Ex-governor, senator Bumpers dead at 90
Statesman remembered for oratory, wit
He was not on the list.
Dale Leon Bumpers, who rose from country lawyer to Arkansas
governor and then served in the U.S. Senate for 24 years, died Friday night at
his Little Rock home. He was 90.
He fell on Dec.
12, broke his hip and had surgery the next day, said Brent Bumpers, his son.
His condition was
exacerbated by dementia, which began a couple of years ago.
“We’ve been in
mourning for a year,” his son said. “After the past three weeks, in particular,
this really was a merciful death as so many are when they go this route. … He
had become very physically frail even before the fall.”
Brooke Bumpers
Low, the former senator’s daughter, said he “just couldn’t seem to bounce back”
after surgery to replace part of his hip.
“At that point,
it just takes one big event that can be the tipping point,” she said. “Then
it’s just a downward spiral.”
Dale Bumpers had
returned home from the hospital on Christmas Eve. Family members and caregivers
were with him when he died about 10:30 p.m. on New Year’s Day.
Funeral
arrangements are being handled by Roller Funeral Homes. No date for his service
had been set as of late Saturday.
Bumpers, a
Democrat from Charleston in Franklin County, was Arkansas governor from 1971-75
and a U.S. senator from 1975-99.
He was a fiscally
conservative, socially liberal senator known for his oratory skills and sharp
wit. He emerged from retirement in 1999 to give one of his most famous speeches
— defending President Bill Clinton during Clinton’s impeachment trial in the
U.S. Senate.
As governor,
Bumpers reorganized state government into a Cabinet system and fought to raise
taxes, bringing in tens of millions of dollars in new revenue.
During his
political career, Bumpers defeated some of the giants in Arkansas politics —
Orval Faubus and Winthrop Rockefeller for governor in 1970, and J. William
Fulbright in 1974 for the U.S. Senate seat that Fulbright had held for 30
years.
After that
initial Senate win, Bumpers defeated anyone who ran against him, including Asa
Hutchinson and Mike Huckabee.
Bumpers survived
malaria, a stint in the Marine Corps and a plane crash with Clinton.
EARLY DAYS
Bumpers was born
Aug. 12, 1925, in Charleston, Ark., the son of the man who ran the town’s
hardware store and funeral home.
His parents were
William Rufus Bumpers — W.R. for short — and the former Lattie Jones, a
postmistress in the town of Anise.
He grew up in a
house that had no electricity or running water.
The family slept
outside during the heat of the summer, “and the mosquitoes had a nightly
feast,” Bumpers wrote in his 2003 autobiography, The Best Lawyer in a
One-Lawyer Town.
He twice
contracted malaria during his childhood.
Before he was
born, his older brother Raymond died of dysentery at age 3 after getting into
the garden and eating some rotten watermelon.
Bumpers had two
other siblings who lived into the 21st century but are now deceased — a sister,
Margaret Ware Kahliff and a brother Carroll Bumpers.
During the
Depression, everyone Bumpers knew was poor. “Mother made our underwear from
flour sacks,” he wrote.
But Bumpers noted
that there were people in Charleston who had less than his family did.
COLLEGE AND WAR
Bumpers picked
cotton and worked in his father’s funeral home, where he said he learned to
“use comforting words of solace” when talking to grieving families.
He attended the
University of Arkansas at Fayetteville for a summer before leaving in 1943 to
join the Marine Corps, where he served from 1943-46.
He was in Hawaii,
about to be shipped out to the Pacific Theater, when the U.S. dropped two
atomic bombs on Japan, and World War II ended.
Returning to the
states, he resumed college and got a degree in political science from UA. He
played the trumpet in the university marching band.
After graduating,
he attended law school at Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill. While
there, his parents were killed in a car crash in March of 1949.
Six months after,
Bumpers married his high school sweetheart, Betty Lou Flanagan, and they moved
back to Evanston so he could finish law school.
Dale and Betty
Bumpers returned to Charleston in 1951. Bumpers bought the Charleston Hardware
and Furniture store from his father’s partner and set up a law practice in the
back office. He later bought a small building across the street, where he
practiced law until he ran for governor in 1970.
In the 1960s,
besides practicing law, Bumpers was an aspiring entrepreneur. He built the only
nursing home in town in partnership with the local doctor, and he acquired a
360-acre cattle farm, where he raised registered Angus cattle for about six
years. He sold the hardware store and the cattle shortly before campaigning for
the governor office.
