30 Facts About Osro Cobb

Osro Cobb was a Republican lawyer who worked to establish a two-party system in the US state of Arkansas.

Osro Cobb served a year on the Arkansas Supreme Court in 1966 as a temporary appointee of Democratic Governor Orval Faubus.

Osro Cobb's mother was the former Ida Sublette, a songwriter, playwright, poet, and the author of four books.

Osro Cobb instilled in me the belief that by doing my very best, almost any objective I might seek would be within my grasp.

At Henderson, Osro Cobb became an advocate of two-party competition as a potential solution to Arkansas' lagging national standing both politically and economically.

Osro Cobb graduated from Henderson in 1925 with two bachelor's degrees.

Osro Cobb organized a Republican club at Henderson, having received encouragement from some faculty members.

Osro Cobb became acquainted with Harmon L Remmel of Little Rock, the Republican national committeeman during much of the 1920s and arranged to have his older friend Remmel deliver the 1925 commencement address at Henderson.

In 1929, Osro Cobb was admitted to practice law before the Arkansas Supreme Court.

Osro Cobb practiced law privately at the same time, a practice that was then permitted and not considered a conflict of interest.

Osro Cobb met with Coolidge for more than an hour and found him not silent at all but talkative; it turned out that the president had wished that day to delay another appointment and used Osro Cobb to fill in missing time.

In 1932, Cobb became chairman of the Arkansas Republican Party, a position that he retained for twenty-three years until 1955, when he was succeeded by Ben C Henley of Harrison, Arkansas.

In 1936, Osro Cobb waged an active campaign for governor of Arkansas as a Republican against Democrat Carl Edward Bailey.

Osro Cobb stressed that he had been born in Arkansas, whereas the Missouri-born Bailey was a "northern man", a tactic which went nowhere.

In 1942, Osro Cobb joined the United States Army Air Corps, the forerunner of the Air Force at the rank of first lieutenant.

Osro Cobb was promoted to lieutenant colonel and was a judge advocate at Berry Field in Nashville, Tennessee, and thereafter at Rosecrans Field in St Joseph, Missouri.

Osro Cobb represented timber companies and worked to organize the interest group, the Arkansas Wood Products Association, forerunner of the Arkansas Forestry Association.

Osro Cobb became involved in the Smackover oil field in Union County.

In 1948, with the assistance of Sid McMath, the Democratic gubernatorial nominee, Osro Cobb helped to pass Initiated Act 3, which guarantees that a member of the minority party be in place at each precinct in Arkansas.

In 1952, Osro Cobb was challenged for the chairmanship at the state convention by Vern Tindall of Stuttgart but again prevailed.

Osro Cobb reached the conclusion that Faubus had exaggerated the likelihood that segregationists would engage in violence in a vain bid to block desegregation.

Late in 1965, Faubus asked Osro Cobb to fill a vacancy on the Arkansas Supreme Court after Justice Sam Robinson retired.

On January 11,1966, Osro Cobb took the position and served for the remainder of the year.

In 1964, Osro Cobb refused to support Republican Winthrop Rockefeller for governor and instead endorsed Faubus who won his sixth and final two-year term.

At the time, Osro Cobb said that Rockefeller, a businessman originally from New York, had ignored the traditional GOP base in Arkansas.

Osro Cobb showed me many courtesies, and I still thought [despite feelings in 1964] that he would make a good governor and could be elected on the Republican ticket.

Osro Cobb's service contributed greatly to the enormous benefits of two-party government in Arkansas.

In 1938, Osro Cobb married the oil heiress Audrey Umsted, whom he had met while he played golf.

Audrey Osro Cobb died in 1976; the next year he married his neighbor, Martha Jane Rebsamen, the widow of Raymond Rebsamen, a prominent Little Rock industrialist and philanthropist.

Osro Cobb's papers are located in Special Collections of the Torreyson Library at the University of Central Arkansas in Conway.