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| | Mourners pay tribute to Sid McMath
Wednesday, Oct 8, 2003 By Rob Moritz LITTLE ROCK - Arkansans paid final respects Tuesday to former Gov. Sid McMath when his closed casket draped in the American flag was displayed in the state Capitol's second-floor rotunda. "I will always remember Sid for his absolute, magnetic, positive spirit and the life that had its triumphs and adversities," said Ron Robinson of Little Rock, a neighbor of the former governor. "He demonstrated what class was all about." Hundreds filed by the closed coffin from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. The former governor died Saturday evening at his Little Rock home. He was 91. His funeral will be at 2 p.m. today at Pulaski Heights United Methodist Church in Little Rock. The burial with military honors will follow at Pinecrest Cemetery. Among those who walked through the rotunda Tuesday and paid their respects were Supreme Court Justice Ray Thornton, Appeals Court Judge Wendell Griffen, former Secretary of State Sharon Priest, former Gov. Jim Guy Tucker and several family members. "He was a great man in many ways," Tucker said. "But I think the thing that is the most important are the very large number of individuals for whom he was a role model and inspiration. He had integrity and courage and was willing to stand up for what was right even when it wasn't popular." McMath was a war hero, having fought in World War II and later reaching the rank of two-star general in the U.S. Marines. He also was a prosecutor and Arkansas' governor by age 40. Also paying his respects was 80-year-old R.B. Boyson of North Little Rock, a dentist who served in the U.S. Marines with McMath during battles in the South Pacific, including Guadalcanal. Boyson said he later served under McMath when they were in the Marine Reserves in Little Rock. "He was a fine man, no doubt about it," said Boyson. "I don't know much about his politics but he was a great" commanding officer. Priest said McMath was a good friend. "He was a wonderful man," she said. "He did a lot for this state." McMath's coffin was placed under a portrait of the former governor in the rotunda. The portrait, painted by Little Rock editorial cartoonist George Fisher, shows McMath carrying a white Panama hat, which he wore while campaigning for governor. McMath's son Sandy said the portrait was his father's favorite. Three other portraits of the former governor, one of him in his later years painted by his wife, one in his U.S. Marine uniform, and another painted while he was governor, flanked the coffin. A table displaying McMath's U.S. Marine Corps hat, sword and several medals, was next to the coffin. McMath, a former prosecutor in Hot Springs, won election to his first of two terms as governor in 1948. The year he left office, a commission was investigating allegations of scandals in the state highway department during the McMath administration. Although nothing ever directly linked McMath to any wrongdoing, he spent more that 50 years living down the allegations. In 1954, he made an unsuccessful attempt to oust Sen. John L. McClellan. Eight years later, he ran again for governor but lost to then-Gov. Orval E. Faubus. McMath is the second former Arkansas governor who has died this year. Frank White, who served one term beginning in 1981, died in May. |
