May 21, 2003

Frank Durward White, the forty-first governor of Arkansas, died in Little Rock (Pulaski County). White was best recognized as the little-known Republican candidate who defeated Bill Clinton in 1980 after Clinton had served only one term as governor. White himself was limited to one term when Clinton reclaimed his office in the State Capitol in 1982. White was probably never as popular as governor as he was as the ubiquitous toastmaster at events throughout the two decades after he retired from elective politics.