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Created page with "{{Infobox officeholder | name=Will Reid Wilson, Sr. | office=Attorney General of Texas, USA | term_start=1957 | term_end=1963 | preceded=John Ben Shepperd..."
{{Infobox officeholder
| name=Will Reid Wilson, Sr.
| office=Attorney General of [[Texas]], USA
| term_start=1957
| term_end=1963
| preceded=[[John Ben Shepperd]]
| succeeded=Vincent Waggoner Carr
| office2=Assistant [[United States Attorney General]], Criminal Division
| term_start2=1969
| term_end2=1971
| office3=[[Texas Supreme Court]] associate justice
| term_start3=1951
| term_end3=1956
| office4=[[Dallas|Dallas County]]
| term_start4=1947
| term_end4=1951
| party=[[Democratic Party|Democrat]]; switched to [[Republican Party|Republican]]
| birth_date=July 29, 1912
| birth_place=[[Dallas]], [[Texas]]
| death_date=December 14, 2005 (aged 93)
| death_place=[[Austin]], Texas
| resting_place=Texas State Cemetery in Austin
| occupation=[[Attorney]]; Rancher<br>
Major in [[United States Army]] in [[World War II]]
| spouse= Marjorie Lou Ashcroft Wilson (married 1948-1984, her death)
| children=Two sons, including Will Wilson, Jr.
| alma_mater=[[University of Oklahoma]]<br/>
[[Southern Methodist University]]
}}
'''Will Reid Wilson, Sr.''' (July 29, 1912 – December 14, 2005), was a prominent [[Democratic Party|Democratic]] [[politician]] in his native [[Texas]] best known for his service as attorney general of [[Texas]] from 1957 to 1963. In 1968, he joined the [[Republican Party]] to support the election of [[Richard M. Nixon]] as [[U.S. President]]. Nixon thereafter named Wilson an assistant U.S. attorney general under [[John Newton Mitchell]]. Wilson left the federal post a year before the [[Watergate]] break-in began to shatter the Nixon administration.
==Background==
Wilson was born to Will R. and Kate Wilson in [[Dallas]], where he graduated from Highland Park High School i University Park. He received his Bachelor of Science degree in [[Geology]] at the [[University of Oklahoma]] at Norman.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://tarlton.law.utexas.edu/justices/spct/wilson.html|title=Will Reid Wilson, Sr. (1912-2005)|publisher=Tarlton Law Center of University of Texas|accessdate=December 24, 2008}}</ref> Then he entered the Dedham Law School of [[Southern Methodist University]] in Dallas, which named him a "Distinguished Graduate." He joined the law firm of Turner, Rogers, and Wynn and served as an aide to Dallas [[Mayor]] Woodall Rogers, who served in the nonpartisan position from 1939 to 1947. Wilson left Dallas to become an assistant Texas attorney general in the state capital in [[Austin]].<ref name=obit>Will R. Wilson, Sr., [[obituary]], ''[[Austin American-Statesman]]'', December 16, 2005</ref>
During [[World War II]], Wilson joined the [[United States Army]] and advanced to the rank of major, having served in the Pacific theater of operations in [[New Guinea]] and the [[Philippines]], where he was on the staff of [[General]]s Walter Kruger I.P. Swift. He was the battalion commander of the 465th Field Artillery. He accepted the surrender of the staff of the [[Japanese people|Japanese]] General Yamashita and received the [[Bronze Star]] for heroism in [[combat]] from General Swift. After the war, Wilson returned to Dallas to practice law.<ref name=tsc>{{cite web|url=http://www.cemetery.state.tx.us/pub/user_form.asp?step=1&pers_id=2793|title=Cemetery burials|publisher=Texas State Cemetery, Austin, Texas|accessdate=December 24, 2008}}</ref>
==Attorney General Wilson==
In 1946, Wilson was elected to a four-year term as district attorney of Dallas County, having served from 1947 to 1951. In 1950, he was elected to the nine-member Texas Supreme Court, the final authority in civil cases and juvenile matters in the state. He left the court as associate justice in 1956 to run for attorney general to succeed the Democrat [[John Ben Shepperd]].<ref name=obit/>
While he was attorney general, Wilson received the Wymann Memorial Award for 1959–1960 as the "Outstanding Attorney General in the United States."<ref name=tsc/> He moved to halt [[prostitution]] in several cities, including [[Galveston, Texas|Galveston]], Victoria, Cuero, Big Spring, Texarkana, [[Beaumont, Texas|Beaumont]], and [[Port Arthur, Texas|Port Arthur]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.southernhistory.net/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=9225&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0|title=Prostitution in Texas|publisher=''Southern History''|accessdate=December 24, 2008}}</ref> Wilson's service as the top lawyer for state government ended in January 1963, when he was succeeded by fellow Democrat Vincent Waggoner Carr of [[Lubbock]].
