Wally Barron Story Archives - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

January 15, 2012: Former Governor Hulett Smith Dies in Arizona

Former Governor Hulett Smith died in Arizona on January 15, 2012, at age 93. Born in Beckley, Smith was surrounded by business and politics during his youth. His father, Joe L. Smith, was a newspaper publisher, bank president, mayor of Beckley, state senator, congressman, and state Democratic Party chairman.

During the 1950s, Hulett Smith rose through the Democratic Party ranks but lost a primary campaign for governor against fellow Democrat Wally Barron in 1960. However, Governor Barron appointed Smith to head the new Department of Commerce, which promoted economic development and tourism. Smith was particularly proud of his department’s support for traditional arts and crafts.

Smith was elected governor in 1964. During his term, the legislature abolished the death penalty, passed new human rights legislation, increased teacher pay, and launched a three-year school improvement program. Smith also pushed for what was considered the strongest strip mining regulations in the country at the time. He believed conservation and recreation would become cornerstones of the state’s future.

After leaving office, Hulett Smith returned to Beckley and remained active in private business and civic matters for the rest of his life.

August 30, 1968: Wally Barron Acquitted of Federal Charges

On August 30, 1968, Wally Barron was acquitted of federal charges stemming from alleged money kickbacks and rigged state contracts during the time he was governor. Several of Barron’s associates weren’t so fortunate. His road commissioner, Burl Sawyers; Deputy State Road Commissioner, Vincent J. Johnkoski; Finance and Administration Commissioner Truman Gore; longtime Barron friend Bonn Brown of Elkins; and Clarksburg auto dealer Fred Schroath were all convicted in the kickback scheme.

But the former governor didn’t escape his legal problems for long. It was soon rumored that Barron and his wife, Opal, had bribed the jury foreman—the lone jury holdout for acquitting Barron. In 1971, a federal jury indicted both Barrons for bribery, claiming the former first lady had passed $25,000 in a brown paper bag to the jury foreman’s wife.

Wally Barron pleaded guilty to a new indictment of conspiracy, bribery, and obstruction of justice in exchange for the charges being dropped against his wife. He was sentenced to 25 years in prison and served four. He died in 2002 at age 90. Opal Barron died in 2010 at age 95.

March 22, 1922: Physician Mildred Mitchell-Bateman Born

Physician Mildred Mitchell-Bateman was born in Georgia on March 22, 1922. Her career in West Virginia began in 1947, when she became a staff physician at Lakin State Hospital in Mason County. Lakin was the state hospital for African-American mental patients.

Mitchell-Bateman left Lakin to establish her own practice but returned in 1955 and became the hospital’s superintendent three years later.

In 1960, she was promoted to supervisor of professional services for the state Department of Mental Health. Two years later, Governor Wally Barron appointed Mitchell-Bateman director of the department, making her the first black woman in West Virginia to hold a high-level state administrative position. She served in that post for 15 years.

In 1973, she became vice president of the American Psychiatric Association and served on the Presidential Commission on Mental Health, which developed the Mental Health Systems Act of 1980. After leaving public service, she chaired the Marshall University Medical School’s Department of Psychiatry and was later clinical director of Huntington State Hospital, which was renamed in her honor in 1999.

Mildred Mitchell-Bateman died in Charleston in 2012 at age 89.