Oklahoma City — Henry Louis Bellmon, who in 1963 became Oklahoma’s first GOP governor since statehood and is known as the father of the state’s modern Republican party, died Tuesday. He was 88.
Bellmon, who also served two terms in the U.S. Senate, died shortly before 11 a.m. after a long battle with Parkinson’s disease, said Andrew Tevington, Bellmon’s former chief of staff and general counsel. Bellmon died at St. Mary’s Mercy Hospital in Enid, where he had been hospitalized since Sunday morning, he said.
Bellmon served two nonconsecutive terms as governor, one that began in 1963 and one that started in 1987. As the state’s first GOP governor, Bellmon was credited with making the party a viable force in state politics.
In 1967, he served as national chairman of the Nixon for President campaign. Bellmon then went on to win election to the U.S. Senate in 1968 and again in 1974.
“Henry Bellmon was a larger than life leader whose public service as a Marine, Governor and United States Senator has long been admired and respected by Oklahomans from all walks of life,” said Oklahoma Lt. Gov. Jari Askins.
“Plain speaking, unpretentious, and willing to stand by the courage of his convictions, Henry Bellmon made lasting contributions to our state and nation. My thoughts and prayers are with his family,” she said.
Bellmon began his political career at age 25, when he was elected to the Oklahoma House of Representatives.
After concluding his second term in the U.S. Senate, then-Gov. George Nigh, a Democrat, called upon Bellmon to be interim director of the Oklahoma Department of Human Services, which was undergoing restructuring.
In a statement, Nigh said that Bellmon “was the most decent and honorable public servant I ever knew.”
“I admire his service to this state and country and know like others this is a great loss for Oklahoma,” Nigh said.
“Henry Bellmon was a great American, a great Oklahoman and a great Republican,” issued Congressman Tom Cole in a statement. “Henry Bellmon was an Oklahoma political pioneer — we won’t see his like again.”
Bellmon continued to speak out on various issues, including his own party’s supply-side economic policies, which he told a 1982 U.S. Senate Budget Committee were hurting farmers.
“Supply side so far has meant less for the tax collector and more, much more, for the money lenders,” Bellmon said.
He served with the U.S. Marine Corps from 1942 to 1946, receiving the Silver Star for action on Saipan and the Legion of Merit for action on Iwo Jima.
Between his political stints, Bellmon taught at Oklahoma State University, where he was a Statesman in Residence, the University of Oklahoma, the University of Central Oklahoma and Oklahoma City University.
In November 1997, Republican politicians from all over the state honored Bellmon’s contributions.
“He had absolute integrity. Whatever he said you could rely on. He was a mentor and a guide to me,” then-Gov. Frank Keating said. “Henry knew that to be a successful Republican meant that you had to begin from a position of integrity.
Keating also said Bellmon was a humble leader in the mold of great American statesmen.
“Henry was quintessentially a humble human being,” he said. “To leave the governor’s office, to leave the Senate, to head a state cabinet department was total humility.”
Bellmon and his wife, Shirley, celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary in 1997. The couple raised three daughters while managing a successful farm.
“I haven’t thought much about giving people advice on marriage, but they should be tolerant of each other, and understanding,” Bellmon said in 1997 at his 50th wedding anniversary.
“You have to have freedom inside a marriage to pursue your own interests. Shirley always was good about letting me do things.”
After retirement, Bellmon spent most of his time farming his 2,500 acres near Billings in north-central Oklahoma and tended a herd of 200 cattle. Shirley Bellmon died on July 24, 2000, while vacationing in Massachusetts.
Bellmon is survived by his second wife, Eloise, three daughters and four grandchildren.
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