* Ellis Arnall; Former Georgia Governor Led College, Prison Changes

Ellis Arnall, 85, the former Georgia governor who during his four-year tenure in the 1940s brought sweeping changes to that state’s colleges and abolished prison chain gangs. As state attorney general, Arnall had opposed Gov. Eugene Talmadge’s attempt to purge state universities of integration advocates and used the issue to help oust Talmadge in a landslide victory in 1942. Then 35, he was dubbed “the boy governor.” During the next four years he ended the state’s harsh system of prison chain gangs and abolished the poll tax used to keep poor blacks from voting. Arnall also had vowed to stop political meddling in the state’s college system. During his term, the General Assembly removed the governor from the Board of Regents and staggered other members’ terms so no governor could pack the board with his appointees. Arnall, a Democrat, also made history in 1946 as part of the “three governors” controversy. Barred by law from running for a second consecutive term, he was in his final days as governor in November, 1946, when Talmadge was again elected. But Talmadge died in December before taking office. Hundreds of Talmadge supporters, fearing for his health, had written in the name of his son, Herman Talmadge. The state Legislature in January, 1947, recognized the younger Talmadge as governor. But Arnall, blasting Herman Talmadge as “the pretender” and accusing him of a “banana republic coup,” would surrender the office only to Lt. Gov.-elect Melvin E. Thompson. When Talmadge loyalists occupied the governor’s office and the executive mansion, Arnall set up shop as governor-in-exile in a downtown Atlanta office building. In March, 1947, the state Supreme Court ruled that Thompson was governor and he served until the young Talmadge won a special election in 1948. In Atlanta on Sunday after a series of strokes.