Political Grandfathers on Both Sides
Governor Tucker’s grandfathers Guy Beckwith Tucker and Foster Officer (F.O.) White were both active in Arkansas politics. Guy Beckwith Tucker had been city marshal of El Dorado, Arkansas, prior to moving to Little Rock, and F.O. White had been and county judge of White County.
Hard Working Parents
Jim Guy’s father, James Guy Tucker, Sr., was born in El Dorado, on April 14, 1894. He moved to Little Rock in his youth and served with the Social Security System for 29 years. For 20 of those years he served as manager of the Arkansas District of the Social Security System.
Jim Guy's mother, Willie Maude Tucker, born in Bald Knob on November 9, 1906, opened Arkansas's first Merle Norman cosmetics shop, and over her 28 year career, owned and operated siz studies in the Little Rock and North Little Rock area. Tucker grew up helping his mom take inventory. In the Tucker household Jim Guy learned about Social Security, the cost of goods, resale, and operations of small businesses.
Willie Maude's work with Merle Norman eventually paid for Tucker's college education. She volunteered weekly or bi-weekly with the Women's Auxiliary to go to Veterans' Administration Hospital at Fort Roots in North Little Rock. Tucker, just a boy at the time, would go with her, meeting veterans of World War I, World War II, and the Korean War and learning the value of serving others. His own father rarely talked about his time as a Captain in World War I.
Because James Guy Tucker, Sr., was nearly 50 when Jim Guy was born, and not always in the best of health, Tucker spent much of his childhood playing with children his age. Tucker enjoyed exploring and serving in the Boy Scouts, beginning as a Cub Scout and ultimately achieving the rank of Eagle Scout.
Remarkable Women
Raised in suburbs in the 1950s, Tucker had two older sisters. Carol and Frances were five and eleven years older than him, respectively. They were accomplished women. His sister Frances was a beauty queen, and Carol became involved in government and earned a Master’s in Political Science from St. Louis, Missouri. Carol went on to settle in Washington, D.C. While Jim Guy served on the White House Conference on Families, Carol served as an Assistant Secretary of Agriculture for Food and Consumer Services—also appointed by President Jimmy Carter.
Growing Up
Tucker’s upbringing helped shape his later interests in service and politics. With political grandfathers and a military and Social Security employee father, Tucker witnessed the role a man could play in government. With a hardworking mother and accomplished sisters, Tucker also recognized that women could hold more roles than housewife and mother.
Tucker attended southern public schools and one of the world's most reputable universities, Harvard. He experienced life in other areas of the country, living in Florida for a semester of school and living in Massachusetts while earning his bachelor's degree. He saw firsthand racial discrimination and foreign war. He grew up well-educated and well-rounded.