NOTABLE ARKANSANS

She was born in 1925 in the small community of Grand Prairie near Charleston. She attended the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts and the University of Iowa before transferring to the University of Arkansas.

In 1949, while teaching the fourth grade in Charleston, she married a high school classmate who was a law student in Chicago. After he finished law school they returned to Charleston where he set up a private law practice and she continued to teach elementary school. In 1971 she became Arkansas’s first lady when her husband was elected governor.

She used her clout as first lady to improve child health programs and to bring arts programs to children across the state. Her Every Child by ’74 immunization campaign received national attention. As a result, Arkansas, which had had one of the lowest ratings of childhood immunization, now had one of the highest. When her husband was elected to the U.S. Senate she took her enthusiasm to Washington where she was joined by first lady Rosalynn Carter in her efforts toward childhood immunizations on a national basis. Only a few states required immunization before entering school, but, after only two years of their campaign, all 50 states required immunization for school entry.

In 1982 she started Peace Links, an organization that campaigned for world peace by working with women’s groups to educate women about the potential consequences of the nuclear arms race. Within a few years Peace Links had more than 30,000 members. The organization disbanded after the end of the Cold War.

Her husband died of complications from Alzheimer’s Disease in 2016. She died from complications from dementia in 2018.