February 18, 1915

Marion Harland Crank was born in the community of Bearden (Ouachita County). Crank was a member of the Arkansas General Assembly for eighteen years, becoming influential in the dominant rural faction of legislators when he entered the state House of Representatives in 1951. He was the speaker of the House in 1963–64 and often managed legislative programs for Governor Orval E. Faubus during Faubus’s twelve years in office.