Changes

In 1953, Sheets joined Kiwanis International; in 1965, he served a year as governor of the Missouri-Arkansas District during the golden anniversary of the organization. After he made a Kiwanis presentation to Democratic Governor [[Orval Faubus]], Sheets encountered Faubus thereafter on several occasions while Faubus was peddling his scrapbook memoirs, ''Down from the Hills.'' “I had no problems with Faubus. He was amicable. Many of the things he did were what the people of Arkansas then wanted," Sheets recalls.<ref name=statement/>  

In 1953, Sheets joined Kiwanis International; in 1965, he served a year as governor of the Missouri-Arkansas District during the golden anniversary of the organization. After he made a Kiwanis presentation to Democratic Governor Orval Eugene Faubus (1910-1994), Sheets encountered Faubus thereafter on several occasions while Faubus was peddling his scrapbook memoirs, ''Down from the Hills.'' “I had no problems with Faubus. He was amicable. Many of the things he did were what the people of Arkansas then wanted," Sheets recalls.<ref name=statement/>  

   

   

===Relationship with Rockefeller===

===Relationship with Rockefeller===

Sheets met Winthrop Rockefeller for the first time when both were seeking office in 1966, he for the state House and Rockefeller as the first of the post-Faubus era governors and the first Republican in the position since [[Reconstruction]]. Sheets recalls having excellent personal relations with Rockefeller though, like colleague George E. Nowotny of Fort Smith, he disagreed with Rockefeller on certain issues. In the 1967 legislative session, Sheets introduced a revised death penalty bill, but Rockefeller opposed [[capital punishment]], a position at odds with most Arkansans in both parties. According to Sheets, Rockefeller told him that their disagreement on the death penalty would not affect their personal and political association.  Sheets said that he was contacted at the time by [[J. Edgar Hoover]], director of the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation]], who presented "talking points," a term not yet coined, that the death penalty is a deterrent to murder because it causes some miscreants to think twice about the taking of life if they know that their own existence would be jeopardized.<ref name=statement/>

Sheets met Winthrop Rockefeller (1912-1973) for the first time when both were seeking office in 1966, he for the state House and Rockefeller as the first of the post-Faubus era governors and the first Republican in the position since [[Reconstruction]]. Sheets recalls having excellent personal relations with Rockefeller though, like colleague George E. Nowotny of Fort Smith, he disagreed with Rockefeller on certain issues. In the 1967 legislative session, Sheets introduced a revised death penalty bill, but Rockefeller opposed [[capital punishment]], a position at odds with most Arkansans in both parties. According to Sheets, Rockefeller told him that their disagreement on the death penalty would not affect their personal and political association.  Sheets said that he was contacted at the time by [[J. Edgar Hoover]], director of the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation]], who presented "talking points," a term not yet coined, that the death penalty is a deterrent to murder because it causes some miscreants to think twice about the taking of life if they know that their own existence would be jeopardized.<ref name=statement/>

   

   

By the mid-1970s, Sheets had left the chamber of commerce position and was engaged in real estate in Siloam Springs. He was an alternate delegate to the 1976 Republican National Convention that met in [[Kansas City]], Missouri, to nominate the ticket of [[Gerald Ford]], and [[Robert Dole]], narrowly preferred by the delegates over the rival slate of [[Ronald Reagan]] and Richard S. Schweiker,  then a U.S. senator from [[Pennsylvania]]. Dole took the second spot with Ford as Nelson Rockefeller had earlier withdrawn from contention. Sheets was the Arkansas state campaign for Ford-Dole, with his counterpart for [[Jimmy Carter]] and [[Walter Mondale]]  having been Bill Clinton, who ran unopposed that year for the office of Arkansas attorney general. Although Sheets visited most of the counties in the campaign, Ford polled only 35 percent of the vote in Arkansas, with the Republican strength confined to its traditional stronghold, the northwest quadrant of the state.<ref>Arkansas election returns, November 4, 1976</ref>

By the mid-1970s, Sheets had left the chamber of commerce position and was engaged in real estate in Siloam Springs. He was an alternate delegate to the 1976 Republican National Convention that met in [[Kansas City]], Missouri, to nominate the ticket of [[Gerald Ford]], and [[Robert Dole]], narrowly preferred by the delegates over the rival slate of [[Ronald Reagan]] and Richard S. Schweiker,  then a U.S. senator from [[Pennsylvania]]. Dole took the second spot with Ford as Nelson Rockefeller had earlier withdrawn from contention. Sheets was the Arkansas state campaign for Ford-Dole, with his counterpart for [[Jimmy Carter]] and [[Walter Mondale]]  having been Bill Clinton, who ran unopposed that year for the office of Arkansas attorney general. Although Sheets visited most of the counties in the campaign, Ford polled only 35 percent of the vote in Arkansas, with the Republican strength confined to its traditional stronghold, the northwest quadrant of the state.<ref>Arkansas election returns, November 4, 1976</ref>

==Kiwanis International==

==Kiwanis International==