==Back-to-back Senate and gubernatorial races==
In the spring of 1961, Wilson, along with some seventy other individuals, paid the $50 filing fee to enter the [[special election]] for the [[United States Senate]] seat vacated by [[Vice President of the United States]] [[Lyndon B. Johnson]],<ref name=tsc/> who along with [[John Connally|John B. Connally, Jr.]], as [[U.S. Secretary of the Navy]], had joined the new administration of [[John F. Kennedy]]. Wilson trailed in fourth place in the special election with 121,961 votes (11.5 percent).<ref>''Congressional Quarterly's Guide to U.S. Elections''</ref> Ultimately, Republican [[John Tower]], then a college [[professor]] from [[Wichita Falls]] and later from Dallas, won the remaining five and one-half years of Johnson's term by approximately ten thousand votes over Senator William Arvis Blakley of Dallas. who had been appointed on an interim basis by Governor Daniel, himself a former U.S. senator and Texas attorney general.
Wilson did not seek a fourth two-year term as attorney general in 1962; instead he entered the Democratic gubernatorial primary against several prominent opponents, including [[incumbent]] Marion Price Daniel, Sr., of Liberty]], highway commissioner Marshall Formby of Plainview]], General [[Edwin A. Walker]], who made [[anti-communism]] the centerpiece of his campaign, and the leading candidates, former U.S. Secretary of the Navy John Connally of Floresville, and [[liberal]] attorney Don Yarborough of [[Houston, Texas|Houston]] (no relation to his fellow liberal U.S. Senator [[Ralph Yarborough]] of Austin). In the campaign, Wilson was particularly critical of a politician not on the ballot: Lyndon Johnson. Wilson declared that Johnson had engineered Connally's candidacy because the vice president feared a Republican victory in Texas in 1962. According to Wilson, Johnson was engaged in "a move ... to oust Price Daniel, oust me, oust Senator Ralph Yarborough and gain complete control of the state government."<ref>Charles Ashman, ''Connally: The Adventures of Big Bad John,'' New York: William Morrow, 1974, p. 98.</ref>
Ultimately, Connally narrowly won the nomination in a runoff election against Yarborough and then defeated the strongest Republican gubernatorial candidate in Texas since 1924, Jack M. Cox]] of Houston in the [[general election]]. Cox had lost the Democratic nomination to Governor Daniel in the 1960 party primary.<ref>Review of Texas gubernatorial election returns, ''Congressional Quarterly Weekly Report.''</ref> In 1964, Cox, a part of the [[conservative]] wing of his new party, lost the Republican nomination for the U.S. Senate to [[George Herbert Walker Bush]], also of Houston, and the future vice president and U.S. President.
==Federal service==
After his Senate and gubernatorial election defeats, Wilson co-founded the law firm, Wilson, Kendall, Koch, and Randall in Austin. He served from 1969 to 1971 as the assistant attorney general in charge of the Criminal Division of the Justice Department. Wilson's book ''A Fool For a Client'' focuses upon President Nixon's decline, pending [[impeachment]], and ultimate resignation from the Oval Office.<ref name=tsc/> The conservative Wilson switched to the Republican Party more than five years before Connally did so. Ironically, it was Connally, considered a political pragmatist, whom Nixon most highly regarded, having appointed him [[United States Secretary of the Treasury]] in 1970 and reportedly having considered Connally for the vice-presidential nomination vacated in 1973 by [[Spiro T. Agnew]].<ref>Ashman, ''Connally,'' pp. 179-183.</ref>
==Family and death==
Wilson was married for thirty-six years, until her death, to the former Marjorie Lou Ashcroft (1918–1984).<ref name=ssdi/> The couple had two children and five grandchildren. Known for his [[cowboy]] [[humor]], Wilson operated two ranches: Brushy Creek in Williamson County and Little River Ranch in Milam County. He served as director of the Brushy Creek and Upper Brushy Creek Water Control Improvement Districts for two decades. He was also chairman of the Cullum and Boren and the Wilson Land and Cattle companies.<ref name=obit/>
Wilson died at the age of ninety-three and was interred on December 17, 2005, alongside his wife in the Patriot's Hill section, Row R, No. 24, of the Texas State Cemetery in Austin.<ref name=tsc/>
==References==
{{reflist}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wilson, Will]]
[[Category:Texas]]
[[Category:Attorneys]]
[[Category:Politicians]]
[[Category:Former Democrats]]
[[Category:Republicans]]
[[Category:World War II]]
[[Category:United States Army]]
| name=Will Reid Wilson, Sr.
