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Created page with "{{Infobox person | name =Leona Anderson Troxell Dodd | birth_date=April 22, 1913 | birth_place=Johnston, Fulton County, New York, USA | death_date=July 26, 2003 (..."
{{Infobox person
| name =Leona Anderson Troxell Dodd
| birth_date=April 22, 1913
| birth_place=Johnston, Fulton County, [[New York]], USA
| death_date=July 26, 2003 (aged 90)
| death_place=Judsonia, White County, [[Arkansas]]
| resting_place=Little Rock National Cemetery
| party=Arkansas [[Republican Party|Republican]] National Committeewoman
| residence =Rose Bud, White County, Arkansas
|spouse=(1) Nolan Troxell (died 1971)<br>
(2) Russell Dodd
|children=No children
}}
'''Leona Anderson Troxell Dodd''', known politically as '''Leona Troxell''' (April 22, 1913 – July 26, 2003), was a [[New York]]-born [[politician]] who became a pioneer in the development of the [[Republican Party]] in her adopted state of [[Arkansas]]. She was president of the National Federation of Republican Women from 1963 to 1967, during which time she became involved in the [[Governor|gubernatorial]] campaigns of [[Winthrop Rockefeller]], originally from [[New York City]]. She was also a former [[Republican National Committee|Republican national committeewoman]]. For a time, she was director of the Arkansas Employment Security Division in the Rockefeller administration.
== Biography ==
=== Early life ===
Leona Troxell was born to Frank and Clara Anderson in Johnstown in Fulton County, New York.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.arkansas.gov/esd/About/Legacy/Directors/Troxell.htm|title=Arkansas Department of Workforce Services|website=www.arkansas.gov|access-date=2018-11-01}}</ref> She was the dean of women at Drake University in [[Des Moines]], [[Iowa]], before she married Nolan Troxell (1904–1971) and moved to [[rural]] Rose Bud in White County, north of the state capital of [[Little Rock]]
=== Political career ===
In 1968, when Rockefeller was re-elected to his second and last two-year term as governor, Troxell was the unsuccessful candidate for state treasurer. She was defeated by the [[Democratic Party|Democratic]] [[incumbent]] Nancy J. Hall (1904–1991). Troxell polled 218,804 votes (37.4 percent) to Hall's 365,540 (62.6 percent). Troxell won five of the seventy-five Arkansas counties: Searcy, Baxter, Benton, Carroll, and Washington, but she did not prevail in her own White County. Hall, the wife of the late Secretary of State C.G. "Crip" Hall, was first elected treasurer in 1962 and served until 1981. Nancy Hall was also the first woman ever elected to statewide constitutional office in Arkansas.
In 1974, Troxell ran for lieutenant governor on the Republican gubernatorial ticket headed by the more [[conservative]] [[Ken Coon]]. First of Cave City in Sharp County in northern Arkansas, whose work led to a landmark change in state [[libel]] law.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1983/11/19/obituaries/joseph-h-weston-publisher-of-an-arkansas-newspaper.html|title=Joseph H. Weston, Publisher of an Arkansas Newspaper|publisher=''[[The New York Times]]'', November 19, 1983|accessdate=May 11, 2010 | date=November 19, 1983}}</ref>
As the Republican nominee, Troxell pledged to bring "decorum" to the Arkansas State Senate, over which the lieutenant governor presides. However, she was handily defeated by the Democratic former state Attorney General Joe Purcell (1923–1987) of Benton in Saline County in a heavily Democratic year, Troxell received only 121,302 votes (23 percent) to Purcell's 406,040 (77 percent). She carried no counties in what turned out to have been her last venture on a ballot. Coon was defeated by David Hampton Pryor, but he ran some 65,000 votes ahead of ticket-mate Troxell. Purcell served as lieutenant governor until 1981. He ran in the primary in 1982 against then former Governor [[Bill Clinton]].
In 1981, Mrs. Troxell questioned the appointment of former Governor [[Orval E. Faubus]], a Democrat, as director of the scandal-plagued Arkansas Veterans's Affairs Department. The selection was made by Governor [[Frank D. White]], only the second Republican governor of Arkansas since [[Reconstruction]]. "... Obviously, I do not want to go back to the kind of regime we had when he was governor ... Believe me, that was machine politics at its worst," Mrs. Troxell said of the Faubus era (1955–1967). Among those defending the selection were former gubernatorial candidate [[Len Blaylock]] of Perry County, [[U.S. Representative]] [[John Paul Hammerschmidt]] of Harrison, and former state Representative]] [[Danny L. Patrick]]. These Republicans argued that Faubus was ideally suited for the particular position.
