Wallace Townsend
| Wallace Townsend | |
|---|---|
| Republican National Committeeman from Arkansas | |
|
In office 1928–1961 |
|
| Succeeded by | Winthrop Rockefeller |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
August 20, 1882 DeWitt, Clinton County, Iowa, USA |
| Died | January 7, 1979 (aged 96) Little Rock, Pulaski County, Arkansas |
| Political party | Republican |
| Spouse(s) |
(1) Bess Voss Townsend (died 1958) |
| Children | Two daughters |
| Residence | Little Rock, Arkansas |
| Alma mater | William H. Bowen School of Law |
| Occupation | Attorney; Educator |
(1) Bess Voss Townsend (died 1958)
Wallace Townsend (August 20, 1882 – January 7, 1979) was an Iowa-born lawyer who was from 1928 to 1961 the Republican national committeeman from the U.S. state of Arkansas. When he left his party's national committee, he was succeeded by Winthrop Rockefeller, who was elected five years thereafter in 1966 as the state's first Republican governor since the Reconstruction era.
Townsend was born in DeWitt in Clinton County in easternmost Iowa, a son of John R. Townsend and the former Italia James. In 1894, Townsend moved with his family to Little Rock, where his brother, A. E. "Jack" Townsend, was the long-term assistant postmaster. In 1902, Wallace Townsend obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree from Hendrix College in Conway and became an educator for eight years. From 1906 to 1910, he was principal of Little Rock High School, in which capacity he obtained the first accreditation of the institution.
In 1906, Townsend received his LLB degree from the William H. Bowen School of Law of the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. In 1910, he began a legal practice chiefly concerned with revenue bonds and that same year vacated the principalship in Little Rock and ran unsuccessfully as the Republican nominee for Arkansas superintendent of public instruction. He became an integral part of the GOP legal counsel active in the Lily White faction, which sought to recruit white Conservative Democrats into the Republican Party, then previously the domain of the relatively few African-American voters registered in the state. In 1914, Townsend joined Augustus Caleb Remmel, chairman of the Pulaski County Republican organization, to take control of the state party for the Lily Whites. A. C. Remmel (1882-1920), known as "Gus" Remmel, was the father of later Republican figure Pratt C. Remmel, who was the mayor of Little Rock from 1951 to 1955, and ran in 1954 against Orval Faubus for governor.
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