Rockefeller's
fourth son, Winthrop, was born in 1912. He attended
Yale but, unlike his elder brothers, who earned honors
degrees at college, Winthrop dropped out before graduating
and went to work as a roustabout in the Texas oil fields.
Although the Rockefeller family was desperately attempting
to dissociate its public image from that of the oil
companies, ne became a junior executive at Socony-Vacuum
Oil (of which the Rockefeller family owned the largest
single share). In World War II, he
sought out a combat assignment in the Pacific and after
being wounded, emerged as a decorated war hero.
Winthrop also proved a maverick
in his marital arrangements. Rather than marrying upward
into society, like the rest of the family, he married
Barbara "Bo Bo" Sears the beautiful daughter of an impovished
farmer who the press had a field day describing as a "Cinderella."
After sufficiently embarrassing the family, he divorced
her.
At the age of 41, he left the
eastern base of the family and moved to Arkansas, buying
a sizeable portion of the state. His 50,000-acre cattle
ranch, Winrock Farms, was not only used by him to produce
beef but as a venue for holding seminars on the future
of Arkansas and modernizing the South. He also served
as chairman of the Arkansas Industrial Development Commission.
Gradually, he established a base
for himself and the Rockefeller family in politics in
Arkansas, and the southern wing of the Republican party.
In 1966, he was elected governor of Arkansas, and he was
reelected to another two-year term in 1968. Win, as he
called himself in Arkansas, died of cancer on February
22, 1973, and was buried in Morrilton, Arkansas.
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