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Thomas Dale Alford Sr. (January 28, 1916 – January 25, 2000) Social Security Death Index Interactive Search was an American ophthalmologist and politician from the U.S. state of Arkansas who served as a conservative Democrat in the United States House of Representatives from Little Rock from 1959 to 1963.
Alford first attended Arkansas State College in Jonesboro in eastern Arkansas, followed by the Arkansas State Teachers College in Conway, and received his medical degree in 1939 from the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences at Little Rock.
Osro Cobb, the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas, recalled that:
There were loud protests and allegations of irregularities and fraud from Hays supporters. Because it was a federal election, I had a grand jury impaneled, and an order was obtained from the U.S. District Court that impounded all of the ballots cast for review by the grand jury. When the grand jury completed its minute review of all the votes cast, it was established that the count had been unusually accurate for each candidate Alford, and the grand jury was so outraged by the allegations made and the lack of evidence to support them that it seriously considered indicting those who had made the accusations. I was surprised by Hays' defeat because I did not realize the extent and commitment of the majority of the voters in the Fifth Congressional District to separate-but-equal schools in lieu of integration, which they feared would destroy their schools.Osro Cobb, Osro Cobb of Arkansas: Memoirs of Historical Significance (Little Rock, Arkansas: Rose Publishing Company, 1989), p. 62
In 1960, Alford won his second term in the House with 57,617 votes (82.7 percent) to Republican L. J. Churchill (1902–1987) of Dover in Pope County in northwestern Arkansas, who received 12,054 ballots (17.3 percent). Churchill was a highly regarded civic and political figure in Dover. A Cumberland Presbyterian and a Masonic lodge, Churchill served as mayor of Dover and on the municipal school board, both nonpartisan positions. He had been state chairman of the Agricultural Stabilization and Conservation Service of the United States Department of Agriculture. He operated L.J. Churchill's General Merchandise Store and was a member of the board of directors of the Bank of Dover."L.J. Churchill, 84, dies at Dover", Arkansas Gazette, October 3, 1987, obituary section
Alford ran for governor again in 1966 and finished fourth in the primary with 53,531 votes (12.7 percent). He received fewer votes than his old nemesis Brooks Hays, who with 64,814 (15.4 percent) finished third in the primary balloting. The Two-round system positions went to former Arkansas Supreme Court justices James D. Johnson, a segregationist, and Frank Holt. Johnson narrowly defeated Holt in the Democratic runoff but then lost to Republican Winthrop Rockefeller in the general election. In 1984, Alford entered the Democratic primary election for Congress in Central Arkansas's Second District for the open seat being vacated by Republican Ed Bethune. Appearing to many voters as a throwback to another era, Alford ran a distant fifth in a race ultimately won by Pulaski County Sheriff Tommy Robinson. Alford was far outpolled by African-American Thedford Collins, a Little Rock banker and former aide to U.S. Senator David Pryor.
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