George Nigh

George Nigh

George Patterson Nigh (born June 9, 1927 in McAlester , Oklahoma ) is a former American politician . He was the 17th and 22nd  governors of the state of Oklahoma.

Life and Early Political Career

George Nigh, son of Wilbur and Irene Crockett Nigh, served in the US Navy from 1945 to 1946 . In 1951 he graduated from East Central University in Ada . He then worked as a public school teacher in his hometown of McAlester; at the same time he was from 1951 for the Democratic Party in the House of Representatives of Oklahoma . During this time he introduced a bill, as a result of which the song "Oklahoma", the title track from the musical of the same name , became the state anthem in 1953.

governor

In 1959, Nigh became Lieutenant Governor of Oklahoma. At the time he took office, he was 31 years old, the youngest politician who had held this post in the United States. When Senator Robert S. Kerr died in January 1963, the already two weeks before the end of his term of office resigned Governor J. Howard Edmondson , whereupon George Nigh succeeded him; the latter in turn immediately appointed his predecessor as Kerr's successor as Senator for his outstanding tenure. Meanwhile, Nigh only stayed in office for a short time before he was replaced by the previously elected Republican Henry Bellmon .

Under Bellmon's successor, Dewey F. Bartlett , George Nigh was again deputy governor in 1967; this he remained under David Hall and David L. Boren . In 1979 he was finally elected governor himself, taking up this office five days earlier than planned, as his predecessor Boren had meanwhile moved into the US Senate and he replaced it as deputy. When he was re-elected in 1982, Nigh won a majority in all of Oklahoma's 77 counties .

According to politics

From 1992 to 1997, George Nigh was President of the University of Central Oklahoma at Edmond . In 1990 he was inducted into the Oklahoma CareerTech Hall of Fame ; In 1992 he received the Jim Thorpe Lifetime Achievement Award . From November 2005 to 2006 he helped out as interim manager of the state agency for tourism and recreation.

Others

During his tenure as governor, George Nigh and his wife, Donna, made a guest appearance on NBC's Texas television series in August 1980 . They portrayed themselves and were greeted by actress Lisby Larson with the Oklahoma song.

Web links

• George Nigh in the National Governors Association (English)
• The governors of Oklahoma (English)
• George Nigh in nndb (English)