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Created page with "{{Infobox officeholder | name=Marshall Clinton Formby, Jr. | office=Texas State Senator for now District 30 (Andrews, Bailey, Borden, Cochran, Cottle, Crosby, Dawson,..."
{{Infobox officeholder
| name=Marshall Clinton Formby, Jr.
| office=[[Texas]] State Senator for now District 30 (Andrews, Bailey, Borden, Cochran, Cottle, Crosby, Dawson, Dickens, Floyd, Gaines, Garza, Hale, Hockley, Howard, Kent, King, Lamb, Lubbock , Lynn, Martin, Motley, Stonewall, Terry, and Yoakum counties)
| term_start =1941
| term_end=1945
| preceded =G. Hobert Nelson
| succeeded =Sterling J. Parrish
| office2=County judge of Dickens County, Texas
| term_start2=1937
| term_end2=1940
| party=[[Democratic Party|Democrat]]
| birth_date=April 12, 1911
| birth_place=Como, Hopkins County<br>Texas
| death_date=December 27, 1984 (aged 73)
| death_place=Plainview, Hale County, Texas
| spouse=Sharleen Wells Formby (1946-1984, his death)<br/>
later Sharleen Formby Rhoads
|children=Frances Formby Seales
David W. Formby
| relations=[[Robert Duncan]] (nephew)
[[Clint Formby]] (nephew)<br>
[[Margaret Formby]], (nephew's wife)
| alma_mater=Spur High School<br>
[[Texas Tech University]]<b/>
[[University of Texas at Austin]]<br>
[[Baylor University]]
|occupation=[[Attorney]]<br>[[Journalist]]<br/>[[Radio]] station owner
| religion =[[Southern Baptist]]}}
'''Marshall Clinton Formby, Jr.''' (April 12, 1911 – December 27, 1984), was a [[Texas]] [[attorney]], [[newspaper]][[ publisher]], [[radio]] executive, and a [[Democratic Party|Democratic]] [[politician]] who served a term from 1941 to 1945 in the Texas]] State Senate for District 30. He was a defender of West Texas interests and entitled a 1962 book, ''These Are My People.''
Formby was a maternal [[uncle]] of former state Senator [[Robert Duncan]], a [[Modreate Republican]] from [[Lubbock]] who formerly held the District 28 seat until he was appointed as the chancellor of the [[Texas Tech University]] System.
==Early years and education==
Formby was born in the same house as his father, Marshall Formby, Sr. (1877–1957),<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=32028450|title=Marshall C. Formby|publisher=findagrave.com|accessdate=November 18, 2019}}</ref> a [[farmer]] and school board member in the Bethel community near [[rural]] Como in Hopkins County in East Texas. His mother was the former Rosa Mae Freeman (1882–1971).<ref name=plainview>{{cite web|url= http://www.centennialcircleofhonorplainviewtexas.com/13.html|title=Marshall Formby|publisher=centennialcircleofhonorplainviewexas.com|accessdate=December 18, 2009}}</ref>
When Marshall was five years of age, the family relocated to McAdoo in Dickens County in West Texas. As a child, he was nicknamed "Potts" because he frequently played in an iron wash pot. Young Formby attended public schools in McAdoo through his junior year of high school. In 1928, he received his diploma from Spur High School, also in Dickens County.<ref name=plaque>{{cite web|url=http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~txdicken/markers/marshall_formby.html|title=Marshall Formby Historical Plaque Dedication|publisher=rootsweb.ancestry.com|accessdate=December 18, 2009}}</ref>
In 1932, Formby received a Bachelor of Arts in [[government]] from Texas Tech. While in college, he worked as a regional correspondent for several newspapers and was a student editor of ''The Daily Toreador.'' After college, he briefly owned and operated a drug store in McAdoo. In 1936, he worked briefly as a police reporter for ''The Miami Tribune'' in [[Miami]], [[Florida]].<ref name=plaque/>
==Political career==
Returning to McAdoo specifically to run for office, he became at twenty-five the youngest county judge in Texas.<ref name=plaque/> He worked to reduce [[property tax]]es and brought Dickens County on a cash basis for the first time in some fifteen years. During his last year as county judge, Formby was president of the West Texas County Judges and Commissioners Association.<ref name=plaque/>"He loved people and politics. He was for the little guy," said nephew and business partner [[Clint Formby]].
