Hot Springs author highlights life of Sen. McClellan

LITTLE ROCK — Editor’s note: A portion of this story which ran in the Feb. 16 Tri-Lakes Edition was inadvertently left out because of a production error. We are reprinting the story in its entirety.

HOT SPRINGS - For a historian, finding an overlooked and untold story of personal tragedy and national power with regional ties is like finding a diamond in Arkansas - it’s not impossible, but it takes a lot of hard work and some luck, and could carry a big reward.

That is the case for Sherry Laymon of Hot Springs. Her latest book, Fearless, is a biography of John McClellan, a Democrat who represented Arkansas in the U.S. House of Representatives for four years and in the U.S. Senate from 1942 to 1977.

The book may be the first on McClellan. Compared to his colleague Sen. J. William Fulbright, D-Ark., whose work on education and opposition to the Vietnam War have inspired multiple books, McClellan is somewhat forgotten.

“One of my professors at Arkansas State [University in Jonesboro] said that with my interest in politics, I should look into Sen. McClellan, and almost nothing had been written about him,” Laymon said.

The former high school teacher holds degrees in history and political science, yet she spent many years teaching mathematics.

“I always wanted to teach history, but coaches always seem to get those jobs,” Laymon said. “I got certified to teach math to get a job.”

She returned to college to earn a doctorate in heritage studies from Arkansas State, and there she would find a new role as a historian and writer.

“My parents always loved current events, and when my father was reading the paper, he was not to be disturbed,” said Layman, who grew up in Heber Springs. “Like my folks, I’ve always been interested in politics. My son, Donald Laymon, is a justice of the peace for Garland County.”

John McClellan was born in Sheridan in 1896 and moved to Malvern after serving in World War I.

“He always referred to Malvern as his hometown,” Laymon said.

In her book, she calls the senator cynical about life but never bitter, although his life was filled with tragedies. His mother died soon after he was born, his first marriage ended in a divorce, his second wife died with spinal meningitis in 1935, and a son also died of meningitis during World War II. Mc-Clellan lost another son in an automobile accident in 1949, and a third son was killed in a plane crash in 1958.

“He found his work to be a welcome alleviation from the trials that tormented him,” Layman said in the introduction to Fearless.

When first elected to Congress, McClellan focused on the uncontrolled annual flooding that plagued Arkansas’ agricultural economy. He created river-control projects that not only held back floods but opened the Arkansas River to more commercial traffic.

But McClellan was most famous as an investigator. Laymon said he served for 18 years as chairman of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. During those years, the subcommittee took part in some of the most famous government hearings in American history.

McClellan was a participant of the famous Army-McCarthy Hearings and led a Democratic walkout of the subcommittee in protest of Sen. Joseph McCarthy’s conduct in those hearings, she said.

“McCarthy accused people of being a communist, if they opposed him in any way,” Laymon said, “but he never seemed to have any evidence.”

Under McClellan’s leadership, the subcommittee conducted hearings investigating organized-crime activities across America. The young Sen. John F. Kennedy was on the subcommittee, and his brother Robert Kennedy was its chief counsel.

“McClellan let them take the spotlight,” Laymon said. “He put the Kennedys on the political map.”

Laymon also contends that McClellan’s structure for investigations had a major influence in the Watergate Hearings, which looked into the re-election campaign of President Richard Nixon and played a role in Nixon’s resignation only a year after McClellan had turned over the chairmanship of the subcommittee.

Research for Laymon’s book was based on McClellan’s papers, which are housed at Ouachita Baptist University in Arkadelphia.

Laymon said she spent years going through the more than 1,300 cubic feet of papers, audio tapes and memorabilia in the collection.

“I also did about 100 interviews with family, friends, staff members of McClellan and some of his political opponents,” Layman said. “I also read about 1,200 to 1,500 newspaper articles. Actually, I stopped counting when I hit 1,000.”

The author also got to read the beginning of a memoir the senator had been writing when he died in 1977.

“It was about 100, handwritten pages, but it gave me some insights of his early life,” Laymon said.

She admits McClellan has become a hero of hers.

“He did more for the people of Arkansas than anyone in history,” Laymon said. “Before I begin writing, I have to lookand see if it is worth my time. This was a story of importance that was worth 5 1/2 years of my life.”

The author’s doctoral dissertation was also published as a book, and Laymon is now working on a biography of Blue Hothouse, a member of the Cherokee Nation in Stilwell, Okla.

Staff writer Wayne Bryan can be reached at (501) 244-4460 or wbryan@arkansasonline.com.

Tri-Lakes, Pages 57 on 02/23/2012

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