LITTLE ROCK — Whether it was at the helm of Arkansas’ welfare department or as head of the state Republican Party, Len Blaylock had a knack for trimming waste and saving money, his daughter, Betty Freeze remembers.
It was a trait he picked up at an early age, growing up in an impoverished household in Little Rock during the Great Depression, she said.
“He could pinch a penny until it screamed,” Freeze said.
Blaylock, who also served as a U.S. marshal and mounted an unsuccessful gubernatorial campaign against Dale Bumpers in 1972, died of congestive heart failure early Sunday at a hospice in Little Rock. He was 93.
Republican Party Chairman Doyle Webb on Tuesday called Blaylock, who was appointed welfare commissioner by then-Gov. Winthrop Rockefeller in 1967, an “inspiration for all who have worked tirelessly to develop a two-party system in Arkansas.”
“He grew up in an Arkansas that was dominated by a one-party machine, Democrat machine, and he saw a glimpse of a new Arkansas with the arrival of Winthrop Rockefeller in the state, and he saw what Arkansas could be,” Webb said.
Blaylock, who served as a gunnery officer in Europe during World War II, grew frustrated with that machine after retiring from the Air Force in 1959 and moving with his wife, Melba, and children to the Perry County community of Nimrod, Freeze said.
Blaylock worked as a teacher and principal in Perry before running unsuccessfully as a Democrat against Democratic state Rep. Paul Van Dalsem in 1964.
Blaylock then switched to the Republican Party and went to work as a field representative for Rockefeller, who was then the national committeeman.
In a 1971 interview with the Arkansas Democrat Blaylock listed his top accomplishments at the Welfare Department, the forerunner of the Department of Human Services, as increasing benefits and improving medical care for poor people while working under a state Welfare Board that was “full of little plots and plans to embarrass me.”
R.D. Lemons, the department’s director of purchasing and property at the time,credited Blaylock with reducing waste and improving conditions for employees. He said Blaylock visited every office in the state to find out what was needed.
“Everything that he did was with the purpose of making it better for the welfare workers, ultimately making it better for the welfare recipients and trying to do it for the least cost for the taxpayers,” Lemons said.
Freeze said her father followed a similar ethic to the state GOP when he served as chairman in 1985-86 and helped get the party backon solid financial footing.
He was the sixth of seven children, and his father died when he was eight. To help provide for the family, Blaylock and his brothers caddied at the Little Rock Country Club.
Blaylock’s mother died when he was 17, and he dropped out of high school four times before finally graduating at age 20.
“Knowing what it is to do without and making do with just a little bit, he never really got over that,” Freeze said.
Blaylock resigned as welfare commissioner after Bumpers defeated Rockefeller in 1970.
It was at the urging of Rockefeller and others that he left a job with the U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare in Dallas in 1972 to challenge the popular Bumpers, Freeze said. She said her father later regretted the decision.
“I think my dad felt like he was sort of a sacrifice,” Freeze said. “It was not a pleasant memory for him at all.”
Blaylock had better memories of a time as a U.S. marshal for the Eastern District of Arkansas, she said. He was appointed by President Gerald Ford in 1975 and served until 1978. He was also an adviser to former Gov. Frank White and was named appointments secretary in 1980.
In retirement, Blaylock flew Cessna airplanes, raised cattle with his grandchildren and was a deacon at Nimrod Baptist Church, where he often led the songs and his wife played the piano.
A music lover, Blaylock was happy that his granddaughter, Hannah Blaylock, is the lead singer for the country music band Eden’s Edge, and his grandson, Wesley Blaylock, is the singer for the Christian rock band Deas Vail, Freeze said.
“I think that really was a source of joy to my dad,” she said.
Arkansas, Pages 13 on 03/28/2012