William A. Blakley: Difference between revisions
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{{Short description|American politician and businessman (1898–1976)}} |
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|name = Bill Blakley |
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|caption = Blakley in 1961 |
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|jr/sr = United States Senator |
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|state = [[Texas]] |
|state = [[Texas]] |
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|term_start = January 3, 1961 |
|term_start = January 3, 1961 |
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|predecessor2 = Price Daniel |
|predecessor2 = Price Daniel |
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|successor2 = [[Ralph Yarborough]] |
|successor2 = [[Ralph Yarborough]] |
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|birth_name |
|birth_name = William Arvis Blakley |
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|birth_date = November 17, 1898 |
|birth_date = November 17, 1898 |
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|birth_place = [[Miami Station, |
|birth_place = [[Miami Station, Missouri]], U.S. |
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|death_date = {{death date and age|1976|1|5|1898|11|17}} |
|death_date = {{death date and age|1976|1|5|1898|11|17}} |
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|death_place = [[ |
|death_place = [[Dallas]], Texas, U.S. |
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|constituency = |
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|party = [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic]] |
|party = [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic]] |
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|spouse =Villa Darnell Blakley |
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|children = 5 (3 Son and 5 Daughters) |
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|battles = [[World War I]] |
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|religion = |
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|signature = |
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|footnotes = |
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|battles=[[World War I]] |
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'''William Arvis "Dollar Bill" Blakley''' (November 17, 1898 |
'''William Arvis "Dollar Bill" Blakley''' (November 17, 1898 – January 5, 1976) was an American politician and businessman from the state of [[Texas]]. Blakley was part of the [[conservatism in the United States|conservative]] wing of the Texas [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic Party]]. He served twice as an interim United States Senator, appointed by the Governor to fill a vacancy until his successor could be duly elected. He served first in 1957 after the resignation of [[Price Daniel]] and again in 1961 after the resignation of [[Lyndon B. Johnson]]. |
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Blakley ran two unsuccessful campaigns for election to the Senate in his own right. He lost the regularly scheduled 1958 primary election to incumbent [[modern liberalism in the United States|liberal]] Democrat [[Ralph Yarborough]]. He lost as the incumbent in the 1961 election to complete Johnson's term to [[John Tower]], the first Republican ever popularly elected from Texas. |
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==Early years and careers== |
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⚫ | Blakley was born in [[Miami Station, Missouri|Miami Station]], [[Missouri]], but moved shortly |
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==Early years and career== |
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⚫ | Blakley was born in [[Miami Station, Missouri|Miami Station]], [[Missouri]], but moved shortly after that with his parents to [[Arapaho, Oklahoma|Arapaho]], Oklahoma. He worked as a [[ranch]] hand as a young man, earning the nickname "Cowboy Bill." Blakley served with the [[United States Army]] in the [[First World War]]; he was admitted to the [[bar association|bar]] in 1933 and joined a law firm in [[Dallas]], Texas. In following years, his interests expanded into real estate, ranch land, banking, and insurance; by 1957, he was estimated to be worth $300 million.{{Cn|date=October 2022}} |
