Former congressman Jay Dickey dies
Colleagues, friends laud his dedication to district, devotion to his family, his faith
Former U.S. Rep. Jay Dickey, the first Republican to represent Arkansas’ 4th Congressional District, has died. He was 77.
Dickey, a Republican from Pine Bluff, represented Arkansas’ 4th District, which includes Texarkana and Southwest Arkansas, from 1993 to 2001.
U.S. Rep. Bruce Westerman, who now represents that district, called Dickey a “trailblazer in Arkansas politics” and noted that he was the first Republican ever elected to the post.
“Jay was more than a congressman,” Westerman said in a statement. “He was a dedicated public servant for decades before running for the 4th District seat, holding the position of Pine Bluff city attorney and justice on the Arkansas Supreme Court. But above all, he was devoted to his family and was a man of faith.”
Colleagues in public service remember him as a hard worker.
“I loved Jay Dickey,” said former District 1 state Rep. Prissy Hickerson. “I think Jay probably brought more federal money into South Arkansas than any other congressman.”
“In those days, it was called ‘earmarks’ or ‘pork’ and Jay went after it for his constituents,” the former commissioner of the Arkansas Highway and Transportation Commission said. “He got $90 million for Interstate 49, and he got millions of dollars for the bypass and overpass in Ashdown. He got millions of dollars for projects in Hot Springs, El Dorado and Warren. He also got earmarks for Interstate 69.”
In his first race for the 4th District seat, Dickey defeated
Beryl Anthony, a Democrat.
“He was as surprised as anybody,” Hickerson recalled. “That was during a time when Republicans didn’t win elections.”
She said he didn’t have a home or apartment in Washington, D.C., and slept on the couch in his office. He would be waiting for people to arrive at their offices.
“He was a remarkable man,” Hickerson said. “He loved the Lord and his family.”
He got as many federal grants as he could get, she said. “I would doubt him, and he would call saying, ‘The grant is coming your way.’”
Hickerson called him a bulldog for the district.
“Congressman Trent Lott told me they approved the earmarks for Jay because he wouldn’t leave them alone,” she said. “(Dickey) loved South Arkansas, and he worked hard for us. There was none better than Jay, and he could bring home the bacon.”
U.S. Sen. Tom Cotton called Dickey “a good friend and a trusted source of counsel” during Cotton’s successful 2012 election for the 4th District seat.
“He was a good man and a man of deep faith,” Cotton said in a statement. “Jay was one of a kind, and we’re richer as individuals and as a state for having had him in our lives.”
Hubert Easley was Miller County Judge from 1993 to 2005, overlapping Dickey’s time in the House.
“He was a great guy, and I don’t know of another politician who did as much for Southwest Arkansas,” Easley said today. “He amazed me. One evening, I needed to talk to him, and I called his office, and he answered the phone. He was a regular guy. He was great. … For some reason, he did a lot for Miller County. He did more for Miller County than any congressman, governor or senator.”
Easley said Dickey got the money needed to build I-49 from Texarkana to the Louisiana state line.
“He got the money, and we didn’t have to match the funds,” Easley said. “Usually, federal funds required matching funds. … It would have been $10 million. You can’t beat that. We were fortunate, and he helped us to get a lot of things done.”
While Dickey was widely viewed as a champion of getting I-49 funding, he was also involved in some local controversy over its route. According to Gazette archives, in 1998, after Texarkana Mayors John Jarvis and Danny Grey unveiled a plan to create a northern loop that would route I-49 traffic around both sides of the city, Dickey, the Miller County Quorum Court and others came out squarely against the plan, saying it must all be built on the Arkansas side. This later became a non-issue, and while much of this roadwork has been built around Texarkana and south to Shreveport, northern portions remain unfinished.
But infrastructure is only a part of Dickey’s legacy.
Gov. Asa Hutchinson remembered Dickey as “one of those unique people who loved life and everyone around him.”
“I had the privilege of serving with Jay in Congress, and I have never seen anyone who was so determined to fight for the people in his district,” the governor said in a statement. “He made friends easily, and he stuck by them. I played basketball with Jay in the House gym, where, like everywhere else in his life, he was a competitor. He will be missed.”
During his time on Capitol Hill, Dickey was a staunch supporter of Second Amendment rights and often traveled with his hunting dogs while making the rounds in the district. But a little more than a year ago, his position changed on gun violence research, and he was back in the news.
In December 2015, Cable News Network reported Dickey, who pushed legislation in 1996 that effectively banned the government from funding gun violence research, wanted Congress to reverse that law.
He wrote the chair of the Democrats’ House task force on gun violence prevention, calling for the government to fund research and expressing “regrets” for his part in stopping Center for Disease Control research, CNN reported.
“It is my position that somehow or someway, we should slowly but methodically fund such research until a solution is reached,” he wrote. “Doing nothing is no longer an acceptable solution.”
The task force was created in the wake of the Sandy Hook massacre. Dickey penned his letter shortly after news broke of the shooting in San Bernardino, Calif., where 14 were killed and even more injured.
Dickey was never afraid to do what he thought was right.
U.S. Sen. John Boozman, R-Ark., called Dickey a devoted public servant.
“Jay was very helpful and kind to me in many ways when I became a congressman,” Boozman said. “My thoughts and prayers are with his family during this difficult time. Jay left a legacy of faith and an example that they can be proud of.”
Barbara Horn, a Democrat from Foreman, Ark., who served nine years in the state House of Representatives and 10 years in the state Senate, said Dickey always tried to help and do what he could to represent the people.
“He got $5 million in federal funds for the overpass in Ashdown,” she said. “That is a tremendous amount of money for an area like ours. Think of all the people the overpass serves in our region and from Texas and Oklahoma who go to the (Domtar) paper mill. Funding the overpass opened up doors we couldn’t have done otherwise. It’s having a tremendous impact on growth in our area.”