1. Maurice Lee "Footsie" Britt was an American military officer, businessman, and politician.
36 Facts About Maurice Britt
1. 2.
Maurice Britt played professional football for the Detroit Lions in 1941 before entering active service with the US Army during World War II, during which he was awarded the Medal of Honor.
3.
Rockefeller and Maurice Britt were the first Republicans to serve in the state of Arkansas's top two offices since Reconstruction.
4.
Maurice Britt was born Maurice Britt in Carlise in Lonoke County in central Arkansas, the son of Maurice Lee and Virgie Britt.
5.
Maurice Britt's family moved from Carlisle to nearby Lonoke when he was a boy.
6.
Maurice Britt received the nickname "Footsie" after winning a pair of shoes at a local fair as an adolescent; he had size-thirteen feet.
7.
Maurice Britt graduated as the valedictorian of Lonoke High School in 1937 and entered the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville, where he was supported by an athletic scholarship in both football and basketball.
8.
Maurice Britt received a Bachelor of Arts degree in journalism and an Army Reserve commission as a Second Lieutenant of Infantry through Army Reserve Officers' Training Corps upon graduation in 1941.
9.
Maurice Britt was a member of the Sigma Chi fraternity.
10.
Maurice Britt was selected in the 13th round of the 1941 NFL draft by the Detroit Lions, who used the 115th overall pick of the draft to take him.
11.
Maurice Britt was unable to complete the season due to the outbreak of World War II.
12.
Maurice Britt was assigned to Company L, 3rd Battalion, 30th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Infantry Division during training at Fort Lewis, Washington, Fort Ord, California, and Camp Pickett in Virginia.
13.
Maurice Britt received a partial deferment to entering active duty until after the 1941 football season.
14.
Maurice Britt initially joined the 3rd Division and participated in coastal defense on the West Coast of the United States.
15.
Maurice Britt continued to serve as a platoon leader during the amphibious invasion of Sicily on July 10,1943.
16.
On September 19,1943, Maurice Britt participated in the amphibious landings in Salerno, Italy during the invasion of Italy.
17.
Maurice Britt took command of Company L after his company commander was wounded and evacuated.
18.
Maurice Britt led his men in the river crossing on the Volturno River.
19.
Maurice Britt was part of the initial invasion at Anzio on January 22,1944.
20.
Maurice Britt directed mortar and artillery fire from close proximity over the next day, contributing to the destruction of 25 German machine gun positions.
21.
Maurice Britt received an honorable discharge on December 27,1944.
22.
Maurice Britt became the first recipient of the top four combat decorations for valor awarded to an infantryman by the US Army during World War II.
23.
Maurice Britt inspired and led a handful of his men in repelling a bitter counterattack by approximately 100 Germans against his company positions north of Mignano, Italy, the morning of 10 November 1943.
24.
Maurice Britt spent twenty years working at a furniture manufacturing company and then running the Beautyguard Manufacturing Company, a producer of aluminum building products.
25.
Maurice Britt was re-elected in 1968 but did not seek a third term in 1970, having deferred to his friend and Little Rock neighbor, Former House Speaker Sterling R Cockrill, a Democrat-turned-Republican, who ran unsuccessfully on Winthrop Rockefeller's losing Republican ticket that year.
26.
Maurice Britt was a lifelong Arkansas Republican, having been active in his state's Young Republicans in college.
27.
Neal Sox Johnson, the first paid executive director of the Arkansas GOP, said that he believed Rockefeller should have stepped down in 1970, and Maurice Britt should have been the gubernatorial nominee.
28.
Maurice Britt served in that capacity from 1971 to 1985.
29.
In 1986, Maurice Britt came out of political retirement to seek the Republican gubernatorial nomination.
30.
Maurice Britt polled only 3,116 votes to 13,831 ballots for former Governor Frank D White.
31.
Maurice Britt was past state chairman of the Crippled Children's Hospital, Easter Seals, and the Federal Executive Association.
32.
Maurice Britt was a member of the Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame and received the National Collegiate Athletic Association Sports Achievement Award.
33.
Maurice Britt was one of two lieutenant governors in state history to lie in state in the State Capitol Rotunda, the other being Winthrop Paul Rockefeller, the son of Governor Winthrop Rockefeller.
34.
An Army Sergeant stood at the head of the casket throughout the six hours that Maurice Britt lay in state.
35.
Services were held in the Calvary Baptist Church of Little Rock, where Maurice Britt was a member.
36.
Maurice Britt was a cousin of internationally known actress Dorothy Lamour.