Maurice Britt | |
|---|---|
 Britt in uniform | |
| 11th Lieutenant Governor of Arkansas | |
| In office January 10, 1967 – January 12, 1971 | |
| Governor | Winthrop Rockefeller |
| Preceded by | Nathan Green Gordon |
| Succeeded by | Bob C. Riley |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Maurice Lee Britt (1919-06-29)June 29, 1919 Carlisle, Arkansas, U.S. |
| Died | November 26, 1995(1995-11-26) (aged 76) Little Rock, Arkansas, U.S. |
| Resting place | Little Rock National Cemetery |
| Political party | Republican |
| Known for | NFL football player Lieutenant Governor of Arkansas (1967–1971) |
| Nickname | "Footsie" |
| Military service | |
| Allegiance |  United States of America |
| Branch/service |  United States Army |
| Years of service | 1941–1944 |
| Rank | Captain |
| Unit | Company L, 3rd Battalion,30th Infantry Regiment,3rd Infantry Division |
| Battles/wars | World War IIOperation Shingle |
| Awards | Medal of Honor Distinguished Service Cross Silver Star Bronze Star(3)(V) Purple Heart (4) Army Commendation Medal Presidential Unit Citation Combat Infantryman Badge BritishMilitary Cross ItalianMilitary Medal for Valor |
Maurice Lee "Footsie" Britt (June 29, 1919 – November 26, 1995) was an American military officer, businessman, and politician. He played professionalfootball for theDetroit Lions in 1941 before entering active service with theU.S. Army duringWorld War II, during which he was awarded theMedal of Honor.
Britt served as the 11thLieutenant Governor of Arkansas during the administration ofGovernorWinthrop Rockefeller from 1967 to 1971. Rockefeller and Britt were the firstRepublicans to serve in the state of Arkansas's top two offices sinceReconstruction.
He was bornMaurice Britt inCarlise inLonoke County in central Arkansas, the son of Maurice Lee and Virgie Britt.[1] His family moved from Carlisle to nearbyLonoke when he was a boy. He received the nickname "Footsie" after winning a pair of shoes at a local fair as an adolescent; he had size-thirteen feet. He graduated as thevaledictorian ofLonoke High School in 1937 and entered theUniversity of Arkansas atFayetteville, where he was supported by anathletic scholarship in both football andbasketball. He received aBachelor of Arts degree injournalism and an Army Reserve commission as aSecond Lieutenant ofInfantry through ArmyReserve Officers' Training Corps upon graduation in 1941. He was a member of theSigma Chifraternity.
Britt was selected in the 13th round of the1941 NFL draft by theDetroit Lions, who used the 115th overall pick of the draft to take him. The 6'4"end signed a contract with the Lions and saw action in nine games during the1941 season coming off the bench, scoring one league touchdown on a 45-yard passing play.[2] He was unable to complete the season due to the outbreak ofWorld War II.
Britt entered active duty in December 1941 as asecond lieutenant atCamp Joseph T. Robinson inNorth Little Rock. He was assigned to Company L, 3rd Battalion,30th Infantry Regiment,3rd Infantry Division during training atFort Lewis,Washington,Fort Ord,California, andCamp Pickett inVirginia. He received a partial deferment to entering active duty until after the 1941 football season. He initially joined the 3rd Division and participated in coastal defense on theWest Coast of the United States. On October 23, 1942, the 30th Infantry and the 3rd Division embarked forNorth Africa.
On November 8, 1942, he was a platoon leader in Company L when the 3rd Infantry Division and two other U.S. Army divisions landed during the invasion ofFrench North Africa underMajor GeneralGeorge S. Patton, Jr. who was in command of the Western Forces. Britt and his unit landed at theNorth African beach atCasablanca,French Morocco.[3] The 30th Infantry came on shore and quickly secured the left flank of the 3rd Division and silenced Fort Blondin in the process which had been firing on the naval forces lying off the Moroccan coast.