In 1937, Judge Formby received a [[Master of Arts]] in journalism from the [[University of Texas at Austin]]. While at UT, he was a correspondent covering the [[Texas State Legislature]] for the ''Amarillo Times'' in [[Amarillo, Texas|Amarillo]].<ref>{{cite web|url= http://www.depts.ttu.edu/masscom/alumni/halloffame/mformby.php|title=Texas Tech University:College of Mass Communications|publisher=depts..ttu.edu|accessdate=December 18, 2009}}</ref>
Soon a state senator, his legislative service was interrupted by [[World War II]], in which he served in [[Europe]] in the [[U.S. Army Corps of Engineers]]. He was discharged as a [[Captain (U.S. Army)|captain]]. Formby married the former Sharleen Wells (born September 30, 1918), later Sharleen Rhoads of [[Midland]] after Formby's death. The couple, who met in [[Austin]], had two children, Frances Formby Seales of Lubbock (born 1955) and David W. Formby (born 1957) of Plainview, and two grandchildren. A native of Barberton, [[Ohio]], Sharleen graduated as an [[English]] major from a junior college. She married Formby on September 8, 1946, in Seale, [[Alabama]]. (Coincidentally, their daughter married a man named "Seales.". Sharleen taught at the United States Army War College in [[Washington, D.C.]], and later attended graduate school at the [[University of Texas]], at which she studied radio communication. In August 1947, the Formbys moved to Plainview.<ref>{{cite web|url= http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~txdicken/swcoll.htm|title=Southwest Collection at Texas Tech for Dickens County|publisher=rootsweb.ancestry.com|accessdate=December 18, 2009}}</ref>
For a time Formby operated the weekly ''Aspermont Star'' in rural Aspermont in Stonewall County in West Texas and later ''The Plainview Tribune.'.<ref name=plainview/> In the late 1940s,Formby pursued his [[Juris Doctor]]ate degree, which he received in 1951 from [[Baylor University]] Law School in [[Waco, Texas|Waco]], Texas.<ref name=formby>{{cite web|url= http://www.lib.utexas.edu/taro/ttusw/00098/tsw-00098.html|title=Marshall Formby: An Inventory of His Papers, 1883-1989 and undated, at the Southwest Collection/Special Collections Library|publisher=lib.utexas.edu|accessdate=December 18, 2009}}</ref>
After his admission to the bar in 1952, Formby returned to Plainview to join the firm of LaFont and Tudor, founded by Judge Harold M. LaFont and later known as LaFont, Formby, Hamilton, LaFont, and Hamilton<ref name=plainview/> In 1953, he was appointed to the Texas Highway Commission, since the Texas Transportation Commission, by [[Governor]] Allan Shivers.<ref name=plaque/> From 1957 to 1959, he was chairman of the commission and worked particularly to bring highway improvements to West Texas.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.capitol.state.tx.us/tlodocs/79R/analysis/pdf/SB00921H.pdf|title=C.S.S.B. 921|publisher=capitol.state.tx.us|accessdate=December 18, 2009}}</ref> During his time on the commission, he visited all but three of Texas's 254 counties.<ref name=plainview/>
