Means of Ascent (95 page)

Fight for second term:
Gantt, pp. 240–42; Murphey, Stevenson, Jr., interviews; Stevenson OH.
Only Speaker to succeed himself:
Webb and Carroll,
Handbook of Texas
, p. 930.
“A landmark period”
:
Wyatt and Shelton, p. 51.

Decision to run for Lt. Governor:
Stevenson OH.

“Not easy”
:
Murphey interview.
Pappy O’Daniel as campaigner:
Caro,
Path to Power
, pp. 695–703.
“I’ve got a record”
:
Boyett, Lawson, Stevenson, Jr., interviews.

Stevenson’s style of campaigning:
Bolton, Boyett, Lawson, Lucas, Murphey, Stevenson, Jr., interviews;
AA-S, DMN, DT-H
, 1942–1944. A typical article on a Stevenson public appearance describes it this way: “There was no wooing, no waving, no shouting, but ‘Howdy, Coke,’ or ‘Hello, Governor.’ No ostentation. But plenty of love. Texas is in love with Coke Stevenson. From the humblest to the highest,
Texans feel that Coke is ‘my Governor’ ”
(DMN
, Apr. 3, 1942).

No loudspeakers, no bumper stickers:
Murphey, Boyett interviews.
“Who
is
that man?”
Bolton interview.
“
Here’s
The Man
”:
Murphey interview.
“A quiet dignity”
:
Lawson interview.
“Say, can I butt in?”
:
AA-S
, July 18.
“
He was
them
”
: Murphey interview; and see Mooney, p. 30. In fact, Stevenson would occasionally—very occasionally—go so far as to say “I’d sure appreciate your vote.”
“You knew he meant”
:
Lawson
interview.
“Coke Stevenson’s here”
:
Lawson, Lucas interviews.

O’Daniel inauguration:
McKay,
W. Lee O’Daniel
, pp. 133–34.

O’Daniel as governor: Caro,
Path to Power
, pp. 702–3; McKay,
W. Lee O’Daniel
, pp. 127–215, 331–406; Bolton, Lawson, Clark interviews.
“Why do thinking people”
:
Stevenson speech on Mar. 2, 1940, quoted in Simons, “Log Cabin Statesman.”

Coke’s speech:
Simons, “Log Cabin Statesman”; and see also Bolton, “Profile.”

No
“radio sex appeal”
:
Bolton, “Profile.”
O’Daniel’s elevation to Senate:
Caro,
Path to Power
, pp. 733–36.
Fay at inauguration:
Stevenson, Jr., interview; McLendon, “Coke R. Stevenson.”

“A divine inspiration”
:
Stevenson inaugural address, quoted in
West Texas Today
, Sept., 1941.
Stevenson’s governorship:
Mooney, pp. 34–51; Green, pp. 77–88; McKay,
Texas Politics
, pp. 391–96;
AA-S, DMN, DT-H, State Observer
, 1941–47; Stevenson OH; Simons, “Log Cabin Statesman”;
Nordyke, “Calculatin’ Coke.”
Stevenson and Mexican-Americans:
Gantt, pp. 148–49; Green, pp. 80–81; Stevenson OH.
Stevenson and Negroes:
Green, pp. 79–80.
Stevenson and labor:
Green, p. 81.
Rainey controversy:
Green, pp. 84–88; Stevenson OH.
Near bottom in social welfare:
Allen, pp. 322–23; pp. 317–19 discusses the tax situation.
“The biggest tax bill”
:
State Observer
, July 28, 1941.
38th to 24th:
Allen, pp. 322–23.
Tripling of old-age pensions; subdued style of government:
Mooney, p. 43; Gantt, pp. 187, 213, 226.

“No program”
;
“I had a program”
:
Moore, “Stevenson Practiced Economy.”
Deficit into surplus:
Mooney, pp. 47–48. The deficit situation was so serious when Stevenson took office, state employees were being paid in so-called hot checks—warrants
that had to be discounted at stores.
“As liberal as the people”
:
Amarillo Sunday News
, undated clipping, Barker Collection. For an example of this attitude, see
AA-S
, Jan. 19, 1947, which says: “For a man tagged by critics a do-nothing governor, Coke Stevenson … brought the State through some trying years without losing a single rock out of the capitol.… He got some vigorous handling, in this newspaper among other places, [but] he sincerely wanted to leave the State better off
than it was when he came here, and he probably will.”