| office=Attorney General of [[Texas]], USA
| term_start=1957
| term_end=1963
| preceded=[[John Ben Shepperd]]
| succeeded=Vincent Waggoner Carr
| office2=Assistant [[United States Attorney General]], Criminal Division
| term_start2=1969
| term_end2=1971
| office3=[[Texas Supreme Court]] associate justice
| term_start3=1951
| term_end3=1956
| office4=[[Dallas|Dallas County]]
| term_start4=1947
| term_end4=1951
| party=[[Democratic Party|Democrat]]; switched to [[Republican Party|Republican]]
| birth_date=July 29, 1912
| birth_place=[[Dallas]], [[Texas]]
| death_date=December 14, 2005 (aged 93)
| death_place=[[Austin]], Texas
| resting_place=Texas State Cemetery in Austin
| occupation=[[Attorney]]; Rancher<br>
Major in [[United States Army]] in [[World War II]]
| spouse= Marjorie Lou Ashcroft Wilson (married 1948-1984, her death)
| children=Two sons, including Will Wilson, Jr.
| alma_mater=[[University of Oklahoma]]<br/>
[[Southern Methodist University]]
}}
'''Will Reid Wilson, Sr.''' (July 29, 1912 – December 14, 2005), was a prominent [[Democratic Party|Democratic]] [[politician]] in his native [[Texas]] best known for his service as attorney general of [[Texas]] from 1957 to 1963. In 1968, he joined the [[Republican Party]] to support the election of [[Richard M. Nixon]] as [[U.S. President]]. Nixon thereafter named Wilson an assistant U.S. attorney general under [[John Newton Mitchell]]. Wilson left the federal post a year before the [[Watergate]] break-in began to shatter the Nixon administration.
==Background==
Wilson was born to Will R. and Kate Wilson in [[Dallas]], where he graduated from Highland Park High School i University Park. He received his Bachelor of Science degree in [[Geology]] at the [[University of Oklahoma]] at Norman.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://tarlton.law.utexas.edu/justices/spct/wilson.html|title=Will Reid Wilson, Sr. (1912-2005)|publisher=Tarlton Law Center of University of Texas|accessdate=December 24, 2008}}</ref> Then he entered the Dedham Law School of [[Southern Methodist University]] in Dallas, which named him a "Distinguished Graduate." He joined the law firm of Turner, Rogers, and Wynn and served as an aide to Dallas [[Mayor]] Woodall Rogers, who served in the nonpartisan position from 1939 to 1947. Wilson left Dallas to become an assistant Texas attorney general in the state capital in [[Austin]].<ref name=obit>Will R. Wilson, Sr., [[obituary]], ''[[Austin American-Statesman]]'', December 16, 2005</ref>
During [[World War II]], Wilson joined the [[United States Army]] and advanced to the rank of major, having served in the Pacific theater of operations in [[New Guinea]] and the [[Philippines]], where he was on the staff of [[General]]s Walter Kruger I.P. Swift. He was the battalion commander of the 465th Field Artillery. He accepted the surrender of the staff of the [[Japanese people|Japanese]] General Yamashita and received the [[Bronze Star]] for heroism in [[combat]] from General Swift. After the war, Wilson returned to Dallas to practice law.<ref name=tsc>{{cite web|url=http://www.cemetery.state.tx.us/pub/user_form.asp?step=1&pers_id=2793|title=Cemetery burials|publisher=Texas State Cemetery, Austin, Texas|accessdate=December 24, 2008}}</ref>
==Attorney General Wilson==
In 1946, Wilson was elected to a four-year term as district attorney of Dallas County, having served from 1947 to 1951. In 1950, he was elected to the nine-member Texas Supreme Court, the final authority in civil cases and juvenile matters in the state. He left the court as associate justice in 1956 to run for attorney general to succeed the Democrat [[John Ben Shepperd]].<ref name=obit/>
While he was attorney general, Wilson received the Wymann Memorial Award for 1959–1960 as the "Outstanding Attorney General in the United States."<ref name=tsc/> He moved to halt [[prostitution]] in several cities, including [[Galveston, Texas|Galveston]], Victoria, Cuero, Big Spring, Texarkana, [[Beaumont, Texas|Beaumont]], and [[Port Arthur, Texas|Port Arthur]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.southernhistory.net/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=9225&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0|title=Prostitution in Texas|publisher=''Southern History''|accessdate=December 24, 2008}}</ref> Wilson's service as the top lawyer for state government ended in January 1963, when he was succeeded by fellow Democrat Vincent Waggoner Carr of [[Lubbock]].
