Former Arkansas Gov. Orval E. Faubus, who came to symbolize the white resistance movement across the South after he deployed the National Guard in 1957 to prevent blacks from attending a Little Rock high school, died Wednesday at his Conway, Ark., home.  He was 84.
The cause of death was not immediately known, officials said, but Mr. Faubus' health had deteriorated in recent years, in part because of a lengthy, painful battle against spinal cancer.
Mr. Faubus, the longest-serving governor in Arkansas history,  will lie in state from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Thursday in the second-floor rotunda of the state Capitol in Little Rock.
Two funerals are scheduled--at 1 p.m. Friday at Second Baptist Church in Conway and at 1 p.m. Saturday at First Baptist Church in Huntsville, Ark.  He will be buried after the Saturday funeral at his birthplace in Combs, Ark.
Faubus served as governor a record six-term career spanning from 1955 to 1967.
By the time Mr. Faubus decided to leave politics in 1966, all Arkansas school districts had been desegregated and his administration was dogged by scandal, stemming from his cozy relationships with such well-heeled Arkansans as W. R. Stephens, the state's leading investment and securities broker.
Mr. Faubus later worked at a variety of jobs, including as a teller for a Huntsville, Ark., bank.  He also was appointed by Republican Gov. Frank White in 1981 to direct the state agency for veterans, an appointment that ended when Mr. White was defeated by Bill Clinton two years later.
Born Jan. 7, 1910 in Greasy Creek, a small community near Fort Smith, Ark., Mr. Faubus was named Orval Eugene because his father, Sam, was a socialist who admired Eugene V. Debs, founder of the American Socialist Movement in 1898.
As a youth, Mr. Faubus recalled later, he trapped small animals, skinned them and sold the furs to earn money.  At 18, with only an elementary school education, Mr. Faubus began teaching school at Pinnacle.  During the next 10 years, he taught while finishing his high school education.  He completed his schooling at 28.  In 1938 he hopped freights as a hobo, went to Washington state, picked apples and cut timber.  He returned to Arkansas and served as a court clerk and as county recorder for three years.
During World War II, he joined the Army and rose to the rank of major in the intelligence division.  After the war, he was named postmaster of Huntsville, a position he held until he decided to seek the governorship in 1954.
Mr. Faubus was married three times.  He divorced his first wife, Alta, of 37 years in 1969.  He later wed former Democratic spokeswoman Elizabeth Westmoreland, and the couple moved to Houston.  She was found murdered in their apartment in 1983, strangled by a Florida fugitive who pleaded guilty and was sentenced to life in prison.  After her death, Mr. Faubus returned to Arkansas.
In his final years, Mr. Faubus underwent surgery several times, including operations for the implantation of three pacemakers and other heart surgeries.  He returned to his Conway home in late November from the Baptist Rehabilitation Institute after being hospitalized for treatment of cancer of the spine and other ailments.  His third wife, Jan, was released the same day from Baptist Medical Center after being hospitalized for treatment of cancer.
--Source:  Excerpts from The Dallas Morning News, Dec. 15, 1994.