Obituaries : Served Six Terms as Governor : Michigan’s G. Mennen (Soapy) Williams

G. Mennen (Soapy) Williams, the bow-tie-wearing Democrat who served six terms as governor of Michigan, became chief justice of the state Supreme Court and proved one of the most popular politicians in Michigan’s history despite a severe state financial crisis, died Tuesday.

The colorful soap-fortune heir was 76 when he suffered a massive cerebral hemorrhage Monday night at his home in Grosse Pointe Farms and never regained consciousness. He was pronounced dead at St. John Hospital in Detroit, spokeswoman Dorothy Columbo said.

Williams’ wife, Nancy, and their three children were at the hospital at the time of his death, as were Supreme Court Justices Dennis W. Archer and Patricia Boyle, said Tom Farrell, spokesman for the state Supreme Court.

Passion for Bow Ties

A strange blend of the urbane and corny, Williams was a millionaire prep school and Ivy League product who had a passion for square dancing and gaudy, polka-dot bow ties.

He was a 1933 Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Princeton University, received his law degree from the University of Michigan and was married in 1937.

A naval officer during World War II, he served brief stints with the Michigan Office of Price Administration and the state Liquor Control Commission before making his bid for governor as a definite underdog in 1948.

Williams was an heir to the Mennen toiletries business, from which came the nickname “Soapy.”

Despite his silver-spoon background, Williams enjoyed strong labor support throughout his career, enabling him to win elections repeatedly in a state still in many respects Republican territory.

Williams’ key accomplishments during his 12 years as governor include laying the groundwork for what is viewed as one of the nation’s finest highway systems and linking the state’s peninsulas with Mackinac Bridge, which--when completed in the late 1950s--was the largest suspension bridge in the world.

Williams was Michigan’s governor from 1949-60 and a chief justice of the Michigan Supreme Court from 1983-86. He was forced to retire from the Supreme Court because of his age.

Williams then taught a class at the University of Detroit Law School and headed a leadership program at Oakland University.

He was the state’s longest-serving governor until Republican William Milliken, governor from 1969-83.

He lost only one election in his 50-year political career--the 1966 race for the U.S. Senate.

‘Payless Payday’

As governor, Williams presided over an economic crisis marked by a state “payless payday,” after the Republican-dominated state Senate refused to transfer needed funds.

In a December, 1986, interview, Williams told the Associated Press that it was while he was in law school that he decided to be a Democrat.

“I was tremendously impressed by Franklin Roosevelt and the New Deal,” Williams said. “I also had tried to work within the Republican framework, its so-called liberal side, and I didn’t see that held much promise for effective action.”

Williams said that when he became governor, Michigan had been hit hard by the Great Depression, especially the working people who fled to Detroit and its auto factories after Henry Ford came up with the $5 workday.

“I vowed I would do what I could to help the underdog,” Williams said.