National Figures

Stephen Fuller Austin (1793–1836)
Stephen Fuller Austin, most widely known as the “Father of Texas,” spent a short period of his life in Ark...
Leslie L. Biffle (1889–1966)
Leslie L. Biffle was a national Democratic Party official from Arkansas. After serving as secretary for Arkans...
Jim Bowie (1796–1836)
aka: James Bowie
Jim Bowie, the man who popularized the bowie knife and who served a...
Davy Crockett (1786–1836)
aka: David Crockett
The legendary frontiersman and congressman David (Davy) Crockett pa...
William Henry Grey (1829–1888)
William Henry Grey emerged as a leader of African Americans in Arkansas after he settled in Helena (Phillips ...
William Judson Holloway (1888–1970)
William Judson Holloway was an Arkansas-born politician and lawyer who moved to Oklahoma, where he became acti...
Sam Houston (1793–1863)
Sam Houston was the governor of Tennessee, twice president of the Republic of Texas, and later senator and gov...
Bertha Hale King (1878–?)
aka: Bertha Hale White
Bertha Hale King was a socialist activist in the first part of the ...
William McCombs (1875–1921)
William Frank McCombs, born in Hamburg (Ashley County), became known nationally and internationally for promot...
Jim McDougal (1940–1998)
aka: James Bert McDougal
James Bert (Jim) McDougal was at various times a political aide, po...
Susan Carol Henley McDougal (1955–)
Susan Carol Henley McDougal became famous in the 1990s for refusing to testify before Kenneth Starr and the Of...
Arch McKennon (1841–1920)
aka: Archibald Smith McKennon
Archibald Smith McKennon was a Confederate military officer, storek...
Martha Mitchell (1918–1976)
aka: Martha Elizabeth Beall Jennings Mitchell
Martha Elizabeth Beall Mitchell gained worldwide recognition for he...
James Sayle Moose Jr. (1903–1989)
James Sayle Moose Jr. was an American Foreign Service officer and diplomat. A specialist in the Middle East, h...
Carrie Amelia Moore Nation (1846–1911)
aka: Carry Nation
Carry Amelia Moore Nation was a temperance advocate famous for bein...
Rodney Earl Slater (1955–)
Rodney Earl Slater rose from poverty to become an Arkansas assistant attorney general and served in several po...
John Wesley Snyder (1895–1985)
John Wesley Snyder was the secretary of the Treasury in the administration of President Harry S. Truman. He ho...
Henry Morton Stanley (1841–1904)
aka: John Rowlands
Sir Henry Morton Stanley, world-renowned explorer of the Belgian Co...
John Roy Steelman (1900–1999)
John Roy Steelman, the son of lower-middle-class cotton farmers, rose to become one of President Harry S. Trum...
George Edwin Taylor (1857–1925)
George Edwin Taylor was a native of Arkansas and the first African American standard-bearer of a national poli...
Charles Lee Watkins (1879–1966)
Charles Lee Watkins served as the first parliamentarian of the U.S. Senate. For more than a half century, he s...
John Garrett Whiteside (1885–1947)
John Garrett Whiteside was a congressional secretary who served many of Arkansas’s delegation of U.S. repres...
James Lee Witt (1944–)
James Lee Witt served as the director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) under President Bill C...