Woody Freeman
Encyclopedia
Elwood A. Freeman, known as Woody Freeman (born December 28, 1946), is a business
man in Jonesboro
, Arkansas
, who was the Republican
gubernatorial nominee in 1984. He lost 63-37 percent to the incumbent
Governor Bill Clinton
, the Democrat
who eight years later was elected President of the United States
. Freeman was the third of four Republicans who Clinton dispatched in his five successful races for governor.
Freeman is the son of Elwood A. Freeman (born 1918) and Mildred Hout Freeman (born 1919). The couple divorced, and in 1962, the senior Freeman married the former Elaine E. Stanfield (born 1920). Woody Freeman is married to the former Lynda Brown (born 1947).
Jonesboro School Board and was the body's president from 1978-1981. Freeman was appointed by Governor Frank D. White
to the Arkansas Board of Higher Education in 1981, serving until he resigned to run in 1984 for governor. He won the Republican nomination over Erwin Davis, an attorney from Fayetteville
. A political writer described both Freeman and Davis as "articulate and attractive young men who vigorously sought the nomination." Freeman received 13,030 votes (68.4 percent) to Davis’ 6,010 (31.6 percent) in a low-turnout primary.
As a Republican nominee, Freeman was a credible candidate when he challenged Clinton who was seeking his third and last two-year term in the office. Clinton claimed that if Freeman were elected the Arkansas legislature would scuttle certain education reforms approved in the fall of 1983.
In his autobiography
, My Life
, Clinton mentions Freeman once as "an appealing young businessman from Jonesboro." In an appearance in Little Rock
on November 3, 1984, President Ronald W. Reagan told a rally, "Please send Woody Freeman to the statehouse." Former United States Secretary of State
Henry A. Kissinger also campaigned for Freeman but seemed to have little of substance to offer the Arkansas candidate. Clinton prevailed with 554,561 votes to Freeman’s 331,987. President Reagan easily won Arkansas over Walter F. Mondale, and Democratic U.S. Senator David Pryor
defeated the determined bid of Republican U.S. Representative Edwin R. Bethune of the Little Rock-based district. When Clinton won again in 1986, by defeating former Governors Orval E. Faubus in the Democratic primary and Frank White in the general election, and in 1990, over the Republican Sheffield Nelson
, he was elected to four-year terms, the latter of which he served for only two years.
After his own campaign, Freeman continued to contribute to Republican candidates, including former U.S. Representative Rick Lazio
of New York
, the unsuccessful candidate against Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton
for the U.S. Senate in the 2000 general election
. In 2002, he donated to the failed effort by U.S. Senator Tim Hutchinson
to win reelection in Arkansas. In 1999, he contributed to Hutchinson’s brother, U.S. Representative Asa Hutchinson
, thereafter the unsuccessful Republican gubernatorial nominee in 2006.
s to upload obituaries to the National Obituary Archive with a single click of the mouse. The archive is the largest repository of obituaries and death records. The company also provides easy access to birth certificates. Freeman’s partners are Phil H. Hout and Jesse Stafford, both then of Jonesboro, and Peter Seale of Houston
, Texas
. Freeman once claimed that he started the company with a $3 checking account. The company was named "Arkansas Business of the Year" in 1992. By that time, company sales had increased tenfold.
Freeman has been an advocate of expanding business opportunities in Jonesboro. In 2006, he spoke in favor of allowing restaurant
s to serve liquor though Craighead County
is dry. Freeman said the rejuvenated downtown Jonesboro is “very impressive" for people bringing jobs to the area.
Business
A business is an organization engaged in the trade of goods, services, or both to consumers. Businesses are predominant in capitalist economies, where most of them are privately owned and administered to earn profit to increase the wealth of their owners. Businesses may also be not-for-profit...
man in Jonesboro
Jonesboro, Arkansas
Jonesboro is a city in and one of the two county seats of Craighead County, Arkansas, United States. According to the 2010 US Census, the population of the city was 67,263. A college town, Jonesboro is the largest city in northeastern Arkansas and the fifth most populous city in the state...
