James Burton Blair's Obituary
October 27, 1935 - December 3, 2025 -
For 90 years, James Burton Blair lived large. He befriended, mentored and worked with a rich cask of monumental Arkansas and national decision makers, including business tycoons, politicians, and even a president of the United States. He was a man of infinite passions, especially books, art, education, politics, the stock market, and women. He passed away Wednesday, December 3, 2025.
Born in Elkins, by the age of six months, he moved in with his paternal grandparents in Fayetteville, Rufus, a grocer and fruit stand proprietor, and Bessie Blair, a schoolteacher. Bessie and Rufus raised their precocious grandson by instilling in him responsibility and a strong work ethic.
They nourished his insatiable quest for knowledge, gained early-on by his desire to read books on every subject. He began reading by age three, and as he got older he would regularly visit the public library. He and the librarian had an agreement that he could take as many books as he could stuff in his cardboard box, as long as he returned them.
Jim began taking college credit courses and graduated from the University of Arkansas at age 19. Two years later, he finished law school at the U of A. “I had a flair for taking tests,” said Blair. “I always was the fastest reader in my class. I could cram the night before an exam and pretty much remembered everything.”
In 1957, Blair began working in Springdale with attorneys Courtney Crouch and Lewis Jones. Blair was the lead attorney in 1959 in a defamation and slander case against a national publishing company, Dun & Bradstreet. It was a David-and-Goliath match, but Blair and his legal associates won. The law firm would become Blair, Cypert, Waters and Roy, representing poultry companies and “80-percent of the businesses in Springdale.”
Blair was hired in 1979 by Don Tyson as general counsel for Tyson Foods and stayed in that role for 21 years, the only person to hold that position in the 20th century.
In the 1970s, Blair met a young law professor at the University of Arkansas, Bill Clinton and his soon-to-be wife Hillary Rodham. Divorced from his first wife, Margaret Ann Gibson, Blair and his girlfriend and later wife, UA professor Diane Kincaid, developed a fast and impactful friendship with Bill and Hillary.
“Mr. Blair, close associates of Mr. Clinton say, has had a hand in every important decision of Mr. Clinton’s political career,” wrote the New York Times in 1994. “An informal liaison to the state’s powerful business community, he helped Mr. Clinton cope with a host of local issues from education to a long running dispute over nuclear power.”
Blair devoted much of his life to public service. He was a delegate to the Democratic National Conventions in 1968 and 1972. He was vice president of the Clinton for President committee in 1992. He served for nine years on the Arkansas Board of Higher Education, and 10 years on the University of Arkansas Board of Trustees, including two years as Chair.
He provided the largest gift ever to a public library in Arkansas to the Blair Library in his hometown of Fayetteville, where his life-long love of books and reading was cultivated. His other gifts include, but were not limited to, major donations to KUAF Public Radio, Life Styles, Inc., Mayo Clinic of Rochester, MN, the Walton Arts Center and the University of Arkansas.
Jim was preceded in death by his parents and grand parents; his wife, Diane Divers Blair; his brother, John Troutman; and sisters, Shirley Wharton and Dr. Patricia Blair.
Survivors include his loving wife Nancy Beth Horton Blair of the home; Daughter Heather Blair and husband Aaron Lav of Chicago, IL; Daughter Arden Sue Blair and husband Ken Clark of Columbia, MD; Son James R. Blair, wife Vivian Blair and granddaughter Maggie of Ft. Worth, TX; Stepson Bill Kincaid and wife Missy Kincaid of Fayetteville, AR and step-grandchildren Emory Kincaid of New York, NY and Sydney Kincaid of Fayetteville, AR; Stepdaughter Kathryn Kincaid Jong of Fayetteville, AR and step-granddaughters Sarah Jong of Little Rock, AR and Katie Jong of Athens, GA; Stepson Treigh Williams of Marshall, AR and step-grandson Mason Williams of Bentonville, AR; Stepdaughter Elizabeth Williams of Fayetteville, AR; Step-grandchildren Ashton and Cole Weaver of Fayetteville, AR; Half sisters Jan Blair of Columbia, MO and Peggy Marsh of Oceanside, CA.
A Celebration of Jim’s Life will be held 2:00 PM, December 17th at his beloved Fayetteville Public Library.
In lieu of flowers, memorials can be made to the Fayetteville Public Library Foundation, 401 W. Mountain St, Fayetteville, AR 72701 or contact the Development staff at 479.856.7148.
To sign the online guest book please visit https://www.bernafuneralhomes.com
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