Troxell also questioned Governor White over the proposed [[Equal Rights Amendment]]. When White declined to include ERA in the agenda for a special legislative session in the fall of 1981, Troxell attempted to meet with White. "I asked if there was any opportunity for a group to see the governor, but his schedule was completely full," Troxell told the since defunct ''Arkansas Gazette.''
Mrs. Troxell was an active member of the Rose Bud First [[Baptist]] Church, having worked over the years with the youth, the [[choir]], and the Women's [[Missionary]] Union. She established the Nolan and Leona Troxell Perpetual Church Scholarship. In 1994, the Rose Bud congregation named its new church education building after her.
She was a past chairman of the Arkansas Heart Association and a member of the Order of the Eastern Star.
=== Death ===
Mrs. Troxell Dodd died in a nursing home in Judsonia, Arkansas. She was survived by two [[nephew]]s, Karl Gustafson of Boulder, [[Colorado]] and Dick Gustafson of Oneonta, New York. She was preceded in death by her parents, her first husband, her second husband, Russell Dodd, and a sister, Jeanette Gustafson (1919–1997). Services were held at the Rose Bud First Baptist Church. Interment was at the [[Little Rock National Cemetery]].
==References==
{{reflist}}
Other links:<br>
https://web.archive.org/web/20070929080834/http://www.olmstead.cc/dodd.htm.<br>
http://www.nfrw.org/statefederations/arkansas.htm.<br>
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GSln=Dodd&GScnty=152&GRid=16766075&.
<br>
http://www.arkansas.gov/treasury/history.html
<br>
''Arkansas Outlook,'' Republican Party newsletter, May 1974.
<br>
Arkansas Election Statistics, 1972 and 1974 (Little Rock: Secretary of State).
<br>
''Arkansas Gazette'', August 5, 1981; November 13, 1981.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Troxell, Leona}}
[[Category:Arkansas]]
[[Category:New York]]
[[Category:Iowa]]
[[Category:Women]]
[[Category:Educators]]
[[Category:Politicians]]
[[Category:Republicans]]
[[Category:Baptists]]
| name =Leona Anderson Troxell Dodd
| birth_date=April 22, 1913
| birth_place=Johnston, Fulton County, [[New York]], USA
| death_date=July 26, 2003 (aged 90)
| death_place=Judsonia, White County, [[Arkansas]]
| resting_place=Little Rock National Cemetery
| party=Arkansas [[Republican Party|Republican]] National Committeewoman
| residence =Rose Bud, White County, Arkansas
|spouse=(1) Nolan Troxell (died 1971)<br>
(2) Russell Dodd
|children=No children
}}
'''Leona Anderson Troxell Dodd''', known politically as '''Leona Troxell''' (April 22, 1913 – July 26, 2003), was a [[New York]]-born [[politician]] who became a pioneer in the development of the [[Republican Party]] in her adopted state of [[Arkansas]]. She was president of the National Federation of Republican Women from 1963 to 1967, during which time she became involved in the [[Governor|gubernatorial]] campaigns of [[Winthrop Rockefeller]], originally from [[New York City]]. She was also a former [[Republican National Committee|Republican national committeewoman]]. For a time, she was director of the Arkansas Employment Security Division in the Rockefeller administration.
== Biography ==
=== Early life ===
Leona Troxell was born to Frank and Clara Anderson in Johnstown in Fulton County, New York.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.arkansas.gov/esd/About/Legacy/Directors/Troxell.htm|title=Arkansas Department of Workforce Services|website=www.arkansas.gov|access-date=2018-11-01}}</ref> She was the dean of women at Drake University in [[Des Moines]], [[Iowa]], before she married Nolan Troxell (1904–1971) and moved to [[rural]] Rose Bud in White County, north of the state capital of [[Little Rock]]
=== Political career ===
In 1968, when Rockefeller was re-elected to his second and last two-year term as governor, Troxell was the unsuccessful candidate for state treasurer. She was defeated by the [[Democratic Party|Democratic]] [[incumbent]] Nancy J. Hall (1904–1991). Troxell polled 218,804 votes (37.4 percent) to Hall's 365,540 (62.6 percent). Troxell won five of the seventy-five Arkansas counties: Searcy, Baxter, Benton, Carroll, and Washington, but she did not prevail in her own White County. Hall, the wife of the late Secretary of State C.G. "Crip" Hall, was first elected treasurer in 1962 and served until 1981. Nancy Hall was also the first woman ever elected to statewide constitutional office in Arkansas.