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In 1956, [[Allan Shivers]] opted not to run for a fourth term as [[Governor of Texas]]; Senator [[Price Daniel]], as a sitting U.S. Senator was elected Governor of Texas. Like Shivers and Daniel, Blakley was an "Eisenhower Democrat" who had supported [[Dwight D. Eisenhower|Dwight Eisenhower]] over the national Democratic Party candidate [[Adlai Stevenson II|Adlai Stevenson]] in [[U.S. presidential election, 1952|1952]] and [[U.S. presidential election, 1956|1956]]. Blakley, who had gained prominence in Texas politics for his business successes, was at the time building a $125 million shopping center and a 1,000-room hotel in Dallas. Governor Shivers, who had been considering appointing a Republican candidate to the Senate seat, instead named Blakley to the United States Senate pending a special election for the seat. Pressured by the Democratic Party in the interests of cooling tensions from the gubernatorial election, Blakley did not seek the remaining term as senator. He hence served for fewer than four months from January 15 to April 28. Ralph Yarborough succeeded him in the special election, winning with a [[plurality (voting)|plurality]] of the vote when the conservatives divided three ways, with Republican [[Thad Hutcheson]] of [[Houston, Texas|Houston]] and Democratic U.S. Representative [[Martin Dies, Jr.]], collectively holding 53 percent of the vote. Thereafter, Texas law was changed to require a runoff between the two leading candidates in a special election if no one had a majority in the first round). Blakley left the Senate saying "I shall go back to my boots and saddle and ride toward the Western sunset."<ref>http://www.time.com/time/archive/preview/0,10987,913915,00.html</ref> |
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==Entry to politics== |
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⚫ | When the seat came up again the following year in the ordinary election cycle, Blakley ran in the primary against Yarborough as the conservative "Shivercrat" candidate. Blakley ran with the backing of [[Price Daniel]], Yarborough's colleague in the Senate, [[Lyndon Johnson]], and the southern bloc of senators who disagreed with Yarborough's progressive |
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In 1956, [[Allan Shivers]] opted not to run for a fourth term as [[Governor of Texas]]; Senator [[Price Daniel]], as a sitting U.S. Senator, was elected Governor of Texas. Like Shivers and Daniel, Blakley was an "Eisenhower Democrat" who had supported [[Dwight D. Eisenhower|Dwight Eisenhower]] over the national Democratic Party candidate [[Adlai Stevenson II|Adlai Stevenson]] in [[U.S. presidential election, 1952|1952]] and [[U.S. presidential election, 1956|1956]]. |
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Blakley, who had gained prominence in Texas politics for his business successes, was building a $125 million shopping center and a 1,000-room hotel in Dallas. Governor Shivers, who had been considering appointing a Republican candidate to the Senate seat, named Blakley to the Senate pending a special election. |
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Pressured by the Democratic Party to cool tensions from the gubernatorial election, Blakley did not seek the remaining term as senator and served for fewer than four months, from January 15 to April 28. Ralph Yarborough succeeded him in the special election, winning with a [[plurality (voting)|plurality]] of the vote when the conservatives divided three ways, with Republican [[Thad Hutcheson]] of [[Houston]] and Democratic U.S. Representative [[Martin Dies, Jr.]], collectively holding 53 percent of the vote. |
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After Blakely's death, it was reported in an interview that Blakely considered Lyndon Johnson to have been "devious and arrogant ... He would say something nice to your face and when you left the room, he would remark, 'that crazy s.o.b. I could talk easier with John F. Kennedy."<ref name=wblakely>"Johnson called 'devious, arrogant'", ''[[Minden Press-Herald]]'', [[Minden, Louisiana|Minden]], [[Louisiana]], January 6, 1976, p. 3</ref> |
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After that, Texas law was changed to require a runoff between the two leading candidates in a special election if no one had a majority in the first round. Blakley left the Senate saying, "I shall go back to my boots and saddle and ride toward the Western sunset."<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20050213155427/http://www.time.com/time/archive/preview/0,10987,913915,00.html Time (magazine)]</ref> |
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⚫ | When the seat came up again the following year in the ordinary election cycle, Blakley ran in the primary against Yarborough as the conservative "Shivercrat" candidate. Blakley ran with the backing of [[Price Daniel]], Yarborough's colleague in the Senate, [[Lyndon Johnson]], and the southern bloc of senators who disagreed with Yarborough's progressive platform against [[racial segregation in the United States|segregation]]. The [[Speaker of the United States House of Representatives]], [[Sam Rayburn]], a fellow Texan, backed Yarborough in the election though he had supported naming Blakley to the temporary Senate seat in 1957. Rayburn's support proved critical. Blakley was defeated in the primary, and Yarborough kept his Senate seat by a margin of 680,000 to Blakley's 486,000. |