[[Clint Formby]], a radio broadcaster from Hereford and a cousin of former state Senator Robert Duncan, described his uncle Marshall as a person who "swam upstream . . . and had his mind set on what he wanted to do." Duncan's mother was Formby's sister, the former Mae Robena Formby (1921–2009), who was named by Marshall Formby and his brother, John C. Formby (1902–1989), Clint's father.<ref>{{cite web|url= http://www.lubbockonline.com/stories/011809/obi_378551933.shtml|title=Robena Formby Duncan|publisher=''The National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame, which began in Hereford and was subsequently relocated to [[Fort Worth]].<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.nytimes.com/2003/04/20/us/margaret-formby-73-dies-began-cowgirl-hall-of-fame.html|author=Douglas Martin|title=Margaret Formby, 73, Dies; Began Cowgirl Hall of Fame"|publisher=''[[The New York Times]]'|date= April 20, 2003|accessdate=November 18, 2019}}</ref>
Formby owned or co-owned radio stations KPAN AM and FM in Hereford, KFLD in Floydada, KTVE in Tulia, KSML in Seminole, KACT (AM) in Andrews, and KLVT in Levelland in Hockley County..<ref name=formby/> KPAN had first been considered for establishment in Canyon in Randall County south of Amarillo. It bills itself as "the only radio station in the world that gives a hoot about Hereford, Texas." By the middle 1950's, Clint Formby had become a partner in the station, and later the sole owner of KPAN and other outlets. Clint Formby was known for his "Old Philosopher" program (the longest running radio program hosted by a single individual in radio history, 1955–2011). Clint Formby's son, Larry "Chip" Formby (born 1953) worked with his father at station, as did Clint's grandsons, Jonathan and Lane Formby.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.kpanradio.com/|title=KPAN|publisher=kpanradio|accessdate=November 18, 2019}}</ref>
From 1967 to 1971, he was a member of the Texas Tech regents under original appointment of Governor [[John Connally|John B. Connally, Jr.]] In 1962, Formby had been among the intra-party rivals defeated by Connally for the Democratic [[Governor|gubernatorial]] nomination. ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]'' termed Formby "a [[conservative]]" in the primary contest but did not elaborate on what were his slim chances of winning the nomination. The other contestants were sitting Governor [[Price Daniel|Marion Price Daniel, Sr.]], who sought an unprecedented fourth two-year term; [[Don Yarborough]], a [[liberal]] lawyer and supporter of [[organized labor]] from [[Houston, Texas|Houston]]; former [[Attorney General]] [[Will Wilson]], later a Republican convert, and retired Army [[General]] Edwin Anderson Walker (1909-1993), known for his staunch [[Communism|anti-communism]]. Connally went on to defeat the Republican Jack Cox, himself a former Democratic member of the Texas House of Representatives in West Texas and then an oil-equipment executive from Houston.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,896085,00.html|title=Nation: Talking in Texas|publisher=''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]'|date=April 22, 1962|accessdate=December 19, 2009}}</ref><ref>Two other former state highway directors who lost gubernatorial races during this period of history were [[Fred Preaus]] in [[Louisiana]] in1956 and Henry Ward in [[Kentucky]] in 1967.</ref> John Connally, meanwhile, served three two-year terms as governor from 1963 to 1969, the only office to which he was ever elected.
