Biography: James Guy Tucker, Jr. (Jim Guy) was born on the 13^th of June 1943, in Oklahoma City, the youngest of James Guy Tucker Sr. and Willie Maude (White) Tucker’s three children. His parents soon moved back to their native Arkansas, and he and his sisters were raised in Little Rock.

Jim Guy’s long career spanned law, government, and business, at home and abroad. In all of his endeavors, he was a man of service, striving to solve problems and improve lives, and eager to support others dedicated to the same. His personal life was equally full. He loved his many friends and family dearly, and he deeply treasured time spent with them.  
 
Jim Guy’s father spent many years as a dedicated civil servant and was a decorated veteran of World War I. Both grandfathers similarly shared this legacy of public service. Service to country and community inspired the young Jim Guy, who threw himself into scouting at an early age and earned the rank of Eagle Scout when he was 12, a harbinger of his future ambitions and endeavors..
 
Jim Guy’s father was an older father, already 50 when Jim Guy was born. He suffered from chronic illness caused by exposure to mustard gas during the war, and he was ailing for most of Jim Guy’s teenage years, ultimately dying when his son was 21. Seeking to supplement the family’s sometimes fragile income, Jim Guy’s mother, Willie, obtained a loan from her brother to open a Merle Norman cosmetics business that she and her oldest daughter, Francis, ran with aplomb. Willie’s youngest daughter, Carol, five years Jim Guy’s senior, often looked after him during store hours. Her impish, thrill-seeking spirit and her passion for learning both rubbed off. Jim Guy excelled in his studies while also working long hours during the summers paving Little Rock roads. Thanks to his mother’s business, his own work, and a generous scholarship, he was able to attend Harvard University after graduating from Hall High School in 1961.  
 
At Harvard, Jim Guy was a member of the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps. Observing that the US military was becoming more deeply involved in Vietnam, he accelerated his studies, graduating a year early and proceeding straight to boot camp in hopes of serving overseas as a Marine. Unfortunately, his ulcerative colitis kept him from receiving a commission, but he would not let that stand in his way. After being honorably discharged, Jim Guy made his way by ship from San Francisco to Japan, South Korea, and Thailand, finally traveling over land into Vietnam, where he found work with various news outlets as a war correspondent. Often armed and traveling with American platoons, he covered the combat at close range. Along the way, he met, photographed, and interviewed many service members from back home, detailing their stories of service, survival, and sacrifice in a book called Arkansas Men at War. Between stints in Vietnam, Jim Guy enrolled in law school at the University of Arkansas, traveling back to the war front between semesters and taking a brief leave of absence to teach history at the American University of Beirut in Lebanon.
 
Jim Guy’s career of service to the state of Arkansas kicked off in 1970 when, as a young lawyer, he went undercover at Cummins Prison to help identify and eradicate corruption in the system. He went on to help found the Arkansas chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, and served as a prosecuting attorney, Attorney General, a member of Congress, Lieutenant Governor, and Governor. He also pursued a host of exciting activities in his personal time, piloting planes, rafting rivers, sailing, diving, hunting, fishing, and camping. He once woke up in Yellowstone to find himself gazing into the nostril of a curious moose. 
 
In 1972, mutual friends introduced Jim Guy to Betty Allen Alworth, a single mother and elementary school teacher who, thankfully, was generally game for such adventures. Jim Guy always maintained that he knew within weeks that he wanted to marry Betty, and after courting her for four years, he proposed to her in the same Forest Park Elementary School classroom where he had been a first grade student. Jim Guy and Betty raised four children together, and he loved watching them grow and discover their interests and talents. He also relished their shared passions, which spanned music, literature, history, art, theater, foreign travel, cultural exploration, and the great outdoors. He treasured witnessing each of his children’s adult lives unfold and he took immense pride in their different callings and pursuits. He doted on all of his grandchildren and he adored his many grand pets, too.
 
Jim Guy’s government service and legal endeavors were collateral casualties of high-level political conflict in the 1990s. He spent many years striving to clear his name of wrongdoing, not wanting to go to his death perceived by anyone he had sought to serve as having misled or taken advantage of them for his own enrichment. He succeeded in righting some of those wrongs, and it was his hope that hindsight and history would sort the rest out. While this was a lasting source of regret, it did not stop him from setting off on new adventures and pouring his energies into new opportunities to serve.
 
