Frank D. White

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Frank White
51^st Governor of Arkansas
Term of office: 1981 – 1983
Lieutenant Governor:	Winston Bryant (1981 - 1990)
Predecessor:	Bill Clinton
Successor:	Bill Clinton
Born:	June 4, 1933 Texarkana, Texas
Died:	May 21, 2003 Little Rock, Arkansas
Political party:	Republican
Profession:	banker, stock broker
Spouse:	Gay White

Frank Durward White (June 4, 1933 – May 21, 2003) was only the second Republican governor of the U.S. state of Arkansas since Reconstruction. He served from 1981 to 1983.

Frank White was born in Texarkana, Texas, and had a business career as a stockbroker and banker. In the 1970s, White headed the Arkansas Industrial Development Commission, a body originally created by Democratic Governor Orval Eugene Faubus. White switched from Democrat to Republican affiliation to run for governor of Arkansas in 1980. He unexpectedly unseated the incumbent (and future President of the United States) Bill Clinton. White was helped in his 1980 campaign by Clinton's unpopular increase in the cost of automobile registration tags and by the Democratic Jimmy Carter administration's sending thousands of Cuban refugees to a detention camp in Northwest Arkansas.

White served only a single two-year term as governor, for he was defeated by Clinton in 1982 in this heavily Democratic state. Arkansas gubernatorial terms became four years with the 1986 general election.

As governor, White signed a law that would have permitted the teaching of creation in Arkansas public schools. The law was subsequently overturned by the Supreme Court in the 1987 decision known as Edwards v. Aguillard.

White also created a sensation in Arkansas politics when in 1981, he called Faubus out of retirement to head the state's veterans affairs commission. Faubus himself unsuccessfully challenged Clinton for Democratic renomination in 1986. White also opposed Clinton again as the Republican nominee in the 1986 general election.

White later served as Arkansas Banking Commissioner from 1998 to 2003, as an appointee of Republican Governor Mike Huckabee. He died of a heart attack in Little Rock, Arkansas and was buried at historic Mount Holly Cemetery in Little Rock.