Former state lawmaker, Lewellen, dies at 87

Former state Rep. John Lewellen, once a science teacher who worked his way through city and county offices before being elected to the House, died Saturday after a lengthy illness, his wife said. He was 87.

Lewellen served in the Legislature from 1999 to 2005, representing District 34 in Little Rock. Before that, he served as Little Rock city director and a member of the Pulaski County Quorum Court.

His wife of 61 years, Wilhelmina, succeeded him in the Legislature after he was term-limited. She served three terms, though she said in a phone interview Tuesday that public office was “his thing.”

“He loved it, I endured it,” Wilhelmina Lewellen said.

The couple met and married as students at the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff, where he enrolled after serving four years in the Air Force during the Korean War.

A younger student at the time, John Walker, remembered Lewellen as “one of the more mature students on campus when he came back.”

Walker, a Democrat like Lewellen and his wife, is the current state representative for District 34, having succeeded Wilhelmina in 2011.

According to a biography emailed by his wife, John Lewellen started working as a science teacher and then became a principal before working 33 years in state government, ending his career at the Arkansas Department of Human Services.

Wilhelmina said the “highlight” of her husband’s legislative career was helping to pass a $5 million appropriation to restore the Mosaic Templars building in Little Rock into a museum of the state’s African American history.

“We wouldn’t be here if it was not for him,” said Quantia Fletcher, the assistant director of the Mosaic Templars Cultural Center.

“Mr. Lewellen was always vocal in his support of the museum and vocal about his passion for the museum,” Fletcher said, adding that he later served on its advisory board after leaving the Legislature.

Including his work with the cultural center, Lewellen spent his post-Legislative years involved in community efforts. He helped found the Wright Avenue Neighborhood Association and operated ConIvie Gardens, an apartment complex for senior citizens near Roosevelt Road.