Bumpers was the
only lawyer in Charleston and served as city attorney from 1952-70. He taught
Sunday School in the Methodist church, where he also led the choir.
He was legal
counsel for the Charleston School Board in 1954 when Charleston became the
first town in the former Confederacy to desegregate its schools after the U.S.
Supreme Court’s desegregation ruling in the Brown
v. Topeka, Kansas, Board of Education.
Bumpers always
said that was his proudest achievement.
He ran for the
Arkansas House of Representatives in 1962 and lost. It was a legislative seat
that his father had once held.
He swore off
elective politics but had a change of heart eight years later.
GOVERNOR’S RACE
He was little-known outside of Charleston when he decided to
run for the Democratic nomination for governor in 1970.
The field of
eight was formidable. Former governor Faubus was the presumed front-runner.
At the time,
Faubus was a fading, tarnished political giant. He had held the office of
governor for a still-record 12 years (1955-67), bowing out undefeated. He led
the balloting in the party primary but didn’t get enough votes to avoid a
runoff.
Many voters
feared that a Faubus win would mean a return of cronyism and scandals that had
marked the closing years of his administration, as well as intensify the scorn
that had been heaped on the state during the 1957 Little Rock school
desegregation crisis, which occurred while he was governor.
Those voters were
looking for other options. Some liked what they saw in Bumpers. (He would later
say that one reason he ran was to try to make sure Faubus didn’t return to
power.)
Bumpers had
Charleston’s quiet, simple desegregation in his past, but he said little about
it during the governor’s race.
What he offered
was a smile, charm and wit, friendliness and good manners, oratorical polish,
and an outsider image.
He made it into
the runoff election, but in the primary he had received 70,000 fewer votes than
Faubus had.
Faubus had a
history of surviving political attacks and making surprise charges late in
campaigns.
But during this
campaign, the best Faubus came up against Bumpers was questioning whether
Bumpers believed in a literal parting of the Red Sea — an accusation that was
grounded in remarks in a news article from members of Bumpers’ Sunday School
class about how he made Bible study interesting.
Bumpers said he
believed in a literal reading of the Old Testament story, and the accusation
dissolved.
Bumpers crushed
Faubus in the runoff, getting more than 60 percent of the votes.
In the general
election that fall, Bumpers faced a second giant, the incumbent Gov. Winthrop
Rockefeller, a cattleman and Republican transplant from New York.
Bumpers received
60 percent of the vote in the general election, and his giant-killer reputation
was established.
GOVERNOR
Bumpers served two
terms (four years) as governor. In winning his second term, he received 60
percent of the vote in the primary and 75 percent in the general election.
As frustrating as
he had been to Faubus and Rockefeller, by saying few definitive things during
the campaigns, he was equally frustrating to members of the press corps.
Once, when asked,
“Are you wishy-washy?” Bumpers answered with characteristic wit, “Maybe I am.
And maybe I’m not.”
Bumpers embraced
proposals Rockefeller had unsuccessfully pursued.
The
Democrat-controlled Legislature worked with him to enact a reorganization of
state government, resulting in a simpler Cabinet system. About 60 state
agencies were grouped into 13 departments whose directors reported to him.
Another key to
his success as governor was passage of a large tax increase. For the first time
since the income tax was enacted, Bumpers got the Legislature to raise the
basic tax rates, while, at the same time, reducing the tax on the lowest
incomes.
Other tax
increases were enacted, as well, including a 5-cent increase in the cigarette
tax.
The tax changes
brought in tens of millions of dollars in new revenue (state general revenue
nearly doubled during Bumpers’ time as governor), resulting in better funding
for schools, allowing the state to establish public kindergarten and provide
free textbooks, improving teacher pay, paying for construction of state
facilities, and expanding services for the elderly, disabled and mentally
handicapped.
It also resulted
in a $100 million state surplus.
Bumpers’ wife,
Betty, led a state effort to immunize children against diseases. Later, she
became nationally known for immunization efforts and as the founder of Peace
Links, which promoted nuclear disarmament and world peace.
SENATE
In 1974, Bumpers
challenged Fulbright for the U.S. Senate.
Their
philosophies were similar, but Fulbright’s outspoken opposition to the Vietnam
War had alienated some Arkansans, and public opinion surveys showed that his
re-election prospects were dim.
