Jerry Sadler
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Gerald Anthony Sadler | |
|---|---|
 Sadler, c. 1966 | |
| 23rd Land Commissioner of Texas | |
| In office January 1, 1961 – January 1, 1971[1] | |
| Governor | Price Daniel John Connally Preston Smith |
| Preceded by | Bill Alcorn |
| Succeeded by | Bob Armstrong |
| Member of the Texas House of Representatives from the 27th district | |
| In office January 11, 1955 – January 10, 1961[2] | |
| Preceded by | James Paxton |
| Succeeded by | Rayford Price |
| Railroad Commissioner of Texas | |
| In office January 1, 1939 – January 1, 1943 | |
| Governor | James V. Allred W. Lee O'Daniel |
| Preceded by | Charles Vernon Terrell |
| Succeeded by | Beauford H. Jester |
| Personal details | |
| Born | September 8, 1907 Kirbyville, Texas, U.S. |
| Died | February 25, 1982 (aged 74) |
| Resting place | Texas State Cemetery |
| Party | Democratic |
| Spouse |
Laura Jones Sadler (m. 1942) |
| Military service | |
| Allegiance |  United States |
| Branch/service |  United States Army |
| Years of service | 1927–1929; 1942 |
| Rank | Lieutenant colonel |
| Battles/wars | World War II |
Gerald Anthony Sadler (September 8, 1907 – February 25, 1982) was a Democratic politician from the U.S. state of Texas. He was a member of the Texas House of Representatives from 1955 to 1961, the Texas Railroad Commission from 1939 to 1943,[3] and the Commissioner of the General Land Office from 1961 to 1971.[4]
Sadler was born to Maybelle and Claude Sadler[4] in Kirbyville, near Palestine, in Anderson County, Texas. His great-grandfather William Turner Sadler, fought at the Battle of San Jacinto and served in the House of Representatives of the Ninth Congress of the Republic of Texas and, after annexation to the U.S., was reelected to the First and Second state legislatures.[5][6]
Frequently in trouble in school and at home, Sadler left Kirbyville for Houston at age 14. He landed a job there as the youngest bellboy at the Rice Hotel.[7] He attended Stephen F. Austin College and Jefferson University, from which he received a law degree.[4]
According to his autobiography, Politics, Fat Cats and Honey-Money Boys: The Mem-Wars of Jerry Sadler, he then worked briefly as a youth minister in Port Arthur, as an undercover FBI agent in the Valley, and became the state's youngest millionaire in the East Texas oilfields. In the book, he also claims to have practiced law in Longview after a short period of study with Clarence Darrow in Chicago.[8]
He served in the United States Army 12th Cavalry from 1927 to 1929 at Fort Brown in Brownsville in Cameron County, Texas.[7]
Railroad Commissioner
In 1938, Sadler was elected to head the Texas Railroad Commission. Despite its name, the agency regulates the state's oil and natural gas industry, gas utilities and infrastructure, the liquefied petroleum gas industry, and surface coal and uranium mining.[9] He had run on the notion that big business and oil companies were exploiting the common people of Texas. During the depression, oil was the lifeblood of the state. Sadler felt that wealth should belong Texans, not "the fat cats of Wall Street."[10]
At only 30 years of age, he was the youngest to hold the office. Sadler claimed he had been in 58 fistfights during the campaign.[11] The big oil companies sent hired hecklers and provocateurs to harass him at every campaign stop, trying to goad him into a fight. They were frequently successful. Sadler would leave the podium and engage in a scuffle right in front of the crowd.[7]
Fifteen months into his term, he made a gubernatorial run against W. Lee "Pappy" O'Daniel.[10] He launched the ultimately unsuccessful campaign with a "hillbilly band" and his cousin/campaign manager, the well-known tent entertainer Harley Sadler, serving as emcee.[12]
Wartime service
Although he was exempt from further military service, Sadler resigned the Railroad Commission in 1942 to re-enlist in the U.S. Army. He was entitled to enlist as a commissioned officer. He joined as a private. During World War II, he was stationed in Iran where he oversaw supply lines to the Soviet Union.[10] He was awarded the European-African Middle Eastern Theater Ribbon and, from the USSR, the Order of the Fatherland, Second Class in 1944.[4] He was honorably discharged in 1945[7] with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel.[10]
After the war, Sadler returned to Anderson County. In the 1946 gubernatorial election, Sadler ran for the Democratic nomination, but was defeated by his successor on the Railroad Commission, Beauford H. Jester of Corsicana in Navarro County.[7] He then was elected to the Texas House in 1954 (term 1/11/1955 - 1/8/1957). He was twice re-elected, serving to January 10, 1961.[13]
Texas House of Representatives
Sadler was a member of the Conservation and Reclamation Committee and the Education Committee for all three of his terms in the Texas House, and served on the Oil, Gas and Mining Committee during the 54th and 55th sessions. He acted as vice chair of the Military and Veteran's Affairs Committee in the 55th session and vice chair of the Commerce and Manufacturers Committee in the 56th.[14]
In spring 1957, Sadler was apprised by an employee of the University of Texas at Austin that a young black woman, Barbara Smith Conrad, had been cast to sing the role of Dido (opposite a white Aeneas) in Henry Purcell's "Dido and Aeneas" at UT Austin. At a legislator's breakfast, Sadler complained of the mixed-race casting, prompting another legislator, Joe Chapman, to telephone the president of the University, Logan Wilson, and threaten to withhold funding should Smith perform.[15]
Wilson had her removed from the cast, provoking protests and national news coverage. When interviewed by the Houston Post, Sadler said of his breakfast remarks, "I mentioned appropriations and as a matter of fact [I] voted against those for the university because they have Negro undergraduates."[16] Smith graduated UT in 1959 and later gained international renown as an operatic star.[15]
