Betty Bumpers dies at 93

[LiberalArkie]

Various outlets are reporting that former Arkansas First Lady Betty Bumpers died today. She was 93.

Bumpers, a teacher and tireless advocate for childhood immunization and world peace, was the wife of former Arkansas governor and U.S. senator Dale Bumpers, who passed away in 2016.

Born Betty Lou Flanagan in 1925, she attended the Chicago Academy of Fine Art, the University of Iowa, and the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville, and worked as an elementary school teacher before becoming First Lady of Arkansas in 1971 (along with her husband, she played a key role in the desegregation of the Charleston Public School District in Western Arkansas following the Supreme Court's Brown v. Board of Education decision).

She used her position as First Lady to launch a groundbreaking campaign to have every child in the state immunized against childhood diseases. After Dale Bumpers won a U.S. Senate seat in 1974 and they moved to Washington, Betty Bumpers eventually teamed with U.S. First Lady Rosalynn Carter to expand the immunization program nationally.

More

https://www.arktimes.com/ArkansasBlog/archives/2018/11/23/betty-bumpers-dies-at-93

[Crutchez_CuiBono]

1. RIP Sister.

So many truly good people out there. Too bad they aren't held up more like the mean ones.

[TomSlick]

2. Special person.

[murielm99]

3. RIP, gracious lady.

[sigpooie]

4. A truly great woman and mother of arkansas.

She will be missed.