Bumpers smiled,
charmed and won, again getting more than 60 percent of the vote.
Arkansas voters
elected him to three more Senate terms.
As senator,
Bumpers’ votes suggested a liberal, independent streak that had not been
evident when he was governor.
Besides being
known for his oratory skills and wit, Bumpers was known for taking stances that
other Southern politicians avoided.
He was the only
Southerner in the Senate to vote against anti-busing legislation proposed by
U.S. Sen. Jesse Helms, a Republican from North Carolina.
Bumpers voted
against school prayer legislation and anti-abortion legislation, and for the
Panama Canal treaties.
He opposed
President Ronald Reagan’s tax cuts of 1981 and spoke forcefully against the
Strategic Defense Initiative and the MX missile.
Bumpers
encountered early hostility from veteran senators resentful of his win over
Fulbright, but over time, he emerged as one the Senate’s more widely admired
members.
He worked to
provide funding for agriculture in Arkansas. As a result, in 1995, the agriculture
college at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville was renamed the Dale
Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food & Life Sciences.
He considered
running for president in 1984 and 1988 but decided against it. In 1984, he
cited personal and family considerations. In 1987, Bumpers cited knee surgery
as a reason he wouldn’t run.
He told the
Arkansas Gazette then that unless a presidential candidate is physically
completely able to run, he “can’t ask others to put in 14- to 16-hour days.”
CLINTON DEFENSE
One of his most
memorable speeches in the Senate was the one he delivered as the closing
argument on behalf of his friend, Bill Clinton.
The U.S. House of
Representatives had impeached President Clinton on perjury and obstruction of
justice charges. Impeachment is a formal charge made by the House. Impeachment
trials are conducted in the Senate.
Clinton was on
trial in the Senate in January 1999 after lying under oath about his sexual
relationship with a former White House aide.
Tapping his
Senate friendships and using his gift for speaking, Bumpers urged his
colleagues to move past the controversy, calling the case a matter not worthy
of the august body’s attention.
He told his
colleagues to “honor the Constitution,” which states that the president “shall
be removed from office on impeachment for, and conviction of, treason, bribery
or other high crimes and misdemeanors.”
“You’re here
today because the president suffered a terrible moral lapse, a marital infidelity,”
Bumpers said. “Not a breach of the public trust, not a crime against society …
It was a breach of his family trust. It is a sex scandal. … Nobody has
suggested that Bill Clinton committed a political crime against the state.”
Two months earlier,
in his final speech as a senator on the Senate floor, Bumpers said he once met
President Harry Truman, who told him, “The only time this country ever gets
into trouble is when there is some so-and-so in the White House lying to the
American people.”
That line was removed from the transcript
that was published by the Congressional Register. Somebody on Bumpers’ staff
took out the statement while trying to tighten and improve Bumpers’ speech,
according to his chief of staff at the time.
But after
Bumpers’ speech, in which he had said that too much had been made about Clinton
lying to the public, Clinton was acquitted in the Senate on Feb. 12, 1999.
CRASH LANDING
Bumpers and
Clinton had been through a lot together.
Twelve years earlier,
on a twin-engine Beechcraft Baron airplane heading from Little Rock to the
Gillett Coon Supper, the plane hit a pile of ice and snow at the end of the
runway while landing in nearby DeWitt. The impact mangled the propellers and
sent the plane spinning out of control into a cotton field, where it came to
rest with the nose on the ground and the tail up in the air.
Clinton, governor
at the time, was telling Bumpers a story and seemed oblivious to the crash
landing.
“I said, ‘Bill,
open that door. This thing’s going to catch on fire!’” Bumpers told a crowd in
Russellville in 2009 — one of many audiences that heard that story over the
years.
The two got out
and made it to the raccoon supper.
Bumpers said the
story is a testament to the importance of the annual Gillett Coon Supper as a
must-attend event for Arkansas politicians.
CONDOLENCES
Clinton tried to
call Bumpers on Christmas Eve. Bumpers had just gotten home from the hospital
and was in no condition to talk that night. Brent Bumpers fielded the call,
talking with Clinton for 15 minutes to update him on Bumpers’ condition.
On Saturday,
Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton issued a statement.
“Dale Bumpers was
a governor of profound historical importance, the most eloquent defender of our
Constitution in the Senate, a man who put his considerable gifts of wisdom, wit
and passion to work for the common good,” said the Clintons.
