W. Lee O'Daniel
| Wilbert Lee "Pappy" O'Daniel | |
 | |
| In office August 4, 1941 – January 3, 1949 | |
| Preceded by | Andrew Jackson Houston (interim for John Morris Sheppard) |
|---|---|
| Succeeded by | Lyndon B. Johnson |
34th Governor of Texas
| |
| In office January 17, 1939 – August 4, 1941 | |
| Preceded by | James Burr V Allred |
| Succeeded by | Coke Stevenson |
| Born | March 11, 1890 Malta, Morgan County, Ohio |
| Died | May 12, 1969 (aged 79) Dallas, Texas |
| Resting place | Sparkman-Hillcrest Memorial Park Cemetery in Dallas |
| Political party | Democrat |
| Spouse(s) | Merle Estella Butcher O'Daniel |
| Children | Three children, including
Molly O'Daniel Wrather Danielson |
| Alma mater | Salt City Business College (Hutchinson, Kansas) |
| Occupation | Businessman |
| Religion | Southern Baptist |
Wilbert Lee O'Daniel, also known as W. Lee O'Daniel, Pappy O'Daniel, and Pass the Biscuits, Pappy O'DanieI (March 11, 1890 – May 12, 1969), was a businessman, musician, and a colorful conservative Democratic politician in his adopted state of Texas.
His radio program propelled him into politics by accenting his populist appeal. He also for a time carried the support of the state business community. He composed the song "Beautiful Texas," later made popular by Willie Nelson. Without any previous political experience, he was twice elected Governor of Texas and later its United States Senator for an abbreviated term and then a full term in 1942. Except for the 1960 presidential bid waged by Lyndon B. Johnson against John F. Kennedy, O'Daniel was the only person ever to have defeated LBJ in an election.[1]
The 2000 film, O Brother Where Art Thou features a character played by Charles Edward Durning (1923-2012) who is named "Governor Menelaus "Pappy" O'Daniel," loosely based on the real O'Daniel, but set in Mississippi instead of Texas.[2]
Background
O'Daniel was born in rural Malta in Morgan County in southeastern Ohio. His father, William Barnes O'Daniel, a veteran of the Union Army, was accidentally killed when O'Daniel was a boy. Five years later, his mother, the former Alice Ann Thompson, remarried. With her second husband, named Baker, the family moved to a cattle ranch near Arlington in Reno County in south central Kansas. O'Daniel attended local schools and graduated from the two-year program at Salt City Business College in downtown Hutchinson, Kansas, a school which closed in its one hundredth year in 1979.[3]
In 1909, O'Daniel relocated to Anthony in Harper County in southern Kansas to work as a stenographer and bookkeeper for a flour milling company. After time with companies in Kansas City, Missouri, and New Orleans, Louisiana, he began employment in 1925 for the Burrus Mill flour company in Fort Worth.[2]
On the radio
In the late 1920s, O'Daniel was assigned to prepare the radio advertisements for the Burrus company. He wrote and sang songs and hired musicians to organize an old-time band to back up his vocals. Originally called the Light Crust Doughboys, notable musicians such as Bob Wills (1905-1975) began their careers with O'Daniel. After the Doughboys disbanded, O'Daniel formed the western swing band called Pat O'Daniel and his Hillbilly Boys, named after O'Daniel's own Hillbilly Flour Company. O'Daniel also hosted a regular statewide radio program from which he was nicknamed "Pass the Biscuits, Pappy." By the mid-1930s, "Pappy" O'Daniel was a household name in Texas. As a national magazine wrote at the time: "At twelve-thirty sharp each day, a fifteen-minute silence reigned in the state of Texas, broken only by mountain music, and the dulcet (soothing) voice of W. Lee O'Daniel." The show extolled the values of Hillbilly brand flour, the Ten Commandments, and the Bible.[1]
Political career
O'Daniel sought the 1938 Democratic gubernatorial nomination in Texas. He stressed his flour and music and the need for pensions and tax cuts. He promised to block a sales tax but vowed to increase pensions. O'Daniel won the Democratic primary election with 51 percent of the ballots over twelve opponents, the strongest of whom was Railroad Commissioner Ernest O. Thompson; at that time winning the Democratic primary was tantamount to election, as the Republicans had limited appeal statewide.
Once in office, he proposed a transaction sales tax, which the state legislators rejected. He was personally popular and handily won re-election in 1940,[1] again with his principal opponent being Ernest Thompson, a former mayor of Amarillo with a stellar military career, a general in World War I.
In 1941, less than a year after his reelection as governor, O'Daniel ran for the U. S. Senate in a special election required by the death of John Morris Sheppard (1875-1941). To wIn the Senate race, he defeated Lyndon Johnson by 1,311 votes.[4] Most of O'Daniel's legislative proposals died in the Senate. In 1944, he endorsed the anti-Franklin D. Roosevelt Texas Regulars, considered a forerunner of Strom Thurmond's Dixiecrat ticket in 1948.[1] FDR easily defeated Moderate Republican Governor Thomas E. Dewey of New York. O'Daniel declined to run for a second full term in the Senate in 1948, when Harry Truman defeated Dewey's second unsuccessful bid for the presidency.
After he left the Senate, O'Daniel bought a ranch near Fort Worth, invested in real estate in Dallas and worked in the insurance business.[1]
In 1956 and 1958, O'Daniel ran for governor and stressed his opposition to the Brown v. Board of Education desegregation decision by the United States Supreme Court. He termed Brown as a tenet of a communist conspiracy. He finished third in the Democratic primaries in both years, with Marion Price Daniel, Sr. (1910-1988), winning the governorship. Daniel coincidentally was also a U.S. Senator before his election as governor.
O'Daniel married the former Merle Estella Butcher (1894-1972),[5] and they had three children, two sons, Pat and Mike, and a daughter, Molly O'Daniel Danielson (1922-1996), who in July 1941 first married the oilman and Lassie television producer John Devereaux "Jack" Wrather, Jr. (1918-1984), a native of Amarillo. The couple had two children before divorcing in 1945. Molly subsequently wed Richard Ely Danielson, Jr. (1913-1988), a grandson of one of the founders of International Harvester Company who had inherited a substantial fortune.[6] Molly is interred at Santa Barbara Cemetery in Santa Barbara, California. Two years after the divorce, Wrather wed the former Bonita Gloria Granville (1923-1988), an actress by whom he had two more children.[7]
O'Daniel died in Dallas and is interred there at Hillcrest Memorial Park.[8]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 'W. L. O'Daniel. The Handbook of Texas Online.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Hillary Sorin (August 4, 2010). Today in Texas History: Gov. Pappy O’Daniel resigns. The Houston Chronicle. Retrieved on September 13, 2021.
- ↑ Salt City Business College - Historic Downtown Hutchinson Tour - PocketSights, accessed September 13, 2021.
- ↑ Robert A. Caro, The Years of Lyndon Johnson: The Path to Power, (New York City: Penguin Random House, 1982).
- ↑ Merle Estella Butcher O'Daniel (1894-1972) - Find A Grave Memorial, accessed September 13, 2021.
- ↑ Richard Ely Danielson, Jr.. Findagrave.com. Retrieved on September 13, 2021.
- ↑ TSHA | Wrather, John Devereaux, Jr. (tshaonline.org), accessed September 13, 2021.
- ↑ Wilbert Lee “Pappy” O'Daniel (1890-1969) - Find A Grave Memorial, accessed September 13, 2021.