==Back-to-back Senate and gubernatorial races==
In the spring of 1961, Wilson, along with some seventy other individuals, paid the $50 filing fee to enter the [[special election]] for the [[United States Senate]] seat vacated by [[Vice President of the United States]] [[Lyndon B. Johnson]],<ref name=tsc/> who along with [[John Connally|John B. Connally, Jr.]], as [[U.S. Secretary of the Navy]], had joined the new administration of [[John F. Kennedy]]. Wilson trailed in fourth place in the special election with 121,961 votes (11.5 percent).<ref>''Congressional Quarterly's Guide to U.S. Elections''</ref> Ultimately, Republican [[John Tower]], then a college [[professor]] from [[Wichita Falls]] and later from Dallas, won the remaining five and one-half years of Johnson's term by approximately ten thousand votes over Senator William Arvis Blakley of Dallas. who had been appointed on an interim basis by Governor Daniel, himself a former U.S. senator and Texas attorney general.
Wilson did not seek a fourth two-year term as attorney general in 1962; instead he entered the Democratic gubernatorial primary against several prominent opponents, including [[incumbent]] Marion Price Daniel, Sr., of Liberty]], highway commissioner Marshall Formby of Plainview]], General [[Edwin A. Walker]], who made [[anti-communism]] the centerpiece of his campaign, and the leading candidates, former U.S. Secretary of the Navy John Connally of Floresville, and [[liberal]] attorney Don Yarborough of [[Houston, Texas|Houston]] (no relation to his fellow liberal U.S. Senator [[Ralph Yarborough]] of Austin). In the campaign, Wilson was particularly critical of a politician not on the ballot: Lyndon Johnson. Wilson declared that Johnson had engineered Connally's candidacy because the vice president feared a Republican victory in Texas in 1962. According to Wilson, Johnson was engaged in "a move ... to oust Price Daniel, oust me, oust Senator Ralph Yarborough and gain complete control of the state government."<ref>Charles Ashman, ''Connally: The Adventures of Big Bad John,'' New York: William Morrow, 1974, p. 98.</ref>
Ultimately, Connally narrowly won the nomination in a runoff election against Yarborough and then defeated the strongest Republican gubernatorial candidate in Texas since 1924, Jack M. Cox]] of Houston in the [[general election]]. Cox had lost the Democratic nomination to Governor Daniel in the 1960 party primary.<ref>Review of Texas gubernatorial election returns, ''Congressional Quarterly Weekly Report.''</ref> In 1964, Cox, a part of the [[conservative]] wing of his new party, lost the Republican nomination for the U.S. Senate to [[George Herbert Walker Bush]], also of Houston, and the future vice president and U.S. President.
==Federal service==
After his Senate and gubernatorial election defeats, Wilson co-founded the law firm, Wilson, Kendall, Koch, and Randall in Austin. He served from 1969 to 1971 as the assistant attorney general in charge of the Criminal Division of the Justice Department. Wilson's book ''A Fool For a Client'' focuses upon President Nixon's decline, pending [[impeachment]], and ultimate resignation from the Oval Office.<ref name=tsc/> The conservative Wilson switched to the Republican Party more than five years before Connally did so. Ironically, it was Connally, considered a political pragmatist, whom Nixon most highly regarded, having appointed him [[United States Secretary of the Treasury]] in 1970 and reportedly having considered Connally for the vice-presidential nomination vacated in 1973 by [[Spiro T. Agnew]].<ref>Ashman, ''Connally,'' pp. 179-183.</ref>
==Family and death==
Wilson was married for thirty-six years, until her death, to the former Marjorie Lou Ashcroft (1918–1984).<ref name=ssdi/> The couple had two children and five grandchildren. Known for his [[cowboy]] [[humor]], Wilson operated two ranches: Brushy Creek in Williamson County and Little River Ranch in Milam County. He served as director of the Brushy Creek and Upper Brushy Creek Water Control Improvement Districts for two decades. He was also chairman of the Cullum and Boren and the Wilson Land and Cattle companies.<ref name=obit/>
Wilson died at the age of ninety-three and was interred on December 17, 2005, alongside his wife in the Patriot's Hill section, Row R, No. 24, of the Texas State Cemetery in Austin.<ref name=tsc/>
==References==
{{reflist}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wilson, Will]]
[[Category:Texas]]
[[Category:Attorneys]]
[[Category:Politicians]]
[[Category:Former Democrats]]
[[Category:Republicans]]
[[Category:World War II]]
[[Category:United States Army]]