Homer Martin Adkins
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Homer Martin Adkins (15 October 1890–26 February 1964) was a Democratic Governor of Arkansas. He was born in Jacksonville near Little Rock. In 1908, he attended Draughon's Business College and graduated from the Little Rock College of Pharmacy in 1911 as a licensed pharmacist.
Adkins served in the United States Army during World War I as a Captain in the Medical Corps. Adkins served one term as sheriff of Pulaski County, Arkansas and was the collector of internal revenue for seven years beginning in 1933.
In 1940, he entered the political arena and was elected Governor of Arkansas. Looking to build a voting base based on his background as a Sunday School teacher and church employee, Adkins campaigned on a platform of reform and ending the practice of bootlegging.
The Adkins administration presided over a doubling of the surplus in the state's treasury. His administration focused on highway construction and financing, electrification, worker's compensation.
After being re-elected in 1942, Adkins signed into law the following year a bill that would prevent anyone of Japanese descent from owning land in Arkansas. Looking for a new challenge, he was defeated in a run for the United States Senate two years later. In a three-person race involving incumbent Hattie Caraway and J. William Fulbright, Adkins finished last, with Fulbright later winning a runoff.
In 1948, he played a key role in the U.S. Senate elections of Caraway and John E. Miller, the latter coming in a special election. That same year, he was appointed as administrator of the Arkansas Employment Security Division which is responsible for worker's unemployment insurance and other worker's claims.
In 1954, he strongly supported Orval Eugene Faubus in the gubernatorial general election against Pratt C. Remmel, the Republican mayor of Little Rock.
In 1956, he established a public-relations firm in Little Rock.
Homer Adkins died in 1964 in Malvern, Arkansas and is buried at the Roselawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Little Rock, Arkansas.
On the edge of his hometown of Jacksonville, a neighborhood elementary school today is named for Adkins. The school is slated to convert to a pre-kindergarten format beginning in the 2006-2007 school year.
| Preceded by Carl Edward Bailey |
Governor of Arkansas 1941-1945 |
Succeeded by Benjamin Travis Laney |
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