By November 11, the 30th Infantry and the 3rd Division had secured Casablanca. In January 1943, the 3rd Battalion, 30th Infantry were assigned to personal guard duty forSir Winston Churchill and PresidentFranklin D. Roosevelt during theCasablanca Conference. At the end of theNorth African Campaign, the 3rd Division began training inBizerte, Tunisia for theinvasion of Sicily.
Britt continued to serve as a platoon leader during the amphibious invasion ofSicily on July 10, 1943. The 3rd Battalion, 30th Infantry executed one of the longest foot marches in modern military history, from nearGela northward toPalermo. The 3rd Battalion marched 54 miles in only 33 hours. Palermo was captured on July 22. Britt led his men through the combat and extensive marching from Palermo toMessina in Sicily.
On September 19, 1943, Britt participated in the amphibious landings inSalerno, Italy during theinvasion of Italy (Operation Avalanche). This was his third amphibious assault landing of the war. He took command of Company L after his company commander was wounded and evacuated. On September 22, he led an assault onAcerno, Italy which was 10 miles from Salerno, and destroyed an enemy machine gun position. The 30th Infantry captured Acerno and he received aSilver Star for gallantry in action and his first of fourPurple Hearts.[4]
By early October 1943, the whole of southern Italy was in Allied hands, and the Allied armies faced theVolturno Line, the first of a series of prepared defensive lines running across Italy from which the Germans chose to fight delaying actions, giving ground slowly and buying time to complete their preparation of the Winter Line, their strongest defensive line south of Rome. Britt led his men in the river crossing on the Volturno River. For his actions atPietravairano on October 29, Britt received theBronze Star Medal with"V" device.[4] For his actions above and beyond the call of duty on the assault ofMonte Retundo on November 10, north ofMignano, in central Italy, he received theMedal of Honor, BritishMilitary Cross, ItalianMilitary Medal for Valor, and a battlefield promotion tocaptain.[5]
He was part of the initial invasion atAnzio on January 22, 1944 (Operation Shingle). On January 23, in one instance at thePontine Marshes,Britt and his men were having difficulty locating German gun positions.[6] Captain Britt, in plain view of the German lines, clapped his hands above his head to deliberately draw enemy gunfire, thus exposing a gun position so it could be destroyed.[6] Thereafter American units in the area referred to the intersection there as "Britt's Junction".[7]
Britt directed mortar and artillery fire from close proximity over the next day, contributing to the destruction of 25 German machine gun positions.[6] Britt was subsequently awarded theDistinguished Service Cross for extraordinary heroism for his actions on January 22 and 23 at the Anzio beachhead nearLatina.[8]
Britt's own war in Europe came to an abrupt end at this time, however. A German tank got into range of Britt's command post, a stone farmhouse.[6] The shell it fired passed through three walls, blowing off Britt's right arm at the elbow, fracturing a leg, and perforating his back in 47 places.[6] "I sure was lucky," Britt noted shortly thereafter. "If I'd been standing a little further over that shell would have killed me."[6]
In February 1944, he was evacuated to the United States for medical treatment at Lawson General Hospital inAtlanta.[9] While recuperating from his wounds, he participated in aWar Bond tour. He received an honorable discharge on December 27, 1944.
Maurice Britt became the first recipient of the top four combat decorations for valor awarded to aninfantryman by the US Army during World War II.
Britt's awards and decorations include:[10]
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| Army Presidential Unit Citation |
Britt's Medal of Honor Citation:[11]
For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty. Disdaining enemyhand grenades and close-range machinepistols,machineguns, andrifles,Lt. Britt inspired and led a handful of his men in repelling a bitter counterattack by approximately 100 Germans against his company positions north of Mignano, Italy, the morning of 10 November 1943. During the intense fire fight,Lt. Britt's canteen and field glasses were shattered; a bullet pierced his side; his chest, face, and hands were covered with grenade wounds. Despite his wounds, for which he refused to accept medical attention until ordered to do so by his battalion commander following the battle, he personally killed 5 and wounded an unknown number of Germans, wiped out one enemy machinegun crew, fired 5 clips of carbine and an undetermined amount of M1 rifle ammunition, and threw 32 fragmentation grenades. His bold, aggressive actions, utterly disregarding superior enemy numbers, resulted in capture of 4 Germans, 2 of them wounded, and enabled several captured Americans to escape.Lt. Britt's undaunted courage and prowess in arms were largely responsible for repulsing a German counterattack which, if successful, would have isolated his battalion and destroyed his company.
