School segregationist, former Arkansas Gov. Orval E. Faubus, dies

Jet, Jan 9, 1995

Former Arkansas Gov. Orval E. Faubus, 84, whose refusal to let nine Black students into Little Rock's segregated Central High School in 1957 forced President Dwight Eisenhower to send in federal troops, recently died in Conway, AR.

Faubus, who had suffered from spinal cancer, rose from the backwoods poverty of the Ozark Mountain hamlet Greasy Creek to the state's highest office with no more than an elementary school education.

The conservative Democrat was the state's longest-serving governor-from 1954 to 1966.

In 1957, he ordered the Arkansas National Guard to prevent the Little Rock Nine from entering Central High despite federal court orders.

Three days after that, the nine Black students entered the school through a side door while police struggled with rioters at barricades holding back 1,000 Whites. The Black students were removed from the school for their safety.

President Eisenhower then federalized the guard to remove it from the governor's control and sent 1,200 paratroopers to protect the Black students.

The students walked into Central High the next day through the front door while an Army helicopter buzzed overhead and rioting Whites were subdued by bayonets and blows from rifle butts from soldiers of the 101st Airborne Division who ringed the school. The soldiers stayed through the school year.

In 1969, at age 59, Faubus divorced after 37 years of marriage and wed 30-year-old Elizabeth Westmoreland.

Faubus and his second wife moved to Houston, where in 1983 she was found strangled in their apartment. A fugitive pleaded guilty to the murder.

After his wife's death, Faubus moved back to Arkansas and married his third wife, Jan Wittenburg, a teacher in 1986. She is 33 years his junior. Faubus' son Farrell committed suicide in 1976 after fighting drug addiction.