After he stepped down as Governor and after receiving and recovering from a long-awaited liver transplant, Jim Guy took a job opportunity in Jakarta, Indonesia and then moved with that job to Hong Kong. He and Betty made many new friends during their years in Asia, and also reconnected with friends made during previous international business ventures, friends from his war correspondent days, and even old friends from Arkansas (you can’t go anywhere without finding a fellow Arkansan). He and lifelong friend Patrick Caviness spent many nights picking and singing for expat crowds in Hong Kong’s bars. He also helped to establish a Hong Kong fundraising arm for Heifer Project International, and he and Betty both raised money in Hong Kong to fund the development and success of sustainable agriculture projects carried out in partnership with provincial and local governments in Mainland China. These projects, which taught rural villagers rabbit farming and silkworm cultivation among other things, helped to lift whole communities out of poverty. 
 
Living abroad with Betty was a joyous chapter. They scuba dived off the Great Barrier Reef, visited Komodo Island for an up close look at the eponymous dragons, explored Angkor Wat, and spent time in Hanoi, Bangkok, and Chiang Mai. But ultimately, Arkansas beckoned them home. After returning home, Jim Guy enjoyed supporting younger Arkansans drawn to politics and other types of service. He understood that such work is never finished, and he embraced opportunities to help cultivate the competent hands of younger aspiring leaders. He admired their ideas, determination, and dedication, relished their victories, and tried to help them take the long view when they suffered disappointments. He would have liked to have stuck around to see more of that long view materialize, but he knew his health was failing and, as someone who spent virtually his entire life with chronic illness, he also knew that his body had seen him through many more decades than he had dared to expect.
 
Jim Guy died peacefully on a Thursday afternoon, listening to Woody Guthrie and holding the hand of the absolute love of his life. 
 
He is survived by his wife, Betty Allen Tucker of Little Rock, sister Carol Tucker Foreman of Washington, DC, sister-in-law Pat Allen of Brookhaven, MS, brother-in-law Pete Kemp of Jonesboro, AR, son Lance Dwight Alworth, Jr. (Rob Marino) of Lewes, Delaware; daughter Kelly Ann Alworth Driscoll (Paul Driscoll) of San Diego, CA; daughter Anna Tucker Ashton (Paul Ashton) of Little Rock, daughter Sarah Allen Tucker (Christian Piccolo) of Washington, DC; grandchildren Joseph Allen Driscoll (Caitlin Mackey Driscoll) of Playa Vista, CA, Riley Elizabeth Driscoll Knight (Jonathan Knight) of Colorado Springs, CO, Brian Robert Driscoll of San Diego, CA, Kästlee Saige Ashton of Washington, DC, Madalynn Renée Ashton of Washington, DC, Kazius Guy Tucker Ashton, Joseph Tyler Brown Ashton, Emmett Beckwith Tucker Ashton, and Victoria Evangeline Allen Ashton of Little Rock; great grandson Oliver Allen Driscoll and many nieces, nephews, and great nieces and nephews. He was preceded in death by his parents, James Guy Tucker Sr. and Willie Maude White Tucker, his oldest sister, Francis Tucker Kemp of Jonesboro, AR, and his brother-in-law, Bob Allen of Brookhaven, MS, as well his brother-in-law Jay Foreman.

Jim Guy will lie in state at the Arkansas State Capitol on Friday, February 21, 2025, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

A celebration of life will be held at Second Presbyterian Church at 600 Pleasant Valley Drive, Little Rock, Arkansas, on Monday, February 24, 2025, at 2:00 p.m.

His final resting place will be Mount Holly Cemetery in Little Rock, Arkansas. Arrangements are under the direction of RuebelFuneralHome.com

In lieu of flowers, the family would like to encourage contributions to the Arkansas Repertory Theater (therep.org), 601 Main Street, Little Rock, AR, 72201, (501) 378-0405, or Heifer International (heifer.org), 1 World Avenue, Little Rock, AR, 72202, (855) 948-6437.