James Allen Rhodes was an American Republican politician who served as Governor of Ohio from 1963 to 1971 and again from 1975 to 1983.
29 Facts About Jim Rhodes
2.
Jim Rhodes is tied for the sixth-longest gubernatorial tenure in post-Constitutional US history at 5,840 days.
3.
Jim Rhodes served as Mayor of Columbus from 1944 to 1952 and Ohio State Auditor from 1953 to 1963.
4.
On May 3,1970, Jim Rhodes sent National Guard troops onto the Kent State University campus at the request of Kent, Ohio mayor LeRoy Satrom after the ROTC building was burned down by unknown arsonists the previous night.
5.
Jim Rhodes was born in Coalton, Ohio, to James and Susan Howe Jim Rhodes, who were of Welsh descent.
6.
When Jim Rhodes was nine, his father died, and the family moved to north Springfield where Jim Rhodes graduated from Springfield High School where he played on the football team.
7.
Subsequently, the family moved again, this time to Columbus, because Jim Rhodes earned a modest basketball scholarship to Ohio State University.
8.
Jim Rhodes's Place has been described as a place where one could buy anything, from doughnuts and hamburgers to stag film, or place bets on numbers games.
9.
In 1934, Jim Rhodes began to use his position as a local businessman to climb up the Columbus political ladder, starting on a ward committee.
10.
In 1937, Jim Rhodes won his first elected office as a member of the Columbus Board of Education.
11.
Jim Rhodes was then twice elected as Columbus city auditor in 1939 and 1941.
12.
Jim Rhodes told these communities that if they wanted water, they would have to submit to assimilation into Columbus.
13.
Jim Rhodes's campaign centered on "jobs and progress," and in speeches Jim Rhodes routinely claimed that an increase in jobs would lead to a decrease in everything from crime and divorce, to mental illness.
14.
Jim Rhodes made DiSalle's tax increases, such as the gas tax, a prominent part of his campaign.
15.
Jim Rhodes weathered a minor scandal when Democratic State Chairman alleged that Jim Rhodes diverted and borrowed a total of $54,000 from his campaign funds.
16.
Jim Rhodes served two terms as governor, and he was a "favorite son" Presidential candidate who controlled the Ohio delegation to the Republican National Conventions in 1964 and 1968, before retiring in 1971.
17.
Jim Rhodes ran for the US Senate in 1970 and narrowly lost, to US Representative Robert Taft Jr.
18.
Jim Rhodes oversaw the last two pre-Furman executions in Ohio, which were both in early 1963, before Ohio resumed executions in 1999.
19.
Since the Ohio Constitution limits the governor to two four-year terms, when Jim Rhodes initially filed to run again in 1974, his petitions were refused by the Secretary of State.
20.
Jim Rhodes sued, and the Ohio Supreme Court ruled that the limitation was on consecutive terms, thus freeing him to return to office by narrowly defeating incumbent John Gilligan in an upset in the 1974 election.
21.
Jim Rhodes served two more terms before retiring again in 1983.
22.
Jim Rhodes co-authored stories of historical fiction with Dean Jauchius, including The Trial of Mary Todd Lincoln, The Court-Martial of Oliver Hazard Perry and Johnny Shiloh, a novel of the Civil War.
23.
The last was adapted to a 1963 television movie by Walt Disney, called Johnny Shiloh, for which Jim Rhodes received writer's credit.
24.
From 1941 to her death in 1987, Jim Rhodes was married to Helen Rawlins.
25.
In 1995, Jim Rhodes suffered a stroke, resulting in him needing to use a wheelchair.
26.
Jim Rhodes was hospitalized due to pneumonia in December 2000 and January 2001.
27.
On March 4,2001, Jim Rhodes died at Ohio State University Medical Center in Columbus of heart issues.
28.
Jim Rhodes is interred at Green Lawn Cemetery, Columbus, Ohio.
29.
Jim Rhodes won a second term, defeating Frazier Reams Jr.