March 4, 1963

Governor Orval Faubus signed a resolution restoring Eva Ware Barnett’s genteel anthem “Arkansas” to its former status as Arkansas’s official state song. The song had been the subject of a lawsuit over copyright in 1941, after Secretary of State C. G. “Crip” Hall had used it in a free pamphlet in 1940, an election year. Although it was ousted as the state song when “The Arkansas Traveler” replaced it in 1949 (although some say unofficially), “Arkansas” remained popular, particularly with school choirs, and eventually Barnett’s unhappiness with the situation moderated.