“A man who”
:
DMN
, July 2, 1941.
“A product of the frontier”
:
Unidentified clipping in Barker Collection.
“Abraham Lincoln of Texas”
:
Among many places this comparison was used is the
State Observer
, July 28, 1941; Nordyke, “Calculatin’ Coke.”
“In the section”
:
McLendon, “Coke R. Stevenson.”
“Seldom traveled trails”
:
McLendon, “Coke R. Stevenson.”
“
HORATIO ALGER OF THE
LLANO
”
:
Carmack, “Calculatin’ Coke Stevenson.”
“He started out”
:
Bolton, “Profile.”
“
LOG CABIN STATESMAN
”
:
Simons, “Log Cabin Statesman.”
“Coke Stevenson makes”
:
State Observer
, July 28, 1941.
“Statuesque”
:
Simons, “Log Cabin Statesman.”
Lumbermen’s Meeting:
Boyett interview; Wyatt and Shelton, p. 96.
Great hunter:
For example,
DMN
, Sept. 21, 1941.
Shearing and branding:
Bolton, “Profile”; Bolton, Murphey interviews; he once told
DMN
“with rancher’s pride”: “I don’t suppose there’s been a calf on my ranch in twenty years that I haven’t branded myself,” July 2, 1941.
Life style as Governor:
Stevenson, Jr., Edith Stevenson, Boyett interviews; Mooney, p. 46; Simons, “Log Cabin Statesman.”
“We’ll just let that
cup”
:
For example, Mooney, p. 55.

“Almost everybody”
:
Bolton, “Profile.”
“Well, folks”
:
Gladys Carroll, identified as a “San Antonio Newspaper Writer Visiting in Dallas,” in
DMN
, Apr. 3, 1942.
“In fancy”
:
McLendon, “Coke R. Stevenson.”
“The most important thing”
:
Murphey interview.

1942 election:
McKay,
Texas Politics
, pp. 367–89, 393–94. Nordyke, “Calculatin’ Coke.”
“Out on the squares”
:
Nordyke, “Calculatin’ Coke.”
“No danged music”
:
Stevenson, quoted in Nordyke,
“Calculatin’ Coke”; Boyett interview.
No platform or promises, only record:
Mooney, p. 44.
“I have never made”
:
Mooney, p. 54.
68.5 percent:
Texas Almanac
, 1945–46.

1944
election: Mann’s attacks and Stevenson’s responses are discussed in Nordyke, “Calculatin’ Coke”; and in Mooney, p. 54. See also McKay,
Texas Politics
, pp. 394–95, and
Amarillo Globe
, Feb. 28, 1944.
“Mr. Texas”
:
In fact, Booth Mooney’s biography of him takes that as its title. Liberal
commentators knew they had miscalculated. See, for example,
AA-S
, Jan. 19, 1947.

84 percent, all 254 counties:
Texas Almanac
, 1945–46.
To this day:
Texas Almanacs
, 1910–89; Heard and Strong, pp. 132–88.
“Perhaps no other product”
:
Gantt, p. 292.
Entire career unique:
Gantt, p. 9. Later Governors, including Allan Shivers, would serve longer. In fact, Stevenson may also have been the only candidate for
Lieutenant
Governor who had ever carried all 254 counties. He did so in his 1940 race for that post. The author could find no other candidate in a contested Democratic primary who had done so, but state records are incomplete, and missing for some years, so it was
impossible to compile a definitive record of Lieutenant Governor races.

1946 polls:
For example,
DMN
, Oct. 19, 1946. And Stevenson’s popularity did not wane after his retirement. In 1947, a Belden Poll showed that if he ran, he would defeat Pappy O’Daniel 74 percent to 26 percent
(AA-S
, Apr. 8, 1947). A 1948 Belden Poll would find that “Stevenson commanded a vast majority of the votes no matter what candidate was pitted against him”
(DMN
, May 16, 1948).
“Seems to believe”
;
“sincerely wanted”
:
AA-S
, Jan. 19, 1947.
Refusing to consider:
Boyett, Murphey interviews.

“Now he was alone”
:
Murphey, Boyett, Stevenson, Jr., Edith Stevenson interviews.
The mail, and description of life on ranch:
Murphey interview; Mooney, p. 65. A reporter who visited Stevenson in retirement reported: “Coke Stevenson doesn’t count mail. He measures it—by the gallon”
(DMN
, Jan. 10, 1948).
Changing the tire:
Murphey interview;
DMN
, July 23, 1941.
“We hope”
: Mooney, p. 65; Boyett interview.

