Thinking back on Henry Bellmon--a real Republican

Oklahoma's first Republican governor, and later Senator, Henry Bellmon, died five years ago this past week. He was on my mind as I've visited and written about his homestead, now Turtle Rock Farm, near Billings.

Here's a version of what I wrote five years ago for The Oklahoma Gazette.

A real Republican

By Dr. Terry M. Clark

“He had the courage to be honest.”
That was Henry Bellmon, remembered by the irascible Ben Blackstock, former executive director of the Oklahoma Press Association.
Bellmon, elected the first Republican governor of Oklahoma in 1962, died last week at age 88, leaving a legacy of independence and integrity. Heralded as a father to the GOP in Oklahoma, his leadership transformed Oklahoma into a two-party state, reaching its pinnacle this decade when Republicans gained control of the legislature.
I first heard about Bellmon from the “Ring the Bell for Bellmon” signs as a freshman at the conservative Oklahoma Christian  College, coming here from New Mexico. As then a member of the Young Republicans and a disciple of Goldwater (I still know he was right), I was delighted when Bellmon won.
It might be easy for folks who didn’t know him well to have failed to appreciate Henry Bellmon’s greatness. Ask his contemporaries about him, and their anecdotes could fill books. You’d find that his greatness came not from being a politician or a Republican, but from his character and intelligence.
If any one item embodied Bellmon’s style, it was the title of his weekly newspaper column, “Plainly Speaking.” There wasn’t anything fancy about Bellmon. Didn’t need to be for the wheat farmer and U.S. Marine combat veteran from Billings.
Blackstock and Don Ferrell, former publisher of the Lincoln County News in Chandler who worked with Bellmon in several jobs, know him better than most.
“He worked hard. He figured everyone else should too,” Ferrell said, recalling the long hours. In the last year of Bellmon’s term as U.S. Senator, Ferrell was press secretary and had to be at work by 7 a.m. in Washington, and couldn’t leave until it was 5 p.m. Oklahoma time…”to serve the people of Oklahoma.”
You never heard the terms “liberal” or “conservative” bandied about by Bellmon. Ferrell said he wanted the “best ideas.” That independence was his trademark on two controversial issues—the Panama Canal, and HB 1017.
When the rabidly emotional vote came up on the Panama Canal Treaty, Bellmon was the swing vote. Despite huge pressure from Oklahoma, he knew the canal was indefensible. Ferrell was in the office the day President Carter called. Bellmon wouldn’t answer, because he was going to make up his own mind. He came home to "Benedict Bellmon” billboards.
Because he wasn’t an ideologue, he consistently had more problems with his own party in state politics.
“Republicans gnashed their teeth at him,” said Blackstock, especially on the education reform bill 1017. Bellmon couldn’t get but a few Republicans to support it, but worked with the Democratic legislature to overhaul the public education system. It’s hard to imagine how much worse shape Oklahoma’s education system would be in without Bellmon’s leadership.
Ferrell said Bellmon would be pleased with the Republicans coming to power, but didn’t talk about its current religious right slant. Blackstock said someone asked Bellmon about the party’s “drift” back in January.
“All he did was shake his head—and it wasn’t up or down,” Blackstock said.
Looking back over 48 years of friendship, Ferrell said simply, “He remade the state.”
Don’t call Bellmon a “maverick,” because that Texas term for unbranded cattle was profaned by Palin’s fakery last year. It’s become a cliché. Bellmon was no cliché. We need a new term to describe his kind of politician.
 It’d be an honor to be described as… “a Bellmon.”
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Today's P.S. Please oh please give us more politicians like Bellmon, no matter what party they represent.