On September 13th, 2003, Governor Sidney McMath got his hands on the very first advance copy of his memoir, Promises Kept. That day, as he held his copy, Arkansas beat Texas 38-28 and at the end of the game he turned to his son Phillip and said “This is a good day for me. My book is published and we beat Texas.”

On October 3rd, a gala event was held at the Historic Arkansas Museum in Little Rock to kick off the publication of his memoir and the “If All Arkansas Read the Same Book” campaign, sponsored by the University of Arkansas Press and the Arkansas Center for the Book at the Arkansas State Library, and joined by a host of Arkansas’s museums, institutions, schools, and bookstores.

Though failing in health, Governor McMath was able to make it to the event and speak to those gathered to celebrate his life of public service and his legacy in the state of Arkansas.

Sidney McMath died in his Little Rock home 24 hours later, in the evening of October 4th at the age of 91.

The University of Arkansas Press and the Arkansas Center for the Book moved forward on all of the events to come. Various family members of the late Governor spoke at the events, and David Pryor was the featured speaker at the Fayetteville event on October 21st.

As David Pryor says in the foreword to this memoir, Promises Kept is “a story told in his words of a unique life’s journey from the piney hills of South Arkansas to the epic battles he fought during World War II, coupled with the many other human encounters of the courtroom and the marbled corridors of the State Capitol.”

“As prosecuting attorney and then governor, Sid McMath was a courageous and progressive reformer who served with distinction. In addition to being the patriarch of the living Arkansas governors, he is a wonderful man and a special friend.”

—Bill Clinton, former governor of Arkansas and former U.S. president

“Sid McMath never bought into the arguments about government being too big or too small. To him, the debate should be about whether Constitutional guarantees were being upheld, and all the citizens—rich, poor, and those in between—were enjoying those precious rights.”

—Dale Bumpers, former governor and U.S. senator from Arkansas, author of The Best Lawyer in a One-Lawyer Town (Random House, 2000)

“A great man in Arkansas died late [October 4th], perhaps the greatest of his era—and of a few others. Sid McMath took his stand for racial decency and the rule of law when both became anathema in these latitudes—and a sure ticket to electoral defeat. When principle was at stake, Sid McMath knew no middle ground.”

—Arkansas Democrat Gazette

“Sid McMath has been a significant regional and national figure for decades as a citizen, soldier, lawyer, and politician. His fascinating memoir serves to remind us of the American ideals that inspired his generation and his life provides an example to which later generations can aspire.”

—Judge Morris Arnold, United States Circuit Judge for the Eighth Circuit and author of The Rumble of a Distant Drum: The Quapaws and Old World Newcomers, 1673–1804 (Arkansas, 2000)