"First Lady of Peace"

Betty Bumpers was one of four children born to Herman Edward and Ola Dale Callan Flanagan. Both she and Dale Bumpers lived in the small community of Grand Prarie near Charleston. When Betty was 12, her family moved into Fort Smith, coming back to Charleston just before her last year of high school.

Betty and Dale dated during that last year of high school, but went separate ways after that. He entered the University of Arkansas. Betty and two of her sisters entered Iowa State University, when her family moved to Ames. About the time her family moved back home to Charleston, Dale Bumpers entered the Marines. When he completed his tour of duty and returned home in 1946, Betty had entered the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts. Betty returned to Charleston to teach fifth grade for a while; but Dale was leaving to study law at Northwestern University in Chicago. Finally getting tired of passing each other, they married September 4, 1949.

After Dale finished law school, it was back to Charleston for them. He practiced law and ran family businesses, while she kept busy as a wife, mother of three, elementary school teacher, church worker, garden club member and also participated in activities to make their hometown a better place for children to grow up.

When Dale ran for governor, Betty and her sister were aggressive campaigners. Dale credits his victory to Betty’s tireless efforts on his behalf as she traveled across our state. He was inaugurated as governor on January 12, 1971, taking the oath of office before a joint session of the House and Senate in the House Chamber with Betty and their three children at his side.

Betty Bumpers says that, as First Lady of Arkansas, she shamelessly used her position to promote the causes in which she had an interest. (And now, as wife of a senator, she admits she still does the same thing.) Fortunately for the state, the country and the world, we are all better off for her activism on behalf of those interests.

As First Lady of Arkansas, she had entree to areas which had formerly not been open to her as a private citizen. For instance, the Center for Disease Control came to her for help in setting up a program to immunize all school children. Once she realized this was a real need with the children of Arkansas, she threw herself into accomplishing this goal. At the time, she was quoted as saying, "If the children of Arkansas need to be immunized, then we will immunize them." And then she proceeded to enlist the help of many public and private organizations for the project. The program, known as "Every Child in ‘73", became a common goal of Betty Bumpers and Nell Balkman, a former head of the Arkansas League of Nursing. And they succeeded in seeing that 90% of the Arkansas school children were immunized.

Later, when Governor Bumpers was elected to the Senate, Betty Bumpers immediately tried to enlist the interest of President and Mrs. Ford in a nationwide program. When they showed no interest, Betty didn’t give up. She turned to the wives of state governors, urging them to begin programs in their home states, similar to the one she had set up in our state – a challenge many of them accepted. By the time the Carters were in the White House and were found to be receptive to the program, its foundation had already been laid by the First Ladies. Through the Center for Disease Control, Betty and Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare Joe Califano, a nationwide program for immunizing children was set up – almost exactly like the one that Arkansas had used – and it was a complete success.

While she was Arkansas’ First Lady, Betty Bumpers also was very important in another welcomed project – bringing the public health nurse program under the auspices of the Arkansas State Health Department. She received statewide support for this effort as well.

Because the arts had been a lifelong interest of hers, Betty continued the work begun by former First Lady Jeannette Rockefeller to encourage the interest of school children in them. She worked closely with the State Department of Arts and Humanities; and, with the help of grants and legislation, the whole program of state services for the arts was continued. Coming under the auspices of this program were such things as the Artmobile, Tell-a-tale Troupe, Arkansas Ballet and the Children’s Theater. Many Arkansas children got their first taste of the arts due to this effort.

In typical Bumpers fashion, before moving into the Governor’s Mansion, Betty chose to interview all the former First Ladies who had lived there to get their views on how best to run the most public home in the state. She was impressed by the gracious, helpful answers they all gave her. Mrs. Sid McMath suggested that she felt there was a very real need for a Mansion Commission to assume responsibility for the property and to be responsible for the expenses of upkeep and repairs. Other states spent fortunes as each new First Lady redecorated and refurnished their mansions to suit their personal tastes, but Arkansas could not afford such luxuries. Betty Bumpers personally assumed the role of seeing that legislation was established for this desperately needed project.

Each of the former First Ladies felt very strongly that Arkansas needed to be sharing the Mansion and its history with the people of the state – especially its children. While serving as First Lady, Betty set up tours of the house and grounds, and especially was encouraging of visits from children. She even helped implement a program where scouts could earn a merit badge by identifying trees on the grounds. She had trees indigenous to the state, such as pines and the rare Arkansas oak, planted there.