In 1974, Troxell ran for lieutenant governor on the Republican gubernatorial ticket headed by the more [[conservative]] [[Ken Coon]]. First of Cave City in Sharp County in northern Arkansas, whose work led to a landmark change in state [[libel]] law.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1983/11/19/obituaries/joseph-h-weston-publisher-of-an-arkansas-newspaper.html|title=Joseph H. Weston, Publisher of an Arkansas Newspaper|publisher=''[[The New York Times]]'', November 19, 1983|accessdate=May 11, 2010 | date=November 19, 1983}}</ref>
As the Republican nominee, Troxell pledged to bring "decorum" to the Arkansas State Senate, over which the lieutenant governor presides. However, she was handily defeated by the Democratic former state Attorney General Joe Purcell (1923–1987) of Benton in Saline County in a heavily Democratic year, Troxell received only 121,302 votes (23 percent) to Purcell's 406,040 (77 percent). She carried no counties in what turned out to have been her last venture on a ballot. Coon was defeated by David Hampton Pryor, but he ran some 65,000 votes ahead of ticket-mate Troxell. Purcell served as lieutenant governor until 1981. He ran in the primary in 1982 against then former Governor [[Bill Clinton]].
In 1981, Mrs. Troxell questioned the appointment of former Governor [[Orval E. Faubus]], a Democrat, as director of the scandal-plagued Arkansas Veterans's Affairs Department. The selection was made by Governor [[Frank D. White]], only the second Republican governor of Arkansas since [[Reconstruction]]. "... Obviously, I do not want to go back to the kind of regime we had when he was governor ... Believe me, that was machine politics at its worst," Mrs. Troxell said of the Faubus era (1955–1967). Among those defending the selection were former gubernatorial candidate [[Len Blaylock]] of Perry County, [[U.S. Representative]] [[John Paul Hammerschmidt]] of Harrison, and former state Representative]] [[Danny L. Patrick]]. These Republicans argued that Faubus was ideally suited for the particular position.
Troxell also questioned Governor White over the proposed [[Equal Rights Amendment]]. When White declined to include ERA in the agenda for a special legislative session in the fall of 1981, Troxell attempted to meet with White. "I asked if there was any opportunity for a group to see the governor, but his schedule was completely full," Troxell told the since defunct ''Arkansas Gazette.''
Mrs. Troxell was an active member of the Rose Bud First [[Baptist]] Church, having worked over the years with the youth, the [[choir]], and the Women's [[Missionary]] Union. She established the Nolan and Leona Troxell Perpetual Church Scholarship. In 1994, the Rose Bud congregation named its new church education building after her.
She was a past chairman of the Arkansas Heart Association and a member of the Order of the Eastern Star.
=== Death ===
Mrs. Troxell Dodd died in a nursing home in Judsonia, Arkansas. She was survived by two [[nephew]]s, Karl Gustafson of Boulder, [[Colorado]] and Dick Gustafson of Oneonta, New York. She was preceded in death by her parents, her first husband, her second husband, Russell Dodd, and a sister, Jeanette Gustafson (1919–1997). Services were held at the Rose Bud First Baptist Church. Interment was at the [[Little Rock National Cemetery]].
==References==
{{reflist}}
Other links:<br>
https://web.archive.org/web/20070929080834/http://www.olmstead.cc/dodd.htm.<br>
http://www.nfrw.org/statefederations/arkansas.htm.<br>
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GSln=Dodd&GScnty=152&GRid=16766075&.
<br>
http://www.arkansas.gov/treasury/history.html
<br>
''Arkansas Outlook,'' Republican Party newsletter, May 1974.
<br>
Arkansas Election Statistics, 1972 and 1974 (Little Rock: Secretary of State).
<br>
''Arkansas Gazette'', August 5, 1981; November 13, 1981.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Troxell, Leona}}
[[Category:Arkansas]]
[[Category:New York]]
[[Category:Iowa]]
[[Category:Women]]
[[Category:Educators]]
[[Category:Politicians]]
[[Category:Republicans]]
[[Category:Baptists]]