Jim Sheets
James Lee "Jim" Sheets | |
---|---|
Arkansas State Representative for Benton County | |
In office January 1, 1967 – December 31, 1968 | |
Succeeded by | Preston Bynum |
Personal details | |
Born | Arkansas City, Cowley County Kansas, U.S. | March 29, 1931
Died | March 1, 2020 (aged 88) |
Political party | Republican |
Spouse | Martha Hamlin Sheets (married 1954) |
Children | Four adopted children: Kimberly S. Norton |
Residence(s) | Bella Vista, Benton County, Arkansas |
Alma mater | Enid High School John Brown University |
Occupation | Educator Businessman Kiwanis International executive director |
Military service | |
Branch/service | United States Army |
Years of service | 1955-1958 |
James Lee Sheets (March 29, 1931 – March 1, 2020), known as Jim Sheets, was a businessman from Bella Vista, Arkansas who was a former member of the Arkansas House of Representatives in the Republican Party. From 1967 to 1968, Sheets represented Benton County for a single term in the lower legislative chamber.[1]
Sheets was the first member of the Republican Party in the 20th century sent to the legislature from Benton County in the far northwestern portion of the state. In time, Benton County became the GOP’s banner county in Arkansas.[2] Sheets did not seek reelection because of the time required away from his employment as public relations director of his alma mater, the Christian-affiliated John Brown University in Siloam Springs, Arkansas.[3] At the time, evangelicals had not yet organized politically to become a vital part of the Republican voter base; with many still active in the Democratic Party.
Background
Sheets was born in
After having received his Bachelor of Arts degree in Bible and English in 1953, Sheets immediately joined the John Brown University staff as manager of the campus radio station. While attending John Brown University, he had met his future wife, the former Martha Hamlin, a native of Disney in Mayes County in northeastern Oklahoma. The couple married in 1954 and adopted four children.[5]
From 1955 to 1958, Sheets served in the United States Army, partly under a secret clearance of the former Atomic Energy Commission at the Oakland Naval Supply Station in Oakland, California.[3] After his military duties, Sheets returned to John Brown University 1958 as director of public relations and student recruitment, a position that he maintained until 1969. The John Brown University enrollment in 1958 was only 250 students, but before Sheets left the position, the number was nearing 800.[6]
Political activities
Relationship with Rockefeller
Sheets met
Unlike Nowotny, who considered Rockefeller's drinking to have been serious in his later years, Sheets said that it appeared to him that reports of excessive liquor may have been exaggerated. In 1973, Sheets was among the mourners at Winthrop Rockefeller's funeral on Petit Jean Mountain,[3] where he met Nelson Rockefeller, who the next year would begin a short tenure as Vice President of the United States.
Challenging Kelly Bryant
Upon leaving John Brown University in 1969, Sheets took the position of full-time executive director of the Siloam Springs
Sheets recalls that the last pre-election poll that he had seen showed the race competitive, but the situation changed quickly when
In waging a campaign against Kelly Bryant,
Managing the Ford campaign
By the mid-1970s, Sheets had left the chamber of commerce position and was engaged in
Kiwanis International
In 1953, Sheets joined
In 1982, Sheets left Siloam Springs to become executive director of the Kiwanis International Foundation, based in
Retired in Benton County
Thereafter, Sheets and his wife returned to Benton County and settled in Bella Vista. The couple attends the Village Baptist Church, a
Reflecting on his life, Sheets remarks: "I've loved everything I've done. I attribute it to the Lord’s blessing and his leading me through my life."[6]
References
- ^ "James Lee Sheets". Westfield chapel. Retrieved 8 January 2021.
- gubernatorial general election.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j Statement of James Lee Sheets, Bella Vista, Arkansas, June 2009.
- ^ Jim Sheets had a sister, Jenta D. Strombeck (1928-2007), a missionary who spent her last years in Tahlequah in Cherokee County in eastern Oklahoma.
- ^ The Sheets children are Kimberly Norton (born 1958) of Laurinburg, the seat of Scotland County in southern North Carolina; Mark R. Sheets (born 1961) of Rogers in Benton County; Kevin James Sheets (born 1981) of Bella Vista, and Aaron Sheets (born 1983) of Fayetteville, Arkansas.
- ^ a b c "Sheets: Life Work Is Result of the Lord's Blessings". jbu.edu. Retrieved September 2, 2013.
- Danny L. Patrick of Madison County.
- ^ Arkansas Secretary of State, Primary election returns, 1970.
- ^ Arkansas Secretary of State, General election returns, November 5, 1970.
- ^ Arkansas election returns, November 5, 1970.
- ^ Kelly Bryant died in 1975 early in his seventh two-year term as secretary of state and is interred at Memory Gardens Cemetery south of Hope.
- David Hampton Pryor for the 1972 Democratic senatorial nomination, McClellan then easily turned aside Republican Wayne H. Babbitt, a North Little Rock veterinarian, even though the Nixon-Agnew ticket was easily carrying Arkansas that year, the first Republican ticket to have done so since Ulysses S. Grant.
- ^ Jack Bass and Walter DeVries, The Transformation of Southern Politics, page 104.
- ^ Arkansas election returns, November 4, 1976.