Orval E. Faubus
Orval Eugene Faubus (1910-1994) was a Democrat who served as the governor of the U.S. state of Arkansas from 1955 to 1971, best known for his unsuccessful attempt in 1957 to halt the federally-authorized desegregation of Central High School in the capital city of Little Rock.
Faubus was born in rural Combs near Huntsville in Madison County in northwestern Arkansas. His father, Sam, an admirer of the Socialist Party standard bearer Eugene Debs, gave Orval the middle name of "Eugene" from the railroad union president and Socialist presidential candidate Eugene Victor Debs. Faubus served in the United States Army during World War II and thereafter was a spokesman for veterans' causes.
Faubus unseated fellow Democrat Sidney Sanders McMath in the 1954 Democratic gubernatorial primary and then defeated a stronger-than-usual Republican candidate, Pratt Remmel, the mayor of Little Rock from 1951 to 1955. In 1956, he defeated James Douglas Johnson, a fellow segregationist and later a member of the Arkansas Supreme Court who became known as "Justice Jim." In 1964, Faubus defeated Republican Winthrop Rockefeller, 57-43 percent, but Rockefeller polled a majority of the African American vote. Faubus stepped down in 1967, having declined to run for a seventh then two-year term. Rockefeller then defeated Democrat Jim Johnson to win the first of his two two-year terms. The office became four years effective with the 1986 election.
Faubus sought comeback attempts in 1970, 1974, and 1986, but each time he lost the Democratic gubernatorial primary elections to Dale L. Bumpers, David Hampton Pryor, and Bill Clinton, respectively.
In 1981-1982, Faubus served as the state's veterans affairs director under Republican Governor Frank D. White, who served between the first two terms of Bill Clinton.
Faubus and his first wife, the former Alta Haskins, from whom he was divorced after leaving the governorship, had one son, Farrell Faubus, who died in Washington State in 1976.
Faubus is interred in Madison County, Arkansas.