Lurleen Wallace

Lurleen Wallace was the 46th Governor of Alabama, serving from 1967 until her death in 1968. She was the first woman elected governor of Alabama and only the third woman to serve as governor of any U.S. state at the time of her inauguration. Her election was orchestrated by her husband, former Governor George Wallace, who was constitutionally barred from immediate succession, allowing him to continue wielding political influence. Her brief tenure was dominated by her husband's policies and overshadowed by her battle with cancer, which ultimately claimed her life while she was in office.

Early life and education

Lurleen Brigham Burns was born in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, to a family of modest means. She attended Tuscaloosa County High School before leaving to work at a Kresge dime store to help support her family during the Great Depression. She met George Wallace while he was a law student at the University of Alabama and they married in 1943, shortly before he shipped out for service in the United States Army Air Forces during World War II. During the war, she worked on the assembly line at a shipyard in Mobile, Alabama. Her early life was characterized by traditional domestic roles, raising their children while George Wallace began his political ascent in the Alabama House of Representatives and as a circuit judge in Barbour County, Alabama.

Political career

Lurleen Wallace had no independent political career prior to 1966. She served as First Lady of Alabama during her husband's first term as governor from 1963 to 1967, a period marked by his defiant stand against integration at the University of Alabama. When the Alabama Constitution prevented George Wallace from succeeding himself, his political allies devised a plan for Lurleen to run as a surrogate candidate. She won the 1966 Democratic primary against figures like Richmond Flowers and former Governor John Malcolm Patterson, and easily defeated the Republican nominee in the general election. Her campaign was a vehicle for her husband's continued segregationist platform and populist rhetoric.

Governorship

Lurleen Wallace was inaugurated on January 16, 1967, but her administration was widely understood to be controlled by her husband, who served as her de facto chief of staff and advisor. Key appointments and policy directions were dictated by George Wallace and his circle from the Alabama State Capitol. Her governorship continued her husband's focus on industrial development, opposition to the Civil Rights Movement, and defiance of federal mandates from the Lyndon B. Johnson administration and the U.S. Supreme Court. She officially dedicated the new Gulf State Park lodge and presided over the state during a period of significant social tension. However, her ability to govern was severely hampered by her declining health, as she had been diagnosed with uterine cancer two years prior to her election.

Personal life and death

Lurleen Wallace married George Wallace in 1943, and the couple had four children: Bobbi Jo, Peggy Sue, George Jr., and Janie Lee. She was known publicly as a reserved and gentle contrast to her combative husband. Her cancer, initially treated in 1965, recurred during the 1966 campaign, a fact concealed from the public. After entering office, her health deteriorated rapidly, requiring multiple surgeries and radiation therapy at the M.D. Anderson Hospital in Houston. She made her final public appearance at the Governor's Mansion on April 30, 1968. Lurleen Wallace died at St. Margaret's Hospital in Montgomery on May 7, 1968. She was succeeded by Lieutenant Governor Albert Brewer and was buried at Greenwood Cemetery.

Legacy

Lurleen Wallace's legacy is complex, intertwined with that of her husband and the politics of the Deep South during the 1960s. Her election demonstrated the potent machinery of the Wallace political organization. Statues honoring her stand on the grounds of the Alabama State Capitol and in the state park named for her near Demopolis, Alabama. Several institutions bear her name, including the Lurleen B. Wallace Community College in Andalusia and the Lurleen B. Wallace Developmental Center. Her death created a political opening that led to a bitter 1970 Democratic gubernatorial primary between Albert Brewer and George Wallace. As a historical figure, she is remembered both as a pioneering woman in Southern politics and as a tragic symbol of surrogate power in a tumultuous era.

Category:Governors of Alabama Category:First ladies of Alabama Category:1968 deaths