==Death and legacy==
Formby died in Plainview, his principal city of residence since 1947.<ref name=formby/> He was a [[deacon]] of the First [[Baptist]] Church there, a member of the advisory council of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in [[Fort Worth]], Texas, and served on the public relations board of the Baptist General Convention of Texas. He was active in Rotary International and the Masonic lodge. He was the president of the Texas Tech Ex-Students Association. While serving on the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, Formby made the recommendation to rename "Texas Technological College" as Texas Tech University.<ref name=room>{{cite web|url= http://www.avalanchejournal.com/news/040197/marshall.htm|title=Ray Westbrook, "Marshall Formby Room to be dedicated today at new library"|publisher=''The Lubbock Avalanche-Journal''|date=March 31, 1997|accessdate=December 29, 2009}}</ref>
The Marshall Formby State Jail in Plainview is named in his honor.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://lawyertexasparole.com/freeadvice/prisonnames.htm|title=Texas Department of Criminal Justice Prison Names and Phone Numbers|publisher=lawyertexasparole.com|accessdate=December 18, 2009}}</ref> Under a state Senate bill introduced by Formby's nephew Robert Duncan, Interstate 27 between its intersection with United States Highway 84 in Lubbock and its intersection with Interstate Highway 40 in Amarillo, was in 2005 named the Marshall Formby Memorial Highway.<ref>{{cite web|url= http://codes.lp.findlaw.com/txstatutes/TN/6/B/225/B/225.060|title=Marshall Formby Memorial Highway|publisher=codes.lp.findlaw.com|accessdate=December 18, 2009}}</ref> There is also a Marshall Formby Foundation in Plainview.<ref>{{cite web|url= http://nccsdataweb.urban.org/PubApps/showVals.php?ft=bmf&ein=752156614|title=National Center for Charitable Statistics|publisher=nccsdataweb.urban.org|accessdate=December 18, 2009}}</ref> In 1997, the auditorium at the Southwest Collection/Special Collections at Texas Tech, where Formby's papers are housed, was named in his honor.<ref name=room/> In 2005, Formby was posthumously inducted into the Texas Broadcasters Association Hall of Fame.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.enewsbuilder.net/texasbroadcasters/e_000172378000066839.cfm?x=b11,0,w|title=Texas Association of Broadcasters Bulletin|publisher=enewsbuilder.net|accessdate=December 20, 2009}}</ref>
The historical plaque at Formby's grave in McAdoo says that he "exemplifies the hard working, never say quit character of West Texans whom he so vividly portrayed in . . . ''These Are My People'' (1962). . . in politics, in business, and in community affairs. Formby represented the small town, rural character of [[Great Depression|Depression]]-era Texas west of the 100th meridian, a place where it seldom rained, the wind always seemed to blow, and settlers met obstacles head on with a gritty spirit and a will to succeed."<ref name=plaque/>
==References==
{{reflist}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Formby, Marshall}}
[[Category:Texas]]
[[Category:Attorneys]]
[[Category:Journalists]]
[[Category:Newspapers]]
[[Category:Politicians]]
[[Category:State Senators]]
[[Category:Judges]]
[[Category:Democrats]]
[[Category:Southern Baptists]]
[[Category:United States Army]]
[[Category:World War II]]
| name=Marshall Clinton Formby, Jr.
| office=[[Texas]] State Senator for now District 30 (Andrews, Bailey, Borden, Cochran, Cottle, Crosby, Dawson, Dickens, Floyd, Gaines, Garza, Hale, Hockley, Howard, Kent, King, Lamb, Lubbock , Lynn, Martin, Motley, Stonewall, Terry, and Yoakum counties)
| term_start =1941
| term_end=1945
| preceded =G. Hobert Nelson
| succeeded =Sterling J. Parrish
| office2=County judge of Dickens County, Texas
| term_start2=1937
| term_end2=1940
| party=[[Democratic Party|Democrat]]
| birth_date=April 12, 1911
| birth_place=Como, Hopkins County<br>Texas
| death_date=December 27, 1984 (aged 73)
| death_place=Plainview, Hale County, Texas
| spouse=Sharleen Wells Formby (1946-1984, his death)<br/>
later Sharleen Formby Rhoads
|children=Frances Formby Seales
David W. Formby
| relations=[[Robert Duncan]] (nephew)
[[Clint Formby]] (nephew)<br>
[[Margaret Formby]], (nephew's wife)
| alma_mater=Spur High School<br>
[[Texas Tech University]]<b/>
[[University of Texas at Austin]]<br>
[[Baylor University]]
|occupation=[[Attorney]]<br>[[Journalist]]<br/>[[Radio]] station owner
| religion =[[Southern Baptist]]}}
'''Marshall Clinton Formby, Jr.''' (April 12, 1911 – December 27, 1984), was a [[Texas]] [[attorney]], [[newspaper]][[ publisher]], [[radio]] executive, and a [[Democratic Party|Democratic]] [[politician]] who served a term from 1941 to 1945 in the Texas]] State Senate for District 30. He was a defender of West Texas interests and entitled a 1962 book, ''These Are My People.''