After the war, he briefly attended theUniversity of Arkansas School of Law inFayetteville but left the institution to enter business. He spent twenty years working at afurniture manufacturing company and then running the Beautyguard Manufacturing Company, a producer ofaluminum building products.
In 1966, he was elected lieutenant governor, when the incumbentDemocrat,Nathan Green Gordon, did not seek reelection.[12] He was re-elected in 1968 but did not seek a third term in 1970, having deferred to his friend and Little Rock neighbor, Former House SpeakerSterling R. Cockrill, a Democrat-turned-Republican, who ran unsuccessfully on Winthrop Rockefeller's losingRepublicanticket that year. Britt defeated the Democratic nominees, JudgeJames H. Pilkington ofHope in 1966 and State Representative Bill Wells of Hermitage in 1968. He was a lifelong Arkansas Republican, having been active in his state's Young Republicans in college.Neal Sox Johnson, the first paid executive director of the Arkansas GOP, said that he believed Rockefeller should have stepped down in 1970, and Britt should have been the gubernatorial nominee. Rockefeller was unseated that year by the DemocratDale Bumpers.[13] As Rockefeller and Britt left office, two legislative Republicans remained behind, State SenatorJim Caldwell and RepresentativePreston Bynum, both ofBenton County in far northwestern Arkansas.
After leaving office, Britt was appointed by theRichard Nixon administration as district director of theSmall Business Administration. He served in that capacity from 1971 to 1985.
In 1986, Britt came out of political retirement to seek the Republicangubernatorial nomination. He polled only 3,116 votes (13.9 percent) to 13,831 ballots (61.9 percent) for former GovernorFrank D. White. A third candidate, Wayne Lanier, received 4,576 votes (20.5 percent) in a low-turnout primary. White was thereafter defeated in thegeneral election for a second time by futureU.S. PresidentBill Clinton.
Britt was a leader in civic affairs too. He was past state chairman of the Crippled Children's Hospital,Easter Seals, and the Federal Executive Association. He was a member of the Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame and received theNational Collegiate Athletic Association Sports Achievement Award.
Britt died ofheart failure in theJohn L. McClellan Memorial Veterans Hospital inLittle Rock. He was one of two lieutenant governors in state history to lie in state in the State Capitol Rotunda, the other being Winthrop Paul Rockefeller, the son of Governor Winthrop Rockefeller. Thecoffin was open, and Britt's military coat hung from the back of his favoriterocking chair, which was placed next to the body. His medals and a military cap were placed on a nearby table. An ArmySergeant stood at the head of the casket throughout the six hours that Britt lay in state.
Services were held in the CalvaryBaptist Church of Little Rock, where Britt was a member. Burial was inLittle Rock National Cemetery.
Britt had three daughters, Andrea Schafer and Nancy McDurmont, both of Lonoke, and Patricia Anne Britt ofFalls Church, Virginia; two sons, Maurice Lee Britt, III (bornc. 1950), and his wife, Dee Britt, ofRoyal, Arkansas, and Timothy Watson Britt (bornc. 1955) of Little Rock; one brother, B. A. Britt (bornc. 1925) of Carlisle; twelve grandchildren, and one great-grandchild. Britt's wife died shortly before his own death. Britt was a distant cousin of Circuit Judge Henry M. Britt ofHot Springs, the 1960 Republican gubernatorial nominee againstOrval Faubus. He was also a cousin of internationally known actressDorothy Lamour. [4]
{{cite book}}:|work= ignored (help)| Party political offices | ||
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| Preceded by | Republican nominee forLieutenant Governor of Arkansas 1966, 1968 | Succeeded by Sterling Cockrill, Jr. |
| Political offices | ||
| Preceded by | Lieutenant Governor of Arkansas 1967–1971 | Succeeded by |
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| International | |
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| National | |