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In 1961, upon [[Lyndon B. Johnson|Lyndon Johnson]] becoming Vice President of the United States, Blakley was appointed to fill Johnson's vacated Senate seat. Contention again appeared between the liberal and conservative wings of the Democratic Party for the nomination in the special election that would follow; Blakley maintained that he had vigorously resisted [[John F. Kennedy]]'s "[[New Frontier]]" legislation, which was unpopular with Texas conservatives. Consequently, Ralph Yarborough did not endorse Blakley among the 71 candidates who ran without party designation. |
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⚫ | Blakley ran a weak second with 191,818 (18.1 percent) votes to Republican [[John Tower]]'s 327,308 (30.9 percent), with the remaining ballots divided among five other major Democratic candidates, including future U.S. House Speaker [[Jim Wright]] of [[Fort Worth]], with 171,328 (16.2 percent). In the special election runoff, some Texas liberals refused to vote for a Democratic candidate who seemed as conservative as the Republican nominee,<ref>These Texas liberals either sat out the election or even voted for Tower to protest Texas' conservative Democratic hegemony. In effect, they were laying the groundwork for a [[two-party system]].</ref> and some Texas conservatives viewed Blakley's conservatism as lukewarm. Blakley, at 62, was older than his Republican opponent--Tower was 35. Tower won the seat in the special election runoff with 448,217 votes (50.6 percent) to Blakley's 437,872 (49.4 percent), a margin of 10,343. Blakley was the first Democratic senator to lose to a Republican in Texas in over eighty years. |
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Blakely also claimed that former Governor [[Allan Shivers]], a [[Conservative Democrat]], had urged Blakely not to run against Tower because he favored the Republican candidate in the race.<ref name=wblakely/> |
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==Final years and death== |
==Final years and death== |
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After losing the Senate election, Blakley left politics and returned to his business interests. He died in Dallas and is buried there in Restland Memorial Park, alongside his wife, the former Villa W. Darnell |
After losing the Senate election, Blakley left politics and returned to his business interests. He died in Dallas and is buried there in [[Restland Memorial Park]], alongside his wife, the former Villa W. Darnell, a native of [[Washita County, Oklahoma|Washita County]], Oklahoma, who also died in Dallas. The couple had five children. |
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==Blakley Braniff Foundation== |
==Blakley Braniff Foundation== |
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A library at the [[University of Dallas]] is named after him as a result of his and Braniff founder and President [[Thomas Elmer Braniff]]'s support of the school through endowments from their Blakley Braniff Foundation. Blakley had contributed 100 million |
A library at the [[University of Dallas]] is named after him as a result of his and Braniff founder and President [[Thomas Elmer Braniff]]'s support of the school through endowments from their Blakley Braniff Foundation. Blakley had contributed US$100 million to the foundation. Before 1961, Blakley was the largest single shareholder of [[Braniff International Airways]].<ref name=Guttery>{{cite book|last=Guttery|first=Ben R.|title=Representing Texas: A Comprehensive History of US and Confederate Senators and Representatives From Texas|year=2007|publisher=Ben R. Guttery|location=Texas|isbn=978-1-4196-7884-4|pages=26–27|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-14gbMQftG0C&pg=PA27}}</ref> |
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{{Portal| |
{{Portal|United States|Oklahoma|Texas|Business and Economics|Law|Politics|Conservatism}} |
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==References== |
==References== |
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==External links== |
==External links== |
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* [http://www.time.com/time/archive/preview/0,10987,826982,00.html "New Course in Texas"] from ''Time'' magazine, |
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20050326221121/http://www.time.com/time/archive/preview/0,10987,826982,00.html "New Course in Texas"] from ''Time'' magazine, June 2, 1961 |
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* [http://www.time.com/time/archive/preview/0,10987,808962,00.html "Harmony in Texas"] from ''Time'' magazine, |
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20050326232656/http://www.time.com/time/archive/preview/0,10987,808962,00.html "Harmony in Texas"] from ''Time'' magazine, July 28, 1957 |
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* [http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/wad01 Handbook of Texas article on the Democratic Party], from University of Texas |
* [http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/wad01 Handbook of Texas article on the Democratic Party], from University of Texas |