Formby was a maternal [[uncle]] of former state Senator [[Robert Duncan]], a [[Modreate Republican]] from [[Lubbock]] who formerly held the District 28 seat until he was appointed as the chancellor of the [[Texas Tech University]] System.
==Early years and education==
Formby was born in the same house as his father, Marshall Formby, Sr. (1877–1957),<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=32028450|title=Marshall C. Formby|publisher=findagrave.com|accessdate=November 18, 2019}}</ref> a [[farmer]] and school board member in the Bethel community near [[rural]] Como in Hopkins County in East Texas. His mother was the former Rosa Mae Freeman (1882–1971).<ref name=plainview>{{cite web|url= http://www.centennialcircleofhonorplainviewtexas.com/13.html|title=Marshall Formby|publisher=centennialcircleofhonorplainviewexas.com|accessdate=December 18, 2009}}</ref>
When Marshall was five years of age, the family relocated to McAdoo in Dickens County in West Texas. As a child, he was nicknamed "Potts" because he frequently played in an iron wash pot. Young Formby attended public schools in McAdoo through his junior year of high school. In 1928, he received his diploma from Spur High School, also in Dickens County.<ref name=plaque>{{cite web|url=http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~txdicken/markers/marshall_formby.html|title=Marshall Formby Historical Plaque Dedication|publisher=rootsweb.ancestry.com|accessdate=December 18, 2009}}</ref>
In 1932, Formby received a Bachelor of Arts in [[government]] from Texas Tech. While in college, he worked as a regional correspondent for several newspapers and was a student editor of ''The Daily Toreador.'' After college, he briefly owned and operated a drug store in McAdoo. In 1936, he worked briefly as a police reporter for ''The Miami Tribune'' in [[Miami]], [[Florida]].<ref name=plaque/>
==Political career==
Returning to McAdoo specifically to run for office, he became at twenty-five the youngest county judge in Texas.<ref name=plaque/> He worked to reduce [[property tax]]es and brought Dickens County on a cash basis for the first time in some fifteen years. During his last year as county judge, Formby was president of the West Texas County Judges and Commissioners Association.<ref name=plaque/>"He loved people and politics. He was for the little guy," said nephew and business partner [[Clint Formby]].
In 1937, Judge Formby received a [[Master of Arts]] in journalism from the [[University of Texas at Austin]]. While at UT, he was a correspondent covering the [[Texas State Legislature]] for the ''Amarillo Times'' in [[Amarillo, Texas|Amarillo]].<ref>{{cite web|url= http://www.depts.ttu.edu/masscom/alumni/halloffame/mformby.php|title=Texas Tech University:College of Mass Communications|publisher=depts..ttu.edu|accessdate=December 18, 2009}}</ref>
Soon a state senator, his legislative service was interrupted by [[World War II]], in which he served in [[Europe]] in the [[U.S. Army Corps of Engineers]]. He was discharged as a [[Captain (U.S. Army)|captain]]. Formby married the former Sharleen Wells (born September 30, 1918), later Sharleen Rhoads of [[Midland]] after Formby's death. The couple, who met in [[Austin]], had two children, Frances Formby Seales of Lubbock (born 1955) and David W. Formby (born 1957) of Plainview, and two grandchildren. A native of Barberton, [[Ohio]], Sharleen graduated as an [[English]] major from a junior college. She married Formby on September 8, 1946, in Seale, [[Alabama]]. (Coincidentally, their daughter married a man named "Seales.". Sharleen taught at the United States Army War College in [[Washington, D.C.]], and later attended graduate school at the [[University of Texas]], at which she studied radio communication. In August 1947, the Formbys moved to Plainview.<ref>{{cite web|url= http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~txdicken/swcoll.htm|title=Southwest Collection at Texas Tech for Dickens County|publisher=rootsweb.ancestry.com|accessdate=December 18, 2009}}</ref>
For a time Formby operated the weekly ''Aspermont Star'' in rural Aspermont in Stonewall County in West Texas and later ''The Plainview Tribune.'.<ref name=plainview/> In the late 1940s,Formby pursued his [[Juris Doctor]]ate degree, which he received in 1951 from [[Baylor University]] Law School in [[Waco, Texas|Waco]], Texas.<ref name=formby>{{cite web|url= http://www.lib.utexas.edu/taro/ttusw/00098/tsw-00098.html|title=Marshall Formby: An Inventory of His Papers, 1883-1989 and undated, at the Southwest Collection/Special Collections Library|publisher=lib.utexas.edu|accessdate=December 18, 2009}}</ref>
