Ray Thornton
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Raymond Hoyt (Ray) Thornton, Jr. is a former United States Congressman from Arkansas. Thornton was born July 16, 1928 in Conway, Arkansas. He earned a degree in political science from Yale University before receiving a Juris Doctor from the University of Arkansass. He served in the United States Navy during the Korean War, eventually earning the rank of lieutenant.
Thornton served as a prominent lawyer after returning from Korea. After election as Arkansas Attorney General in 1970, he successfully ran as a Democrat for Congress in 1972, and he served three terms in the United States House of Representatives until 1979. He served as a member of the Judiciary Committee considering Articles of Impeachment against President Nixon, and was included in the group of three southern Democrats and four moderate Republicans who drafted the articles adopted by the Committee. Thornton decided not to run for a fourth term, instead attempting to run for a seat in the Senate. In a heated Democratic primary, Thornton narrowly lost to David Pryor, who then went on to easily win the seat.
After his defeat in the Senate race, Thornton became involved in education, serving first as the president of Arkansas State University and later the University of Arkansas. In 1991, Thornton made the somewhat surprising decision to run for Congress from another District. His former popularity had not faded, and he easily beat his opponent. He once again left Congress after three terms, retiring in 1997.
Thornton recently served as a member of the Arkansas Supreme Court. He was a justice from 1997 to 2005. After retiring from the court, he bacame the first public service fellow for the William Bowen school of law at the University of Arkansas in Little Rock.
[edit] External links
http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=T000243