“For more than 40
years, Hillary and I cherished his friendship,” said Bill Clinton. “I am
grateful that his advice made me a better governor and president, and that we
laughed at each other’s jokes even when we’d heard them before. And I’m
grateful that he welcomed Hillary to Arkansas and supported her in Washington.
“As governor, he
gave us the revenue system that made modernization possible, especially in
education. As senator, he had the courage to vote against both the tax cuts and
spending increases that exploded our national debt, increased inequality and
slowed growth. He championed efforts to protect the environment throughout his
career. And first, last, and always he defended the Constitution — its rights,
responsibilities and rules.”
Former U.S. Sen.
David Pryor served in the U.S. Senate for 18 years with Bumpers, and the two
men became good friends.
“The thing about
Dale Bumpers that will remain forever is how proud he made us feel as a state
and as a people,” Pryor said Saturday. “We were proud in Arkansas to say that
Dale Bumpers represented Arkansas, and we were proud to say that we had a
person like that in the governor’s office and in the Senate who did not vote
according to political polls.
“He voted his
conscience and his conviction. And he, in my opinion, set a new standard for
public service. I think Dale was in a league of his own. … When he spoke on the
Senate floor, people listened, and he led in a very firm but fair way. What an
honor it was for me to serve alongside him during those years, to follow him in
the governor’s office to begin with and serve with him those years.”
Pryor said that
when he ran for governor in 1974, he called Bumpers for advice.
“Dale Bumpers
said ‘Just remember, it never hurts to be magnanimous,’” remembers Pryor.
Other Arkansas
governors also issued statements Saturday.
Gov. Asa
Hutchinson ran against Bumpers for the U.S. Senate seat in 1986.
“The entire state
mourns the loss of an Arkansas legend,” said Hutchinson. “In my first statewide
race, Dale took me to school on Arkansas politics. He was a master storyteller,
and his stump speaking was impossible to beat. From that first campaign in
which we were competitors to the time we served together in Congress, I have
admired Dale for his skill, heartfelt convictions and his sense of humor. After
he retired, he continued to set an example of civic responsibility and good
will during a time of increased partisanship in our nation.”
Former Gov. Mike
Huckabee had a similar experience when he tried to unseat Bumpers in 1992.
“I first knew him
as a political opponent, and I must confess he beat me like a drum,” said
Huckabee. “Later, when I became governor and he was the senior senator, we
worked very well together. … Our political differences aside, he was a
dedicated public servant who always reminded his audiences that ‘public service
is a noble calling.’”
Former Gov. Mike
Beebe said Bumpers was his mentor. When Beebe was 26 years old, Bumpers
appointed him to serve on the Arkansas State University board of trustees.
“It was my first
introduction to any sort of public service,” said Beebe. “An elite public
speaker, Dale’s passion for good policy and responsible government brought
opponents to common ground and inspired the detached to become involved
citizens. He paired his light-hearted swagger with his unabashed love for the
Arkansans who carried him from a Charleston, Ark., law office to the halls of
the U.S. Senate.”
Former Gov. Jim
Guy Tucker said Bumpers was a role model.
“I watched him
with immense admiration,” said Tucker. “I admired him so much. I just had the
deepest respect for him as a person, a family man, a lawyer and a wonderful
public servant who was always looking for the right thing to do, and what would
work. I haven’t known a nicer man or family.”
LAST YEARS
Brooke Bumpers
Low said her father was comfortable in the final years of his life.
“He got to stay at home with his wife of 66
years and be in his comfy reclining chair,” she said.
Dale and Betty
Bumpers liked to watch the birds in the backyard. For a while, the scenery
included five Rhode Island red chickens that Betty had acquired.
“But she decided
they were too much, and they were tearing up her yard,” said Low. So Betty
Bumpers got rid of the chickens.
Sometimes, the
family would drive over to Franklin County and visit family cemeteries so Dale
and Betty Bumpers could tell the grandchildren who people were and what they
had done. It’s how history passes from one generation to another in Arkansas.
Dale Bumpers is
survived by his three children — Brent, Bill and Brooke — and seven
grandchildren.
“As an aside,”
said Brent Bumpers, “he was obviously revered/worshipped by his three children,
something he would rather people know than anything else about his life.”
Information for this article was contributed by John
Brummett of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette and the late Bill Simmons of the
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
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