After his admission to the bar in 1952, Formby returned to Plainview to join the firm of LaFont and Tudor, founded by Judge Harold M. LaFont and later known as LaFont, Formby, Hamilton, LaFont, and Hamilton<ref name=plainview/> In 1953, he was appointed to the Texas Highway Commission, since the Texas Transportation Commission, by [[Governor]] Allan Shivers.<ref name=plaque/> From 1957 to 1959, he was chairman of the commission and worked particularly to bring highway improvements to West Texas.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.capitol.state.tx.us/tlodocs/79R/analysis/pdf/SB00921H.pdf|title=C.S.S.B. 921|publisher=capitol.state.tx.us|accessdate=December 18, 2009}}</ref> During his time on the commission, he visited all but three of Texas's 254 counties.<ref name=plainview/>
[[Clint Formby]], a radio broadcaster from Hereford and a cousin of former state Senator Robert Duncan, described his uncle Marshall as a person who "swam upstream . . . and had his mind set on what he wanted to do." Duncan's mother was Formby's sister, the former Mae Robena Formby (1921–2009), who was named by Marshall Formby and his brother, John C. Formby (1902–1989), Clint's father.<ref>{{cite web|url= http://www.lubbockonline.com/stories/011809/obi_378551933.shtml|title=Robena Formby Duncan|publisher=''The National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame, which began in Hereford and was subsequently relocated to [[Fort Worth]].<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.nytimes.com/2003/04/20/us/margaret-formby-73-dies-began-cowgirl-hall-of-fame.html|author=Douglas Martin|title=Margaret Formby, 73, Dies; Began Cowgirl Hall of Fame"|publisher=''[[The New York Times]]'|date= April 20, 2003|accessdate=November 18, 2019}}</ref>
Formby owned or co-owned radio stations KPAN AM and FM in Hereford, KFLD in Floydada, KTVE in Tulia, KSML in Seminole, KACT (AM) in Andrews, and KLVT in Levelland in Hockley County..<ref name=formby/> KPAN had first been considered for establishment in Canyon in Randall County south of Amarillo. It bills itself as "the only radio station in the world that gives a hoot about Hereford, Texas." By the middle 1950's, Clint Formby had become a partner in the station, and later the sole owner of KPAN and other outlets. Clint Formby was known for his "Old Philosopher" program (the longest running radio program hosted by a single individual in radio history, 1955–2011). Clint Formby's son, Larry "Chip" Formby (born 1953) worked with his father at station, as did Clint's grandsons, Jonathan and Lane Formby.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.kpanradio.com/|title=KPAN|publisher=kpanradio|accessdate=November 18, 2019}}</ref>
From 1967 to 1971, he was a member of the Texas Tech regents under original appointment of Governor [[John Connally|John B. Connally, Jr.]] In 1962, Formby had been among the intra-party rivals defeated by Connally for the Democratic [[Governor|gubernatorial]] nomination. ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]'' termed Formby "a [[conservative]]" in the primary contest but did not elaborate on what were his slim chances of winning the nomination. The other contestants were sitting Governor [[Price Daniel|Marion Price Daniel, Sr.]], who sought an unprecedented fourth two-year term; [[Don Yarborough]], a [[liberal]] lawyer and supporter of [[organized labor]] from [[Houston, Texas|Houston]]; former [[Attorney General]] [[Will Wilson]], later a Republican convert, and retired Army [[General]] Edwin Anderson Walker (1909-1993), known for his staunch [[Communism|anti-communism]]. Connally went on to defeat the Republican Jack Cox, himself a former Democratic member of the Texas House of Representatives in West Texas and then an oil-equipment executive from Houston.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,896085,00.html|title=Nation: Talking in Texas|publisher=''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]'|date=April 22, 1962|accessdate=December 19, 2009}}</ref><ref>Two other former state highway directors who lost gubernatorial races during this period of history were [[Fred Preaus]] in [[Louisiana]] in1956 and Henry Ward in [[Kentucky]] in 1967.</ref> John Connally, meanwhile, served three two-year terms as governor from 1963 to 1969, the only office to which he was ever elected.
