Former Arkansas Governor, US Senator Dale Bumpers Dies at 90

Dale Bumpers, a former Arkansas governor and U.S. senator who drew national attention for his defense of Bill Clinton during the president's impeachment trial, has died.

His son, Brent Bumpers, says the former lawmaker, who was 90, died Friday night in Little Rock.

Bumpers was a little-known lawyer from Charleston when he defeated former Gov. Orval Faubus for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination in 1970, then defeated incumbent Republican Gov. Winthrop Rockefeller in the general election. Four years later he defeated incumbent U.S. Sen. J. William Fulbright in the Democratic primary and won the seat.

Bumpers delivered an impassioned defense of Clinton in 1999.

He previously had been an attorney for the Charleston School Board in 1954, when the district became first in the 11 former Confederate states to integrate.

(Story by: Ken Miller, The Associated Press)