Former U.S. President Bill Clinton speaks at the memorial service for former Oklahoma Gov. George Nigh on Thursday, Aug. 14, 2025. (Screenshot of service)
OKLAHOMA CITY – Former President Bill Clinton on Thursday remembered the late George Nigh as a man who put people ahead of politics.
“He came at other people with an outstretched hand, not a clenched fist,” Clinton said of the former Oklahoma governor, who died July 30 at 98.
Clinton, a friend of the former governor, delivered the remarks at Nigh’s memorial service at Crossings Community Church in Oklahoma City.
“He honestly believed that public life could be decent and honorable and that people could be helped, not so much with a hand out as with a hand up,” Clinton said.
He described Nigh, a McAlester native and former teacher who was twice elected governor, as a person who made a decision to be happy, uplifting, positive and loving.
“I am convinced that one of the reasons that he lasted 98 years and had all of his marbles all the way to the end (was) because he made good choices,” Clinton said.
Clinton said he and Nigh were both elected governor the same year. Clinton was elected governor of Arkansas.
“He knew I was too young to know what I was doing, so he offered to help me make fewer mistakes,” Clinton said.
The pair worked together on the Arkansas River navigation project and interstate highway improvements, Clinton said.
When he first met Nigh, he wondered if he still had his wallet in his pocket, Clinton said.
“This guy is too good to be true,” Clinton said. “Nobody is this nice.”
Some speakers talked about his relationship with Donna, his wife of 61 years.
Before they were married, the state’s largest newspaper named Nigh, then a very popular lieutenant governor, the state’s most eligible bachelor, said Bob Burke, a Nigh biographer and attorney.
When Nigh would tell that story, he would quote Donna as saying that she had a car, a house and a good job, while Nigh had none of the three, Burke said.
“I thank you for taking him in. He needed a place to live and an automobile,” Clinton said to Donna Nigh, eliciting laughter. “Thank you for giving it to him.”
The service closed with a rendition of “Oklahoma!”
Nigh, as a state lawmaker, was the author of a law that made it the state song.
Nigh also served as president of the University of Central Oklahoma in Edmond.
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