Francis Cherry

Francis Adams Cherry (1908-1965) served as Democratic governor of Arkansas from 1953 to 1955.

Cherry was born in Fort Worth, Texas. He was a 1936 graduate of the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville School of Law. He worked briefly in Little Rock, then moved to Jonesboro where he became junior partner in the law firm of Marcus Feitz. During World War II he served as a commissioned lieutenant. He defeated several opponents, including the incumbent Sid McMath, to win the election for the Governor's Office in 1952.

He initiated a series of unpopular proposals to reduce welfare payments and reform the property tax. He also opened himself up to a charge of McCarthyism by alleging, not incorrectly, that his 1954 opponent in the governor's race Orval Faubus had been student body president at the leftist Commonwealth College in Mena, Arkansas.

Cherry is buried in Oaklawn Cemetery in Jonesboro, Arkansas.

References

Timothy P. Donovan, "Francis Adams Cherry," in The Governors of Arkansas, eds. Timothy P. Donovon and Willard B. Gatewood, Jr., 208-214 (Fayetteville: The University of Arkansas Press, 1981.