==Death and legacy==
Formby died in Plainview, his principal city of residence since 1947.<ref name=formby/> He was a [[deacon]] of the First [[Baptist]] Church there, a member of the advisory council of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in [[Fort Worth]], Texas, and served on the public relations board of the Baptist General Convention of Texas. He was active in Rotary International and the Masonic lodge. He was the president of the Texas Tech Ex-Students Association. While serving on the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, Formby made the recommendation to rename "Texas Technological College" as Texas Tech University.<ref name=room>{{cite web|url= http://www.avalanchejournal.com/news/040197/marshall.htm|title=Ray Westbrook, "Marshall Formby Room to be dedicated today at new library"|publisher=''The Lubbock Avalanche-Journal''|date=March 31, 1997|accessdate=December 29, 2009}}</ref>
The Marshall Formby State Jail in Plainview is named in his honor.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://lawyertexasparole.com/freeadvice/prisonnames.htm|title=Texas Department of Criminal Justice Prison Names and Phone Numbers|publisher=lawyertexasparole.com|accessdate=December 18, 2009}}</ref> Under a state Senate bill introduced by Formby's nephew Robert Duncan, Interstate 27 between its intersection with United States Highway 84 in Lubbock and its intersection with Interstate Highway 40 in Amarillo, was in 2005 named the Marshall Formby Memorial Highway.<ref>{{cite web|url= http://codes.lp.findlaw.com/txstatutes/TN/6/B/225/B/225.060|title=Marshall Formby Memorial Highway|publisher=codes.lp.findlaw.com|accessdate=December 18, 2009}}</ref> There is also a Marshall Formby Foundation in Plainview.<ref>{{cite web|url= http://nccsdataweb.urban.org/PubApps/showVals.php?ft=bmf&ein=752156614|title=National Center for Charitable Statistics|publisher=nccsdataweb.urban.org|accessdate=December 18, 2009}}</ref> In 1997, the auditorium at the Southwest Collection/Special Collections at Texas Tech, where Formby's papers are housed, was named in his honor.<ref name=room/> In 2005, Formby was posthumously inducted into the Texas Broadcasters Association Hall of Fame.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.enewsbuilder.net/texasbroadcasters/e_000172378000066839.cfm?x=b11,0,w|title=Texas Association of Broadcasters Bulletin|publisher=enewsbuilder.net|accessdate=December 20, 2009}}</ref>
The historical plaque at Formby's grave in McAdoo says that he "exemplifies the hard working, never say quit character of West Texans whom he so vividly portrayed in . . . ''These Are My People'' (1962). . . in politics, in business, and in community affairs. Formby represented the small town, rural character of [[Great Depression|Depression]]-era Texas west of the 100th meridian, a place where it seldom rained, the wind always seemed to blow, and settlers met obstacles head on with a gritty spirit and a will to succeed."<ref name=plaque/>
==References==
{{reflist}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Formby, Marshall}}
[[Category:Texas]]
[[Category:Attorneys]]
[[Category:Journalists]]
[[Category:Newspapers]]
[[Category:Politicians]]
[[Category:State Senators]]
[[Category:Judges]]
[[Category:Democrats]]
[[Category:Southern Baptists]]
[[Category:United States Army]]
[[Category:World War II]]