Joe Edward Purcell (July 29, 1923 – March 5, 1987) was the Acting Governor of Arkansas for six days in 1979 as well as Arkansas Attorney General from 1967–1971 and the ninth Lieutenant Governor of Arkansas from 1975–1981.
Purcell was born in Warren, the seat of Bradley County, in southern Arkansas. He graduated from Little Rock Junior College and the University of Arkansas School of Law in Fayetteville. From 1962 to 1967, he served as the municipal judge in Benton in Saline County. He also served as prosecuting attorney in Benton prior to having been elected judge.
Purcell was elected lieutenant governor in 1974. He handily defeated the Rockefeller Republican Leona Troxell of Rose Bud in White County. He was reelected to the post in 1976 and 1978. He served as Acting Governor for six days in 1979, having filled the unexpired term of then senator-elect David Hampton Pryor of Camden.
Purcell was a candidate for governor in 1982, but lost the Democratic nomination in a runoff primary to Bill Clinton in 1982, receiving 46% to Clinton's 54%.
Purcell resided in Benton until his death at the age of sixty-three.
Purcell married the former Helen Hale from Prescott, Arkansas, and the couple had two daughters, Lynelle and Ede. He had three grandchildren: Brian Hogue, David Hogue, and Erin Hogue.
Famous quotes containing the word joe:
“While we were thus engaged in the twilight, we heard faintly, from far down the stream, what sounded like two strokes of a woodchopper’s axe, echoing dully through the grim solitude.... When we told Joe of this, he exclaimed, “By George, I’ll bet that was a moose! They make a noise like that.” These sounds affected us strangely, and by their very resemblance to a familiar one, where they probably had so different an origin, enhanced the impression of solitude and wildness.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)