The Politics of Personality Part 3, 1939-1949

Born: March 11, 1890 in Malta, Ohio

Early Career: Wilbert Lee "Pappy" O'Daniel's father was killed in an accident shortly after O'Daniel's birth. His mother remarried and the family moved to Kansas, where O'Daniel went to school and then took a job with a flour-millling company. He became a top salesman, moving around the country to work for various milling companies. In 1925, he moved to Fort Worth to become sales manager for Burrus Mills. He took over the company's radio advertising in 1928, and began writing songs, speaking on religious and inspirational topics, and performing with a Western swing band he called the Light Crust Doughboys. He organized his own flour company in 1935. Radio fans urged O'Daniel to run for governor, and he won a smashing victory.

Accomplishments: O'Daniel failed to deliver on the populist platform on which he had campaigned. The legislature scoffed at the vaudevillian atmosphere that surrounded the governor, but his popularity remained high and many of his opponents were defeated. In his second term, O'Daniel began to attack supposed communists in organized labor and academia, and packed the University of Texas Board of Regents with appointees who ushered in an era of limited academic freedom on campus.

Later years: O'Daniel ran for the Senate in a special election in 1941, defeating Congressman Lyndon B. Johnson in one of the most famous and controversial elections in Texas history. He was shunned in the Senate by his more serious colleagues, and his popularity dwindled. He did not seek reelection in 1948. He worked in business and attempted comebacks at the governorship in 1956 and 1958, basing his campaigns on crude appeals to racism and anti-communism. Time had passed Pappy by, and he continued in private life until his death on May 12, 1969.

Handbook of Texas article about Governor W. Lee O'Daniel

View Photographs of Governor W. Lee O'Daniel
 

O'Daniel's farewell radio
address as governor

Born: March 20, 1888, in a log cabin in Mason County, Texas

Early Career: Stevenson attended a country school (seven years of three-month school terms), then went into business as a teenager hauling freight between Junction and Brady. Starting as a janitor at a Junction bank, he became a bookkeeper and cashier and studied law at night. As a young man he was involved with many small businesses in Kimble County, then served as county attorney and county judge. He entered the Texas House of Representatives in 1928 and was elected speaker of the House in 1933 and lieutenant governor in 1938. He became governor when W. Lee O'Daniel resigned to become a U.S. senator. He was overwhelmingly reelected, and his term as governor was the longest of Texas governor up to that time.

Accomplishments: Stevenson concerned himself with soil conservation, expansion of and permanent financing for a state highway system, expansion of the University of Texas, and increases in teacher's salaries. He emphasized conservative fiscal policies and converted the state's deficit into a surplus by the time he left office.

Later years: Stevenson became the center of national attention during his race for the U.S. Senate in 1948, in which he ran against Congressman Lyndon Baines Johnson. The election was the closest senatorial race in the nation's history. Stevenson appeared to be the winner when an amended return was filed from Jim Wells County giving Johnson enough to win by 87 votes. Stevenson contested the election all the way to the United States Supreme Court. He took his defeat bitterly and retired from public life. He died on June 28, 1975.

Handbook of Texas article about Governor Coke R. Stevenson

View Photographs of Governor Coke R. Stevenson
 

Telegram on the 1943 riot
in Beaumont

Born: January 12, 1893, in Corsicana, Texas

Early Career: Jester's father, George Taylor Jester, was lieutenant governor of Texas from 1894-1898. Jester attended the University of Texas and Harvard Law School, where his studies were interrupted by World War I. He served as a captain in action and with the occupation army in Germany. After the war, he earned a law degree from the University of Texas and practiced law in Corsicana, also managing family holdings in cotton and cattle. From 1929-35 he served on the University of Texas Board of Regents, becoming the youngest person to chair the board. He was instrumental in the building expansion of the university, including the construction of the tower. He was appointed, then elected, to the Railroad Commission from 1942-47.

Accomplishments: Jester was known as a states'-rights governor, opposing federal civil rights legislation and the integration of the University of Texas. Sweeping reform and modernization of public education took place during Jester's term in the Gilmer-Akin Laws. Jester also supported the passage of a right-to-work law that abolished union shops in Texas.

Jester died of a heart attack on July 11, 1949, the only Texas governor to die in office.

Handbook of Texas article about Governor Beauford H. Jester

View Photographs of Governor Beauford H. Jester
 

Letter from R. O'Hara Lanier,
president of Texas State University
for Negroes