FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Former Senator Dale Bumpers, a country lawyer who grew up during the Depression in Charleston, Arkansas and went on to become a leading figure in the U.S. Senate, will read from his witty memoir, "The Best Lawyer in as One-Lawyer Town," at 3 p.m. Friday, September 5 in Giffels Auditorium. Afterward, he will sign copies of his book, which will be available for purchase, from 4 to 5 p.m. in Old Main 210. The public is invited to both the reading and the reception.

In his memoir, Bumpers recalls life in the 1930s and 1940s in Charleston, where his father ran the hardware store and the funeral home. Bumpers made extra money picking cotton, peas, and potatoes, and at 15, started working at a grocery store and began dating his future wife.

"I smelled like a goat barn from cleaning the meat box, and Betty’s devotion got tested every Saturday night," he recalls.

He left college to serve in the Marine Corps during World War II, but returned to Northwestern Law School on the GI Bill. Broke after graduating, he returned to Charleston, took over the family hardware business, and become the town’s only lawyer. From there his career eventually took off, leading to two terms as Governor of Arkansas and a distinguished career in the U.S. Senate.

While Governor, Bumpers reorganized state government and trimmed the number of state agencies from 69 to 13. He also doubled the number of state parks, started the state Kindergarten Program, and launched an initiative that doubled the number of doctors trained at Arkansas’ only medical school.

After joining the Senate in 1974, Bumpers served as chair of the Agricultural Appropriations Subcommittee of the Senate Appropriations Committee from 1988 through 1994, securing more than $80 million in matching funds for facilities and programs that directly benefit Arkansas. Some programs and facilities supported through these funds at the U of A include the Center of Excellence for Poultry Science, the National Center for Agricultural Law Research and Information, the Center for Alternative Pest Control, the High Density Electronics Center, and the National Center for Resource Innovation-Southwest.

Bumpers fought for a balanced budget long before it became a publicized national issue. He led the successful battle to cancel the $12 billion Superconducting Super Collider and was the top ranking Democrat on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee and the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Agriculture. In April 1996 the Board of Trustees renamed the UA College of Agriculture the Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences.

In the spring of 1999, Bumpers served as Distinguished Professor of Policy at the University of Arkansas, offering nine lectures in the Dale Bumpers Distinguished Lectureship Series.

The reading is being sponsored by the Diane D. Blair Center of Southern Politics and Society in the J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences. Center Director Todd Shields said, "Not only is Senator Bumpers a gifted politician, but reading his memoir, readers will discover he is also a talented literary humorist. His stories have much to tell us about Southern culture and society."