Early Life
Nance was born August 27, 1893 in the Rogers Arkansas area, and enjoyed a typical 19th century rural farm life. His early years were spent raising farm animals and horses while working in the family apple orchard. In a speech to the Norman Rotary Club as guest of Retired U.S. Army Lt. Col. Alfred "Joe" Cunningham in 1982, Nance said that when he was a teenager his horse got sick and he knew he had to act fast to sell it before it died. With the money he made from the horse sale, Nance moved into town. He then began buying and selling produce during the daytime and working as a law clerk in the night time for his older brother John Nance, a Rogers AR attorney, who later became Arkansas State Senate Majority Leader. The educational experience of the legal clerkship in his formative years proved beneficial, as Nance was skilled in business transactions, land title work and could recite from memory complex legal descriptions. Nance used this law background as a legislator, as an investor and business owner.
Nance's sister, Edna Nance Harding, was the wife of University of Arkansas President Arthur M. Harding. Dr. Harding was a well known professor of Mathematics and Astronomy and frequent lecturer on the Chautauqua speaking circuit.
Nance's son James C. Nance Jr. was born in Rogers Arkansas, and his birth certificate lists Nance's occupation as Produce Salesman. Daughters Rosamond and Bettye were born in Chandler, Oklahoma. Nance had an extensive book collection of over 500 books on law, legislative matters, history and democracy, which he kept in a private library and cloakroom in his residence.
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