Orval Faubus, Another Perspective

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

When it comes to securing a spot in our national history, for positive achievements or otherwise, serving as the governor of Arkansas is not generally regarded as much of a launch pad.  But two past governors of the "natural state" did manage to parlay their time in the Arkansas governor's mansion into positions of national recognition and historical relevance.  One, of course, was Bill Clinton, who went on to serve two terms as President of the United States after his time as the chief executive of Arkansas.  But a couple of decades before Clinton became governor, there was another Arkansas politician who, as governor, also achieved a great deal of notoriety across the United States.  That politician was Orval Faubus.

Even though only twelve years separated their tenures as governor of Arkansas, the two men could not have been more different. The world changed decisively between the time Faubus left the governorship in1967 and when Bill Clinton assumed in it 1979.  Faubus, an old-line segregationist, fought valiantly to  maintain the color barriers that had been so carefully crafted during a century of Jim Crow legislation and racially-inspired terrorism against people of color, and by the time Clinton came into office as governor, the Civil Rights movement in America had highlighted and begun to slowly remove many of those barriers that had been more than a century in the making.

Both men were Democrats, but their political philosophies were starkly different from one another.  The times had changed drastically, and so had the political parties.  In less than twenty years, the Democrats had become the proponents of an "inclusive" society, and Lincoln's Republican Party had been cruelly highjacked into the old Confederate cause of trying to keep black people in "their place."  Thank you, Richard Nixon.

Faubus served as a Democratic governor of Arkansas when the old model of politics was still in operation, then the world shifted dramatically and Bill Clinton emerged just a few years later to try and lead Arkansas in a significantly different direction - also as a Democrat.

But all of that has just been background noise.  My purpose in today's blog posting is to  show a more human side to Orval Faubus, a politician who earned extensive notoriety and public scorn when he mobilized the Arkansas National Guard in 1957 in a vain attempt to keep nine black youngsters from enrolling in the all-white Central High School of Little Rock, Arkansas.

My grandfather, Dan Sreaves, was born in Huntsville, Madison County, Arkansas, in 1888, just a few miles from where Orval Faubus would be born in Combs, Madison County, just twenty-two years later.   As a result of having roots there, I travelled to Madison County a couple of years ago to do some on-the-ground genealogy research.  While in Huntsville, I stayed at the Faubus Motel, the only suitable hostelry that I came across - and it was very nice.  I did a lot a research in the library of the local genealogical society, and before I left town I subscribed to that society's quarterly newsletter, an exceptionally good publication entitled "Madison County Musings."

This week the Spring 2023 edition of that newsletter arrived in my mailbox, and while it did not contain anything of relevance to my family research (unlike the previous edition which had referenced a couple of my ancestors), this edition did contain a nice memorial to Orval Faubus that had been written by his younger sister, Bonnie Lou (Faubus) Salcido.  In an effort to provide readers of this blog with some perspective on a historical figure that they would be unlikely to acquire anywhere else, I thought I would highlight a few facts about the life of the former Arkansas governor that have been preserved by his sister.

Here goes:

Orval Faubus was the oldest of seven children born to John Samuel Faubus (age 22) and Addie Joslin Faubus (age 17).  The father made a living for the family by cutting timber and making cross ties for the railroad companies - an occupation which was very common throughout the Ozarks at that time.  The family also ran a small subsistence farm which produced much of their groceries and feed for the livestock.

The little sister describes Orval Faubus in almost Lincolnesque terms, talking about his love of reading, and saying that he would skip neighborhood parties in order to stay at home and read.  She said that he graduated from eighth grade at Combs with "the highest grade ever made in Madison County."  He passed the state teacher's exam at age eighteen and began teaching in the county's one-room schools where her eventually became the teacher for three of his younger siblings.  When the children's mother passed away in 1936, it was the oldest sibling, Orval, who stepped in and helped to finish raising the younger ones.

Young Orval Faubus entered politics during the Great Depression and he was serving as the county clerk and recorder when the United States entered World War II.  He resigned his political office and joined the US Army where he served with the Intelligence department of the 35th Infantry Division in Europe under General Patton.   Faubus entered the army as a private and emerged as a Major a few years later.  During his time in the Army he won the Broze Star with five campaign stars.

After leaving the army Orval Faubus returned to Madison County where he served as postmaster in Huntsville and later bought the "Madison County Record," the county's only newspaper.  After that he jumped into state politics and saw service as the state highway commissioner and later was administrative assistant to Governor Sid McMath. He became governor in 1955, just ten short years after leaving the army.

Bonnie Lou Salcido describes her brother as "a kind man, and fair, with a great deal of charisma" and also said that he was a man with "humor, humility, and dignity."  She quotes his tomestone epitaph as reading:

"When I come to this, my last earthly resting place, may it be said of me, in the rise of obscurity, he served his country and his people well, he forsook not his own kind, the common people, he dealt fairly with all men, his promises were kept, his debts were paid."

Orval Faubus seems to have seen his own life in a light of fair and just treatment toward his "own kind" (the common people), even if others, with very good reason, did not.