1888-1970
William Judson Holloway
Educator/Governor Oklahoma OK
Holloway was at home when informed that he had become governor of Oklahoma upon Gov. Henry S. Johnston’s removal from office on March 20, 1929. Calling for “an era of goodwill,” Holloway reassured Oklahomans who had lost faith in their government during weeks and months of the impeachment process.
Holloway was born December 15, 1888, in Arkadelphia, Arkansas, the only son of Stephen Lee Holloway, a Baptist minister, and Molly Horne Holloway. The future governor was educated at Ouachita College and upon graduation became school principal in Hugo, Oklahoma, elementary school. Holloway studied at the University of Chicago and received a law degree from Cumberland University in Lebanon, Tennessee, in 1914 and opened a law office in Hugo. He was elected Choctaw County prosecuting attorney in 1916.
On June 16, 1917, Holloway married another Hugo schoolteacher, Amy Arnold, of Texarkana, Arkansas. In 1920 he was elected to the Oklahoma Senate from Choctaw, McCurtain, and Pushmataha counties. In a second term he was chosen as president pro tempore.
In 1926 Holloway, a Democrat, was elected lieutenant governor. He served in Gov. Henry S. Johnston’s shadow until the governor’s battle with the legislature ended in his impeachment and removal from office. Holloway pushed legislation to improve the state highway commission and eliminated toll bridges and toll roads. During his term, Oklahoma’s child labor laws were expanded, a new mining code was adopted, the State Highway Commission was reorganized, and a runoff primary election system was established. Holloway was governor when the Great Depression struck the country and its severe impact on Oklahoma led to the out-migration of its citizens to escape “dust bowl” conditions.[1]
Holloway never sought public office again after leaving the Governor’s Mansion in January 1931. He established a successful law practice in Oklahoma City and served under three governors as Oklahoma’s representative on the Interstate Oil Compact Commission. His son, William J. Holloway, Jr., also became a lawyer and was appointed as a judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit by Pres. Lyndon B. Johnson in 1968. William J. Holloway died at age eighty-one on January 28, 1970, in Oklahoma City.[2]
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[1] National Governors Association, https://www.nga.org/governor/william-judson-holloway/
[2] Bob Burke, “The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture,” https://www.okhistory.org/publications/enc/entry?entry=HO017.