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* [https://www.facebook.com/braniffflyingcolors?fref=ts Braniff Flying Colors Historical Page] |
* [https://www.facebook.com/braniffflyingcolors?fref=ts Braniff Flying Colors Historical Page] |
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{{s-ttl|title=[[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic]] nominee for [[United States Senator|U.S. Senator]] from [[List of United States Senators from Texas|Texas]]<br />([[Classes of United States Senators|Class 2]])|years=[[1961 United States Senate special election in Texas|1961]]}} |
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{{s-aft|after=[[Waggoner Carr]]}} |
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{{U.S. Senator box |
{{U.S. Senator box |
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[[Category:1898 births]] |
[[Category:1898 births]] |
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[[Category:1976 deaths]] |
[[Category:1976 deaths]] |
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[[Category: |
[[Category:United States Army personnel of World War I]] |
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[[Category:Appointed United States Senators]] |
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[[Category:Braniff]] |
[[Category:Braniff]] |
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[[Category:Democratic Party United States |
[[Category:Democratic Party United States senators from Texas]] |
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[[Category:People from Carroll County, Missouri]] |
[[Category:People from Carroll County, Missouri]] |
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[[Category:People from Custer County, Oklahoma]] |
[[Category:People from Custer County, Oklahoma]] |
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[[Category:Businesspeople from Dallas]] |
[[Category:Businesspeople from Dallas]] |
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[[Category:United States Army soldiers]] |
[[Category:United States Army soldiers]] |
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[[Category:United States Senators from Texas]] |
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[[Category:20th-century American politicians]] |
[[Category:20th-century American politicians]] |
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[[Category:20th-century American lawyers]] |
Latest revision as of 23:39, 20 May 2024
Bill Blakley | |
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Blakley in 1961 | |
United States Senator from Texas | |
In office January 3, 1961 – June 14, 1961 | |
Appointed by | Price Daniel |
Preceded by | Lyndon B. Johnson |
Succeeded by | John Tower |
In office January 15, 1957 – April 28, 1957 | |
Appointed by | Allan Shivers |
Preceded by | Price Daniel |
Succeeded by | Ralph Yarborough |
Personal details | |
Born | William Arvis Blakley November 17, 1898 Miami Station, Missouri, U.S. |
Died | January 5, 1976 Dallas, Texas, U.S. | (aged 77)
Political party | Democratic |
Military service | |
Allegiance | |
Branch/service | |
Battles/wars | World War I |
William Arvis "Dollar Bill" Blakley (November 17, 1898 – January 5, 1976) was an American politician and businessman from the state of Texas. Blakley was part of the conservative wing of the Texas Democratic Party. He served twice as an interim United States Senator, appointed by the Governor to fill a vacancy until his successor could be duly elected. He served first in 1957 after the resignation of Price Daniel and again in 1961 after the resignation of Lyndon B. Johnson.
Blakley ran two unsuccessful campaigns for election to the Senate in his own right. He lost the regularly scheduled 1958 primary election to incumbent liberal Democrat Ralph Yarborough. He lost as the incumbent in the 1961 election to complete Johnson's term to John Tower, the first Republican ever popularly elected from Texas.
Early years and career
[edit]Blakley was born in Miami Station, Missouri, but moved shortly after that with his parents to Arapaho, Oklahoma. He worked as a ranch hand as a young man, earning the nickname "Cowboy Bill." Blakley served with the United States Army in the First World War; he was admitted to the bar in 1933 and joined a law firm in Dallas, Texas. In following years, his interests expanded into real estate, ranch land, banking, and insurance; by 1957, he was estimated to be worth $300 million.[citation needed]
Entry to politics
[edit]In 1956, Allan Shivers opted not to run for a fourth term as Governor of Texas; Senator Price Daniel, as a sitting U.S. Senator, was elected Governor of Texas. Like Shivers and Daniel, Blakley was an "Eisenhower Democrat" who had supported Dwight Eisenhower over the national Democratic Party candidate Adlai Stevenson in 1952 and 1956.
Blakley, who had gained prominence in Texas politics for his business successes, was building a $125 million shopping center and a 1,000-room hotel in Dallas. Governor Shivers, who had been considering appointing a Republican candidate to the Senate seat, named Blakley to the Senate pending a special election.