SOURCES

Books, articles and documents:

Allen, ed.,
Our Sovereign State;
Anders,
Boss Rule in South Texas;
Dugger,
The Politician;
Green,
The Establishment in Texas Politics, 1945–1957;
Gunther,
Inside U.S.A.;
Heard and Strong,
Southern Primaries and Elections, 1920–1949;
Henderson,
Maury Maverick;
Kahl,
Ballot Box 13;
Key,
Southern Politics in State and Nation;
Kinch and Long,
Allan Shivers;
Lynch,
The
Duke of Duval;
McKay,
Texas Politics, 1906–1944
and
Texas and the Fair Deal, 1945–1952;
Miller,
Lyndon;
Mooney,
Mr. Texas; Texas Almanac
, 1941–42; WPA,
Texas: A Guide to the Lone Star State
.

James M. Rowe, “The Mesquite Pendergast: George B. Parr—Second Duke of Duval” (unpublished manuscript), Ingleside, Tex., 1959–60; Edgar G. Shelton, “Political Conditions Among Texas Mexicans Along the Rio Grande” (master’s thesis), Austin, Tex., 1946.

Ralph Maitland, “San Antonio: The Shame of Texas,”
Forum
, Aug., 1939; Gordon Schendel, “Something Is Rotten in the State of Texas,”
Collier’s
, June 9, 1951; Douglas O. Weeks, “The Texas-Mexicans and the Politics of South Texas,”
American Political Science Review
, Aug., 1930; Owen P. White, “Machine Made,”
Collier’s
, Sept. 18, 1957; Roland Young, “Lone Star
Razzle Dazzle,”
The Nation
, June 21, 1941.

Papers of Tom C. Clark (HSTL).

Papers of George E. B. Peddy (Barker Texas History Center).

Oral Histories:

Malcolm Bardwell, George R. Brown, Cecil E. Burney, Tom C. Clark, John B. Connally, Mrs. Sam Fore, Reynaldo G. Garza, Callan Graham, D. B. Hardeman, Luther E. Jones, Joe Kilgore, John E. Lyle, Jr., Clarence C. Martens, Booth Mooney, Robert W. Murphey, Frank C. Oltorf, Daniel J. Quill, Mary Rather, Emmett Shelton, Polk Shelton, Adrian A. Spears, Claude C. Wild, Sr., Wilton Woods.

Interviews:

Paul Bolton, Ernest Boyett, George R. Brown, Edward A. Clark, John B. Connally, Thomas G. Corcoran, Willard Deason, Anne Edwards, D. B. Hardeman, L. E. Jones, Joe M. Kilgore, William J. Lawson, Beverly Lloyd, Frank B. Lloyd, Maury Maverick, Jr., Frank C. (“Posh”) Oltorf, Dan Quill, James H. Rowe, Jr., James M. Rowe, Luis Salas, Emmett Shelton, Coke Stevenson, Jr., Gerald Weatherly, Wilton Woods, Ralph Yarborough, Harold Young.

NOTES

Peddy biography and significance of his candidacy:
McKay,
Texas and the Fair Deal
, pp. 168–69; McKay,
Texas Politics
, pp. 124–27; Boyett, Clark, Oltorf, Stevenson Jr., interviews. The admiration of conservatives for him is expressed by the extremely conservative
DMN
columnist Lynn Landrum in his columns of January 12 and March 8, 1948.

Polls:
DMN
, May 16, 1948.
“That strong, silent man”
:
DMN
, Jan. 27, 1947.

Stevenson’s financing:
Boyett, Brown, Clark, Hardeman, Stevenson, Jr., interviews.
Between $75,000 and $100,000:
This estimate was given to the author by, among others, Boyett, Hardeman, Young.

Johnson’s first campaign:
Caro,
Path to Power
, pp. 405–9. In that campaign, Johnson spent, in a single congressional district, between $75,000 and $100,000, about the amount other candidates spent on a respectable statewide campaign.

Checks or envelopes stuffed with cash:
For example, cash raised in Washington and in New York City’s garment district by Corcoran and Rowe was sent to Johnson or his aides by trusted couriers; on June 20, 1941, Walter Jenkins arrived in Texas with, he recalls, “bills stuffed into every pocket”: between $10,000 and $15,000. Jenkins gave it to Marsh, who gave it to his personal secretary, Mary Louise Glass, to hold,
“and I put it in a white mesh purse. It just bulged with money” (Caro,
Path to Power
, pp. 716–17). For other descriptions of checks, or envelopes stuffed with cash, going to Johnson, see Caro, pp. 683–87, and Note, p. 840. Brown & Root alone gave Johnson about $200,000 for the 1941 campaign (Caro, pp. 717–18; 743–53).