Beauford H. Jester

Beauford Halbert Jester
36th Governor of Texas
In office January 21, 1947 – July 11, 1949
Lieutenant	Allan Shivers
Preceded by	Coke R. Stevenson
Succeeded by	Allan Shivers
Member of the Texas Railroad Commission
In office January 1, 1943 – January 21, 1947
Governor	Coke R. Stevenson
Preceded by	Jerry Sadler
Succeeded by	William J. Murray
Personal details
Born	January 12, 1893 Corsicana, Texas
Died	July 11, 1949 (aged 56) Houston, Texas
Resting place	Oakwood Cemetery Corsicana, Texas
Political party	Democratic
Spouse(s)	Mabel Buchanan
Profession	Politician
Religion	Methodist
Military service
Allegiance	United States
Service/branch	United States Army
Years of service	1917–1918
Rank	Captain
Battles/wars	World War I

Beauford H. Jester Park in Corsicana, Texas

Beauford Halbert Jester (January 12, 1893 – July 11, 1949) was the 36th Governor of Texas, serving from 1947 until 1949, when he died of a heart attack aboard a train. He is the only Texas governor ever to have died in office. Jester was the son of George Taylor Jester.

History

He won the governorship in the Democratic primary in a run-off election in 1946 by defeating Homer Rainey, who had been discharged by the regents as the president of the University of Texas at Austin in 1944 in a dispute over academic freedom.

As governor Jester created the Board of Texas State Hospitals and Special Schools, the Texas Youth Development Council, and reformed the state prison system. He also increased funding for state hospitals and orphanages, enacted strong right-to-work laws, and supported an anti-lynching law.^[1]

Jester was easily re-elected to a second term in 1948. He then helped implement the most extensive education reforms the state of the time through the 1949 Gilmer-Aiken Act, the first comprehensive system for Texas school funding.

Jester was born in Corsicana, the seat of Navarro County in east Texas, attended the University of Texas at Austin and was a member of the Kappa Sigma fraternity. He later studied law at Harvard in Cambridge, Massachusetts. His studies were interrupted by the First World War. In 1919, he resumed his law studies at the University of Texas, from which he received his LL.B a year later. He returned to Corsicana to practice law, and was president of the Navarro County Bar Association for many years. Jester also served as director of the state bar association from 1940-1941. Jester was elected to statewide office in 1942 as a member of the Texas Railroad Commission serving until 1947.

For many years, Jester was a member of the University of Texas Board of Regents, and from 1933-1935 was the youngest man to ever serve as president of that body. In honor of his service, the Jester Center on the University of Texas campus was named after him in 1968. This contains Jester Dormitory, the largest college residential facility in the world, housing just under 3,000 students, as well as classroom and faculty space. Also, a Texas Department of Corrections complex of prisons, the Jester Prison Farm, was named after Jester—featured in the 1974 movie, The Sugarland Express.

In 1964, Jester Park was dedicated by the City of Corsicana in memory of Beauford Jester. The 24-acre (97,000 m²) park is home to the Lefty Frizzell Memorial and the Pioneer Village, which recreates the lives of the city's pioneers with replicas of historic buildings.

Jester is interred in Oakwood Cemetery in Corsicana.^[2]

References

1. Corsicana’s Beauford Jester, Governor, by Dr. Tommy Stringer, Corsicana Daily Sun, December 7, 2008.
2. Beauford H. Jester at Find a Grave

Resources

• Entry for Beauford Jester from the Handbook of Texas Online.
• Photos of Beauford H. Jester, hosted by the Portal to Texas History
• Jester Park
• Beauford Jester on Find-A-Grave