Harlan Holleman

Infobox Officeholder
name = Harlan Harmon "Bo" Holleman


image_size =
caption =
birth_date = birth date|1927|1|23
birth_place = Hickory Ridge, Cross County, Arkansas, USA
death_date =death date and age|1982|3|12|1927|1|23|
death_place =Wynne, Cross County, Arkansas
occupation = Businessman; Farmer
office=Chairman of the Arkansas Republican Party
term_start=December 6, 1980
term_end=March 12, 1982
preceded=A. Lynn Lowe
succeeded=Bob Cohee
residence= flagicon|USA Wynne, Arkansas
religion=Methodist
spouse= Emaline Moore Holleman
children=David Allen Holleman
Nancy Moretta Holleman
footnotes=(1) Holleman's attempts to rebuild the Arkansas Republican Party during the administration of Governor Frank D. White were cut short by death from cancer.

(2) Holleman's 1976 candidacy for the United States House of Representatives proved futile in a heavily Democratic district.

Harlan Harmon "Bo" Holleman (January 23, 1927—March 12, 1982) was a farmer and seed merchant from Wynne, the seat of Cross County in eastern Arkansas, and a pioneer in the development of the modern Republican Party in his home state. He was the Arkansas state GOP chairman from December 6, 1980, until his death some sixteen months later. Earlier he was an unsuccessful candidate for the Arkansas House of Representatives (1968) and the United States House of Representatives (1976).

Holleman was born to farmer Herman Holleman and wife, Moretta, in Hickory Ridge in Cross County. His mother died when he was a boy, and his father thereafter married the former Faye Couch (1905-1991) of Parkin in Cross County. In 1943, Holleman graduated at the age of sixteen from Hickory Ridge High School and trained thereafter at Texas A&M University in College Station and Texas Tech University in Lubbock in preparation for entering the United States Army Air Corps, later the Air Force. His military service took him to Okinawa. After World War II, he studied briefly at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville. In 1947, he married the former Emaline Moore, and the couple had two children, David Allen Holleman of Wynne and Nancy Moretta Holleman of San Andreas, California.

Holleman began farming in 1950, with convert|320|acre|km2|1 of land. He thereafter expanded his holdings to more than 2,500 acres (10 km²). He grew soybeans, rice, and wheat. In 1955, he launched Holleman Seed Service Company, Inc., in Cross County. During the administration of U.S. President Richard M. Nixon Holleman was the Southeast Regional Director of the Agricultural Stabilization and Conservation Service and director of Oilseeds and Special Crops Division in the United States Department of Agriculture.

When Nixon was first elected President, Holleman lost a bid for the Arkansas House. Eight years later in 1976, when Jimmy Carter unseated President Gerald R. Ford, Jr., and proved particularly strong in Arkansas, Holleman lost in a bid to oust Democratic U.S. Representative William Vollie "Bill" Alexander, Jr. of Osceola in Mississippi County. In the heavily Democratic First Congressional District, Alexander secured his fifth term by defeating Holleman, 116,217 (68.9 percent) to 52,562 (31.1 percent). Holleman's showing was nearly identical to the 31.3 percent that Republican Guy M. Newcomb (born ca. 1928), also of Osceola, had received in 1968, when Alexander won his first race for Congress. Ford, as the House minority leader, had come into Arkansas to campaign for Newcomb. Mrs. Emaline Holleman said years later that party leaders determined that neither Newcomb nor her husband could have surpassed one-third of the vote considering the solid Democratic tradition of the First District. Alexander was subsequently unseated in the Democratic primary by his former aide and future U.S. Senator Blanche Lambert Lincoln.

In 1978, Arkansas party leaders encouraged Holleman to challenge U.S. Senator David Hampton Pryor, who was seeking a second term, but Holleman declined to seek office again.

In February 1981, in a guest column in the former "Arkansas Gazette" (since "Arkansas Democrat Gazette"), Holleman set forth his vision of worthy goals for the Arkansas GOP. First, he proposed at least one Republican county committee member be stationed at each voting precinct by 1982. Secondly, Holleman, a former Arkansas GOP finance chairman, suggested a stronger financial base, which had deteriorated since the death in 1973 of its benefactor, former Governor Winthrop Rockefeller. Thirdly, Holleman said that the GOP should seek to attract more minority voters, who largely support Democrats. At the time of his death, Holleman was recruiting candidates to oppose Democratic U.S. Representatives Bill Alexander and Beryl Franklin Anthony, Jr., of El Dorado, the seat of Columbia County in south Arkansas.

Holleman contracted a rapid form of lung cancer and underwent unsuccessful chemotherapy. On his death, then Governor Frank D. White, a Republican, requested that flags at the state capitol be flown at half-staff in Holleman's memory. "I am deeply grieved by the passing of Harlan "Bo" Holleman, who not only was the chairman of the Arkansas Republican Party, but was an outstanding citizen of our state," White said.

In addition to his wife and children, Holleman was survived by his stepmother, Faye Holleman of Wynne; three grandchildren, Nicole T. Sloan of Jonesboro, Arkansas, Beaux Jordan Linton of Paris, Tennessee, and Cade Allen Holleman, a student in Seoul, South Korea, and four sisters.

Services were held at the First United Methodist Church in Wynne. Interment was in Lewis Cemetery in Hickory Ridge.

Holleman was a supporter of the Institute of Politics and Government in Little Rock. The annual Harlan H. Holleman Political Science Scholarship was established in his honor in 1984 and remains active.

References

"State Chairman of GOP Since 1980 Dies at 55", "Arkansas Gazette", March 13, 1982

"Arkansas Election Statistics", 1976 (Little Rock; Secretary of State)

"Arkansas Gazette", February 1981

http://ssdi.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/ssdi.cgi

http://www.sos.arkansas.gov/corps/search_corps.php?DETAIL=130037&corp_type_id=4&corp_name=&agent_search=&agent_city=&agent_state=AR&filing_number=&cmd=

http://www.nalusda.gov/speccoll/collect/history/s09list.htm

http://www.nwaonline.net/articles/2007/01/11/news/010307ararkvisits.txt (Article on Gerald Ford's support for Guy Newcomb in 1968)