-1971). For his son, later Lieutenant Governor of Arkansas, see Winthrop Paul Rockefeller.

Winthrop 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 renowned Rockefeller family.

1 Early life
2 First marriage
3 Move to Arkansas
4 First political campaigns
5 Governor of Arkansas
6 Racial politics
7 End of the Rockefeller era
8 Legacy
9 References
10 Further reading
11 See also
12 External links

[edit] Early life

Winthrop Rockefeller was born in New York City, New York to John D. Rockefeller, Jr. and his wife, the former Abby Greene Aldrich. His four famous brothers were: Nelson, David, Laurance and John D. 3rd. Nelson served as Governor of New York and Vice President of the United States. Winthrop and Nelson Rockefeller were the first brothers to serve simultaneously as governors of two U.S. 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.

[edit] 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.^[1] Seven months after the wedding, she gave birth to the couple's only child, Winthrop Paul, a Lieutenant Governor of Arkansas.

The Rockefellers separated in 1950 and divorced in 1954. The dissolution of the marriage was acrimonious, with unfounded 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 has made me suffer; as he has humiliated me before the world."^[2] 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.^[3] She later became engaged to hotelier Charles W. Mapes, Jr., though the marriage did not take place. As Bobo Rockefeller once said, "I intend to be a Mrs. Rockefeller until the day I die."^[4]

[edit] 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 1955 Governor Orval Faubus appointed him as chairman of the Arkansas Industrial Development Commission (AIDC).

In 1956 Rockefeller married his second wife, Jeanette Edris Barrager Hartley McDonnell. She had previous been married to a pro football player, a lawyer, and a broker. By her, he had two stepchildren, Anne and Bruce Bartley.

He was once recognized as the single most important influence of William Jefferson Clinton who himself became governor before being elected to the White House.^{[citation needed]} 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.

[edit] First political campaigns

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% of Arkansans considered themselves Republicans. But the people of Arkansas had grown tired of Orval 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.

[edit] 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 had 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 nation-wide 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' 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 oppositional legislature.

[edit] 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 state in the Union by the time Rockefeller left office. When he entered office not one African-American had served on a draft board in the state.

[edit] End of the Rockefeller era

In the campaign of 1970 Rockefeller expected to face Orval Faubus, who led the old-guard Democrats, but a young Turk named Dale Bumpers rose to the top of the Democratic heap by promising reform from the Democratic side of the aisle. The youth of Bumpers and the excitement of a new type of Democrat was too much for an incumbent Republican to overcome. Rockefeller lost the 1970 election but had caused the Democrats to reform their own party.

As a dramatic last act, Governor Rockefeller commuted the sentences of every prisoner on Arkansas' 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.

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 on February 22, 1973 in Palm Springs, California, at the age of 60.

[edit] 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.^[5]

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 2 December 1966 cover of Time magazine. He is also the "Rockefeller" mentioned in Billy Joel's history themed song "We Didn't Start the Fire".

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. [1]

[edit] References

^ "The Bride Wore Pink", Time magazine, 23 February 1948
^ "Speaking Up", Time magazine, 2 October 1950
^ "People: Names Make News", Time magazine, 16 August 1954
^ "Take It Or Leave It", Time magazine, 23 June 1952
^ wmcstations.com via AP

[edit] Further reading

Memoirs, David Rockefeller, New York: Random House, 2002.
The Life of Nelson A. Rockefeller: Worlds to Conquer, 1908-1958, New York: Doubleday, 1996.
Winthrop Rockefeller, Philanthropist: A Life of Change, John L. Ward, University of Arkansas Press, 2004.
Agenda for Reform: Winthrop Rockefeller As Governor of Arkansas, 1967-71, Cathy Kunzinger Urwin, University of Arkansas Press, 1991.