Published: September 07, 2008 12:33 am            

David Boren’s biography set to be released on Statehood Day

The Handy Andy broom factory in Lindsay, Oklahoma, never had a customer like David L. Boren. No one had ever offered to buy their entire inventory.

The young Boren, campaigning for governor in the summer of 1974, had stumbled upon the theme of “sweeping out the old guard” by the Boren Broom Brigade. His cousin, Jim Boren, had carried a broom back on the plane from Washington, D.C., and suggested it as the campaign theme.

Boren was against such gimmicks, but he was running third in the polls behind a popular state senator and an incumbent governor so he’d give his cousin’s idea a try. It worked for the campaign to defeat the Pendergast machine that ran Kansas City politics for years.

The broom story and a world of other tidbits about Mr. Boren’s youth, his early campaigns, Senate career and decision to come to the University of Oklahoma are documented in a biography by Oklahoma City attorney and prolific author Bob Burke. It’s scheduled for release on Nov. 16, Oklahoma’s statehood day.

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The book begins with a private meeting in August of 1987 between Senator Boren and President Ronald Reagan. The White House was in the midst of a presidential crisis. His approval rating was tanking and trust with Congress was even lower.

The United States had been caught selling arms to Iran. The sale profits were being used to finance the Contras, a right-wing guerrilla organization engaged in open insurgency against the Sandinista government of Nicaragua.

Mr. Boren had written President Reagan a personal letter encouraging the president to be open and candid with the American people in telling what happened.

“Reagan became emotional as he drew Boren close in a “bear hug,” Burke writes. “Reagan told Boren, ‘I can’t tell you how much your letter meant to me. It convinced me that we can go on. We can accomplish things.’”

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The Boren ancestors came to America from Ireland in the early 18th century. They settled in North Carolina and later moved on to Kentucky, then Missouri and finally Texas. A West Texas drought in 1916 and 1917 brought David’s father, Lyle Boren, to Oklahoma. Legend has it he rode a stick horse behind his family’s covered wagon.

They picked cotton to buy food and water and were tenant farmers. Eventually, the family lived in Choctaw. Young Lyle sold a cow for $40 to finance his first year of college at East Central State in Ada.

He graduated, started teaching in Wolf, in Seminole County, and then unsuccessfully ran for Congress in 1934. He won two years later, starting a family tradition of service that has carried for three generations.

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Young David was born in Washington, D.C., in April of 1941, a troubling time in the nation’s capital. He spent time in Seminole and at the family’s apartment on Cathedral Avenue in Washington. Houseguests such as House Speaker Sam Rayburn would play with Boren. Trips to the White House to visit President Roosevelt were not uncommon.

After his father’s defeat, the Borens moved back to Seminole. David entered the first grade at Roosevelt School. He had to be pried out of the car on the first day, Burke writes.

Boren’s teachers remember him as the academic type from the get go. He dressed up, listened to others and conversed easily with adults. He loved to play school with Linda Sue Gipson, the first girl he ever kissed, according to the book.

Boren competed in the first desegregated debate tournament in the state against a team from Muskogee’s Manual High School. It ended in handshakes. He was also a member of the first All-State band to be integrated.

Before Boren began his junior year, his father took a job with the railroad association. They moved to Montgomery County, Maryland, where Boren was a champion debater, played in the band and was editor of the school newspaper.

Next week: He’s now a Yalie dating Cokie Boggs (Roberts) in the summers, then on to Oxford and finally the OU College of Law.

Andy Rieger366-3543editor@normantranscript.com

        

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