, Arkansas
Arkansas
Arkansas is a state located in the southern region of the United States. Its name is an Algonquian name of the Quapaw Indians. Arkansas shares borders with six states , and its eastern border is largely defined by the Mississippi River...
, who was the Republican
Republican Party (United States)
The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...
gubernatorial nominee in 1984. He lost 63-37 percent to the incumbent
Incumbent
The incumbent, in politics, is the existing holder of a political office. This term is usually used in reference to elections, in which races can often be defined as being between an incumbent and non-incumbent. For example, in the 2004 United States presidential election, George W...
Governor Bill Clinton
Bill Clinton
William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton is an American politician who served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Inaugurated at age 46, he was the third-youngest president. He took office at the end of the Cold War, and was the first president of the baby boomer generation...
, the Democrat
Democratic Party (United States)
The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...
who eight years later was elected President of the United States
President of the United States
The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....
. Freeman was the third of four Republicans who Clinton dispatched in his five successful races for governor.
Freeman is the son of Elwood A. Freeman (born 1918) and Mildred Hout Freeman (born 1919). The couple divorced, and in 1962, the senior Freeman married the former Elaine E. Stanfield (born 1920). Woody Freeman is married to the former Lynda Brown (born 1947).
Political career
Prior to the gubernatorial bid, Freeman served for eight years on the nonpartisanNonpartisan
In political science, nonpartisan denotes an election, event, organization or person in which there is no formally declared association with a political party affiliation....
Jonesboro School Board and was the body's president from 1978-1981. Freeman was appointed by Governor Frank D. White
Frank D. White
Frank Durward White was the 41st Governor of the U.S. state of Arkansas since Reconstruction. He served a single two-year term from 1981 to 1983. He is one of only two people to have defeated President Bill Clinton in an election. Frank Durward White (June 4, 1933 – May 21, 2003) was...
to the Arkansas Board of Higher Education in 1981, serving until he resigned to run in 1984 for governor. He won the Republican nomination over Erwin Davis, an attorney from Fayetteville
Fayetteville, Arkansas
Fayetteville is the county seat of Washington County, and the third largest city in Arkansas. The city is centrally located within the county and is home to the University of Arkansas. Fayetteville is also deep in the Boston Mountains, a subset of The Ozarks...
. A political writer described both Freeman and Davis as "articulate and attractive young men who vigorously sought the nomination." Freeman received 13,030 votes (68.4 percent) to Davis’ 6,010 (31.6 percent) in a low-turnout primary.
As a Republican nominee, Freeman was a credible candidate when he challenged Clinton who was seeking his third and last two-year term in the office. Clinton claimed that if Freeman were elected the Arkansas legislature would scuttle certain education reforms approved in the fall of 1983.
In his autobiography
Autobiography
An autobiography is a book about the life of a person, written by that person.-Origin of the term:...
, My Life
My Life (Bill Clinton autobiography)
My Life is a 2004 autobiography written by former President of the United States Bill Clinton, who left office on January 20, 2001. It was released on June 22, 2004. The book was published by the Knopf Publishing Group; the book sold in excess of 2,250,000 copies...
, Clinton mentions Freeman once as "an appealing young businessman from Jonesboro." In an appearance in Little Rock
Little Rock, Arkansas
Little Rock is the capital and the largest city of the U.S. state of Arkansas. The Metropolitan Statistical Area had a population of 699,757 people in the 2010 census...
on November 3, 1984, President Ronald W. Reagan told a rally, "Please send Woody Freeman to the statehouse." Former United States Secretary of State
United States Secretary of State
The United States Secretary of State is the head of the United States Department of State, concerned with foreign affairs. The Secretary is a member of the Cabinet and the highest-ranking cabinet secretary both in line of succession and order of precedence...