Pressured by the Democratic Party to cool tensions from the gubernatorial election, Blakley did not seek the remaining term as senator and served for fewer than four months, from January 15 to April 28. Ralph Yarborough succeeded him in the special election, winning with a plurality of the vote when the conservatives divided three ways, with Republican Thad Hutcheson of Houston and Democratic U.S. Representative Martin Dies, Jr., collectively holding 53 percent of the vote.
After that, Texas law was changed to require a runoff between the two leading candidates in a special election if no one had a majority in the first round. Blakley left the Senate saying, "I shall go back to my boots and saddle and ride toward the Western sunset."[1]
When the seat came up again the following year in the ordinary election cycle, Blakley ran in the primary against Yarborough as the conservative "Shivercrat" candidate. Blakley ran with the backing of Price Daniel, Yarborough's colleague in the Senate, Lyndon Johnson, and the southern bloc of senators who disagreed with Yarborough's progressive platform against segregation. The Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, Sam Rayburn, a fellow Texan, backed Yarborough in the election though he had supported naming Blakley to the temporary Senate seat in 1957. Rayburn's support proved critical. Blakley was defeated in the primary, and Yarborough kept his Senate seat by a margin of 680,000 to Blakley's 486,000.
Senate appointment and subsequent loss
[edit]In 1961, upon Lyndon Johnson becoming Vice President of the United States, Blakley was appointed to fill Johnson's vacated Senate seat. Contention again appeared between the liberal and conservative wings of the Democratic Party for the nomination in the special election that would follow; Blakley maintained that he had vigorously resisted John F. Kennedy's "New Frontier" legislation, which was unpopular with Texas conservatives. Consequently, Ralph Yarborough did not endorse Blakley among the 71 candidates who ran without party designation.
Blakley ran a weak second with 191,818 (18.1 percent) votes to Republican John Tower's 327,308 (30.9 percent), with the remaining ballots divided among five other major Democratic candidates, including future U.S. House Speaker Jim Wright of Fort Worth, with 171,328 (16.2 percent). In the special election runoff, some Texas liberals refused to vote for a Democratic candidate who seemed as conservative as the Republican nominee,[2] and some Texas conservatives viewed Blakley's conservatism as lukewarm. Blakley, at 62, was older than his Republican opponent--Tower was 35. Tower won the seat in the special election runoff with 448,217 votes (50.6 percent) to Blakley's 437,872 (49.4 percent), a margin of 10,343. Blakley was the first Democratic senator to lose to a Republican in Texas in over eighty years.
Final years and death
[edit]After losing the Senate election, Blakley left politics and returned to his business interests. He died in Dallas and is buried there in Restland Memorial Park, alongside his wife, the former Villa W. Darnell, a native of Washita County, Oklahoma, who also died in Dallas. The couple had five children.
Blakley Braniff Foundation
[edit]A library at the University of Dallas is named after him as a result of his and Braniff founder and President Thomas Elmer Braniff's support of the school through endowments from their Blakley Braniff Foundation. Blakley had contributed US$100 million to the foundation. Before 1961, Blakley was the largest single shareholder of Braniff International Airways.[3]
References
[edit]- ^ Time (magazine)
- ^ These Texas liberals either sat out the election or even voted for Tower to protest Texas' conservative Democratic hegemony. In effect, they were laying the groundwork for a two-party system.
- ^ Guttery, Ben R. (2007). Representing Texas: A Comprehensive History of US and Confederate Senators and Representatives From Texas. Texas: Ben R. Guttery. pp. 26–27. ISBN 978-1-4196-7884-4.
External links
[edit]- "New Course in Texas" from Time magazine, June 2, 1961
- "Harmony in Texas" from Time magazine, July 28, 1957
- Handbook of Texas article on the Democratic Party, from University of Texas
- Braniff Flying Colors Historical Page
- United States Congress. "William A. Blakley (id: B000536)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.
- 1898 births
- 1976 deaths
- United States Army personnel of World War I
- Braniff
- Democratic Party United States senators from Texas
- People from Carroll County, Missouri
- People from Custer County, Oklahoma
- Politicians from Dallas
- Military personnel from Missouri
- Texas Democrats
- Texas lawyers
- Businesspeople from Dallas
- United States Army soldiers
- 20th-century American politicians
- 20th-century American businesspeople
- 20th-century American lawyers