She also encouraged the purchasing of adjoining property which had once been owned by the state. This property had been sold sometime in the past, and houses built on it. She felt it was not appropriate, and sought support for the state to repurchase the land to square off the property. They agreed, and bought the lots back. The two houses still stand, but are now used as housing for employees and storage.

Betty Bumpers also developed a long-range plan for adding or replacing furnishings, and contracted with a landscape firm to develop a permanent planting plan for the grounds. She had two fire escapes installed, a cabinet built to display the state silver, a new chandelier purchased for the dining room and a rug in the design of the state seal made for the foyer. Even though the legislature had appropriated more than enough funding for these projects, Governor Bumpers, who was involved in a campaign at the time, asked her not to authorize payment from the state treasury until after the election. She didn’t listen. The governor was out campaigning when he heard a newscast in which his opponent said he was the most expensive governor the state had ever had, citing the cost of the furniture Mrs. Bumpers had just purchased. Governor Bumpers called home and chastized his wife for what she had done. She replied calmly that he could be intimidated by that "junk" if he wanted to, but she thought the people of Arkansas wanted nice things in their mansion and no one would mind if she spent the money on things they could take pride in. She was right, he won the election and the Mansion pieces that she had purchased are still there today.

The Mansion was run with a skeleton staff during Betty Bumpers time as First Lady. Liza Ashley was the chief cook, and had been through two previous governors as well. Mrs. Bumpers called her her "best friend". Ashley did all the menu planning, grocery shopping, meal preparation and hiring of waiters to serve at parties. Mrs. Bumpers relied heavily on her expertise in these matters, saying that the largest function she had ever hosted before becoming First Lady was a time when she hosted a party for Dale’s fellow choir members from the First Methodist Church after their Christmas Cantata one year. In addition to Ashley, there was an upstairs maid, a downstairs maid and one state trooper for security. Rather than having a lot of police around, the Bumpers hired college students to patrol the grounds, because they felt they were less intrusive. There was also a part-time employee who regularly did the floral arrangements for the Mansion. Betty felt fresh flowers were a must, but cut down on costs by using silk flowers mixed with fresh greenery for permanent use, and fresh flowers only for special occasions.

The Bumpers’ three children had different experiences as the children of the Governor and First Lady of Arkansas. Their daughter, Brooke, enjoyed her time in the Mansion. She had a doll house in the recessed area under the staircase that was her "secret" place to play. She and her best friend could often be seen, legs dangling through stair railings, as they watched the grown-up parties going on downstairs. In the summer, when functions were held on the back lawn, they watched from the fire escape. She also used a golf cart to get around the grounds.

Their son, Bill, was 14 when their father was elected. He wasn’t fond of being taken to school by state troopers, and asked that the troopers not be uniformed and to be dropped off a block from the school. He was more embarrassed by the fishbowl existence than his little sister.

Brent, their oldest son was entering college the year his father was elected, so he missed most of the public scrutiny that his younger siblings experienced. He was, however, fond of dropping by the mansion to sample Liza Ashley’s famous chocolate chip cookies; but he pretty much avoided mansion life, for the most part.

Betty Bumpers enjoys gardening, flower arranging and sewing; but her time for doing those things is very limited these days. In addition to being the wife of a U.S. Senator, she is also the founder of Peace Links, a grassroots women’s organization designed to raise consciousness about the nuclear arms race; this is a full-time job which has taken her all over the world. The idea to begin the group came from questions her daughter began asking about nuclear war. So, in her usual take-charge fashion, Betty Bumpers went to work to see what she could do about raising awareness and, hopefully, preventing such a catastrophe from happening. As a result of her efforts, she has been presented with peace awards and honorary doctorates.

Betty Bumpers made a career out of being First Lady of Arkansas. She has made a tremendous contribution to our state, the nation and the world for a girl raised in a very small town in Arkansas. She is a Steel Magnolia of magnificent proportions, and we are very proud to call her our own!

Betty Bumpers Childhood Immunization Project Papers

Dale & Betty Bumpers Vaccine Research Center

NIH Opens Dale and Betty Bumpers Vaccine Research Center

Linked together, we are more powerful
than any of us could ever be alone.
We can change the world!

Information for this article from First Ladies of Arkansas: Women of Their Times
© 1989 Anne McMath
Special thanks to Elizabeth Jacoway Watson

Contributed by: Steel Magnolia