Nance is one of two men in Oklahoma who have been elected both Speaker of the House of Representatives and President Pro Tempore of the Senate.

A joint partnership with Joe McBride of Anadarko, Nance McBride Newspapers, owned weekly and daily community newspapers in Tonkawa, Clinton, Hobart, Henryetta, Hominy, Mangum, Anadarko, Sulphur, Alva, Poteau and Antlers.

According to The Daily Oklahoman front-page story of September 4, 1984, Nance made his first move into Oklahoma politics winning election as State Representative from Stevens County in 1920 and served most of two terms and resigned in 1923 to seek an opportunity in Lubbock TX in a newspaper venture.

Nance was then elected in 1952 as State Representative for Purcell and McClain County and served for an additional decade.

Nance was a recognized national policy leader in drafting uniform laws governing business transactions for the individual states.

Most notably the NCCUSL drafted the landmark legislation Uniform Commercial Code (UCC) in conjunction with the American Law Institute.

The 1952 Democrat National convention then nominated Illinois Governor Adlai Stevenson to face Republican party nominee, General Dwight Eisenhower, the eventual winner in the U.S. presidential election, 1952.

Bill Atkinson, Ada Jurist Orel Busby, Tulsa Educator Ben G. Henneke, and Ardmore civic leader Mrs. Paul Sutton.

Nance downplayed ideological labels, and as an experienced businessman favored lawsuit reform, and strongly advocated tax cuts whenever economically feasible.

In the mid-1960s, Nance editorialized against the Vietnam War, while advocating a strong national defense and military preparedness.

In 1975, Nance was subpoenaed as a character witness in the federal corruption trial of former Oklahoma Governor David Hall during which Nance testified that pretrial daily newspaper coverage and media reports of the investigation prevented the defendant from receiving an impartial trial by an unbiased jury.

In 1983 at age 89, Nance and Chief District Judge J. Kenneth Love were hosts for a non-partisan town hall meeting of area civic leaders and reception honoring Molly and David L. Boren, U.S.

In 1984, Nance endorsed the re-election campaign of Boren in an editorial published a few weeks prior to his death in September.

In his retirement years, Nance was a regular commentator on OETA, the local PBS station, on its public affairs program panel Oklahoma Week in Review.

Nance mostly wrote non-partisan public policy articles and yet tended to favor Democrat candidates, and was a strong advocate of Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and funding for infrastructure projects including highways and county roads, bridges, schools, colleges, universities and other infrastructure.

Other close family of Nance included nephew Robert J. McBrinn, Editor of the El Paso Herald-Post; niece Mary Frances Newbern of Fayetteville, AR; nephew David Newbern, Arkansas Supreme Court Justice; and niece Loretta Nance Pace, wife of District Judge Tom Pace of Norman, OK.[1] Nance was born August 27, 1893, in the Rogers Arkansas area in unincorporated War Eagle, Arkansas near War Eagle Mill.

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.

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 resolution by the OU Regents commended Nance for his sponsorship of legislation authorizing the issuance of bonds for funding the construction of buildings and dormitories built at the campus of The University of Oklahoma which was located within his state senate legislative district (Cleveland, McClain, and Garvin counties).

George Nigh wrote and delivered the funeral eulogy for Memorial services held in Purcell for Nance, and Attorney General Mike Turpen read Nance's public policy career highlights on September 6, 1984, at the Presbyterian Church of Purcell, Oklahoma.

The Transcript article stated that Nance led a successful statewide campaign to create an independent Board of Regents for The University of Oklahoma.

The 1938 construction of this bridge enabled communities from West and Southwest (Byars, Cole, Dibble, Paoli, Pauls Valley, Purcell, Rosedale, and Wayne) side of the river to reach the communities on the East side of the river (Lexington, Slaughterville, and Wanette).

[4] On July 1, 1968, civic leaders in Purcell and Lexington, led by banker and businessman Sam Ewing, requested the legislature pass House Joint Resolution 525, Okla.

According to the Oklahoma Department of Transportation, "History was made Friday July 26, 2019 in Purcell and Lexington, just as it was more than 80 years ago when the two cities celebrated the grand opening of a new bridge connecting their communities.

The new US 77 Purcell/Lexington James C. Nance Bridge that links the twin cities, located less than one mile apart, fully opened to traffic with much fanfare on Friday, July 26, 2019, the culmination of a major two-year, expedited reconstruction project.

"[7] The Norman Transcript reported in a front-page article on September 4, 1984, that Nance, as Speaker of The Oklahoma House of Representatives left his mark in many places in the Norman-Purcell area and led the campaign to replace a dangerous, narrow bridge across the South Canadian River at Norman with the present multilane I-35 structure.