Senate Concurrent Resolution 528

A CONCURRENT RESOLUTION TO MEMORIALIZE THE INFLUENTIAL LIFE AND CAREER OF MISSISSIPPI POLITICAL PIONEER AND LONGTIME CHAIRMAN OF THE MISSISSIPPI REPUBLICAN PARTY, CLARKE THOMAS REED OF GREENVILLE, MISSISSIPPI, AND EXTENDING THE SINCEREST CONDOLENCES OF THE LEGISLATURE ON HIS PASSING.

WHEREAS, it is with sadness that we extend the sincerest condolences of the Legislature on the passing of Clarke Thomas Reed; and

WHEREAS, Clarke T. Reed, businessman, Mississippi civic leader, and a key architect of post-World War II Southern politics passed away on December 8, 2024, at his home in Greenville, Mississippi. He was 96; and

WHEREAS, longtime Chairman of the Mississippi Republican Party and informal power broker whose reach extended to the highest levels of national and state government, "Clarke Reed was not only present at the creation of a Republican South, he was one of its creators" recalled historian Jon Meacham; and

WHEREAS, "When Clarke got involved in Mississippi politics, it was a one-party state controlled by conservative Democrats," recalled Curtis Wilkie, a Mississippian who covered national politics for The Boston Globe and became a professor of journalism at the University of Mississippi. "Clarke was good friends with Hodding Carter III, a young Greenville newspaperman and ardent Democrat. They worked quietly together to encourage a two-party system"; and

WHEREAS, born in Alliance, Ohio, on August 4, 1928, Clarke Thomas Reed was the son of Lyman and Kathryn Reynolds Reed. Raised in Caruthersville, Missouri, from the age of six months, Reed was educated in local public schools before attending the Columbia Military Academy in Middle Tennessee, graduating in 1946. Fascinated by flight, one of his great regrets was being too young to fly combat missions in World War II. He joined the Air Force ROTC at the University of Missouri, where he earned a degree in economics in 1950; and

WHEREAS, Reed moved to Greenville, in the Mississippi Delta, where he became, in the words of The New York Times, "one of the ablest businessmen in the South." With a boarding-school classmate, Barthell Joseph, he founded the firm of Reed-Joseph International, an innovative agricultural equipment business that also pioneered the American use of Belgian deterrence technology to keep predatory and dangerous birds away from farms and airports-an enterprise Reed brought to the United States after reading about the business in Belgium and then flying to Europe to buy the company; and

WHEREAS, in 1957 he married Julia Brooks, known as Judy, a native of Nashville and the child of the Belle Meade family. The couple had three children: the writer Julia Evans Reed (1960-2020); Reynolds Crews Reed (1968-2019); and Clarke Thomas Reed, Jr., who, with Mrs. Reed, survives his father. Reed is also survived by granddaughters Brooks Henke (Bryan) and Evans Reed; nephew Brooks Corzine (Frannie); and two great grandchildren. The family wishes to acknowledge with deep gratitude Frank Liger, a faithful employee of forty years, and also Tara Stewart for the past four years; and

WHEREAS, the Reeds' house on Bayou Road in Greenville became a kind of conservative salon, a stopping-off point for visiting politicians and journalists; and

WHEREAS, Reed loved history, politics, the Presbyterian Church, Doe's steaks, the telephone, lunches at Greenville's Jim's Café, good whiskey, National Review, Mississippi wildlife-he was an ardent conservationist-a well-cut suit, and the market philosophy of Adam Smith; and

WHEREAS, in many ways he willed the Mississippi GOP into being, helping to deliver a unified Southern vote for Richard Nixon over Nelson Rockefeller of New York in 1968-an achievement Nixon rewarded by reportedly directing aides to "clear it with Clarke" when matters of Southern politics and patronage came up; and

WHEREAS, Reed's most notable hour upon the national stage came in 1976, the year Ronald Reagan challenged the incumbent President Gerald R. Ford for the Republican presidential nomination. It was a closely fought contest, and the Mississippi delegation, led by Reed, was in the balance as the GOP convention met in Kansas City. Heavily courted by the White House-the Reeds were among the guests at the Fords' state dinner for Queen Elizabeth II in the bicentennial celebrations leading up to the convention. Reed chose to support the president rather than the more conservative Reagan, a move that was among the factors that enabled Ford to prevail; and

WHEREAS, he was friends with Mississippi's first Republican Governor since Reconstruction, Kirk Fordice, who was elected in 1991. Fordice had served on the state GOP committee with Clarke. He kept trying to build the party and elect Republicans, starting in 1968 when there was virtually none in office through the Reagan years, through the Bush presidents, and on to Donald Trump. He saw the GOP in Mississippi go from virtually no elected offices to majorities at every level. He persisted right to the end, ever the optimist; and

WHEREAS, "President, senators, congressmen, and governors depended on this political pioneer for counsel and leadership," Karl Rove said. "He had a broad smile, a twinkle in his eye and a talent for friendship. He made politics not only consequential but interesting and fun. The light that brightened many a political backroom and convention hall is gone."

WHEREAS, Clark Reed's life honored both the Republican Party and this great state that he loved and served:

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE SENATE OF THE STATE OF MISSISSIPPI, THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES CONCURRING THEREIN, That we do hereby memorialize the influential life and career of Mississippi political pioneer and longtime Chairman of the Mississippi Republican Party, Clarke Thomas Reed of Greenville, Mississippi, and extend the sincerest condolences of the Legislature on his passing and commend his service to his nation and his state.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, That this resolution be presented to the surviving family of Clarke Thomas Reed, forwarded to the President of the United States, the Governor of the State of Mississippi and to members of Mississippi's Congressional delegation and be made available to the Capitol Press Corps.