Henry A. Kissinger also campaigned for Freeman but seemed to have little of substance to offer the Arkansas candidate. Clinton prevailed with 554,561 votes to Freeman’s 331,987. President Reagan easily won Arkansas over Walter F. Mondale, and Democratic U.S. Senator David Pryor
David Pryor
David Hampton Pryor is a former Democratic member of the United States House of Representatives and United States Senator from the State of Arkansas. Pryor also served as 39th Governor of Arkansas from 1975 to 1979 and was a member of the Arkansas House of Representatives from 1960 to 1966...
defeated the determined bid of Republican U.S. Representative Edwin R. Bethune of the Little Rock-based district. When Clinton won again in 1986, by defeating former Governors Orval E. Faubus in the Democratic primary and Frank White in the general election, and in 1990, over the Republican Sheffield Nelson
Sheffield Nelson
Sheffield E. Nelson is a lawyer, businessman, and politician from Little Rock, Arkansas. Originally a Democrat, Nelson in 1990 ran for governor of Arkansas as a Republican against then governor and future U.S. President Bill Clinton and in 1994 against the Democratic Governor Jim Guy Tucker.Nelson...
, he was elected to four-year terms, the latter of which he served for only two years.
After his own campaign, Freeman continued to contribute to Republican candidates, including former U.S. Representative Rick Lazio
Rick Lazio
Enrico Anthony "Rick" Lazio is a former U.S. Representative from the state of New York. Lazio became well known nationally when he ran against Hillary Rodham Clinton for the U.S. Senate in New York's 2000 Senate election...
of New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
, the unsuccessful candidate against Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton
Hillary Rodham Clinton
Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton is the 67th United States Secretary of State, serving in the administration of President Barack Obama. She was a United States Senator for New York from 2001 to 2009. As the wife of the 42nd President of the United States, Bill Clinton, she was the First Lady of the...
for the U.S. Senate in the 2000 general election
General election
In a parliamentary political system, a general election is an election in which all or most members of a given political body are chosen. The term is usually used to refer to elections held for a nation's primary legislative body, as distinguished from by-elections and local elections.The term...
. In 2002, he donated to the failed effort by U.S. Senator Tim Hutchinson
Tim Hutchinson
Young Timothy Hutchinson, known as Tim Hutchinson is a Republican politician and former senator from the state of Arkansas.Hutchinson was born in Bentonville, Arkansas, and he graduated from Bob Jones University...
to win reelection in Arkansas. In 1999, he contributed to Hutchinson’s brother, U.S. Representative Asa Hutchinson
Asa Hutchinson
William Asa Hutchinson is a former U.S. Attorney for the Fort Smith-based Western District of Arkansas, U.S. Congressman from the Third District of Arkansas, Administrator of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and the first-ever Under Secretary for Border & Transportation Security at the U.S...
, thereafter the unsuccessful Republican gubernatorial nominee in 2006.
Business career
Just after his race for governor, Freeman co-founded Continental Computer Corporation in Jonesboro, the developer of software which allows funeral homeFuneral home
A funeral home, funeral parlor or mortuary, is a business that provides burial and funeral services for the deceased and their families. These services may include aprepared wake and funeral, and the provision of a chapel for the funeral....
s to upload obituaries to the National Obituary Archive with a single click of the mouse. The archive is the largest repository of obituaries and death records. The company also provides easy access to birth certificates. Freeman’s partners are Phil H. Hout and Jesse Stafford, both then of Jonesboro, and Peter Seale of Houston
Houston, Texas
Houston is the fourth-largest city in the United States, and the largest city in the state of Texas. According to the 2010 U.S. Census, the city had a population of 2.1 million people within an area of . Houston is the seat of Harris County and the economic center of , which is the ...
, Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
. Freeman once claimed that he started the company with a $3 checking account. The company was named "Arkansas Business of the Year" in 1992. By that time, company sales had increased tenfold.
Freeman has been an advocate of expanding business opportunities in Jonesboro. In 2006, he spoke in favor of allowing restaurant
Restaurant
A restaurant is an establishment which prepares and serves food and drink to customers in return for money. Meals are generally served and eaten on premises, but many restaurants also offer take-out and food delivery services...
s to serve liquor though Craighead County
Craighead County, Arkansas
Craighead County is a county located in the U.S. state of Arkansas. As of the 2010 census, the population was 96,443. It is included in the Jonesboro, Arkansas Metropolitan Statistical Area. Craighead County is Arkansas's 58th county, formed on February 19, 1859, and named for state Senator Thomas...
is dry. Freeman said the rejuvenated downtown Jonesboro is “very impressive" for people bringing jobs to the area.