Jim Granberry

James Harlan "Jim" Granberry, Sr.
Mayor of Lubbock, Texas, USA
In office 1970–1972
Preceded by	W.D. "Dub" Rogers, Jr.
Succeeded by	Morris W. Turner
Lubbock City Council member
In office 1966–1970
Personal details
Born	June 23, 1932 Lindale, Smith County Texas, USA
Nationality	American
Political party	Republican
Spouse(s)	Edwina Brown Granberry (born 1937)
Children	James Granberry, Jr. (born 1965) Zachary Granberry (born 1967) Tim Granberry (born 1968) Susan Granberry Leslie Granberry Grandchildren: Allie Granberry (born 1997) Ryan Granberry (born 1997) Grant Granberry (born 1999) McKenna Granberry (born 1999) Aidan Granberry (born 2001) Brooke Granberry (born 2007)
Parents	Henry Granberry
Residence	Hideway near Tyler Smith County, Texas
Occupation	Orthodontist

James Harlan Granberry, Sr., known as Jim Granberry (born June 23, 1932), is a former mayor of Lubbock, Texas, who guided the city through a series of tornadoes that shattered the region on May 11, 1970. He imposed a curfew to restore order. He had just become mayor when the tornadoes occurred. He served only one two-year term from 1970-1972. He was a member of the Lubbock City Council from 1966-1970. He did not seek a second two-year term in 1972 and was succeeded by city councilman Morris W. Turner. Mayors and council members in Texas are all officially nonpartisan, but Granberry was known to be a Republican.

In 1974, Granberry was the Texas Republican gubernatorial nominee. He won only 7 of the 254 counties and hence lost the general election by a wide margin to incumbent Democratic Governor Dolph Briscoe of Uvalde.

Gubernatorial race

Granberry was opposed for the Republican gubernatorial nomination by Odell McBrayer, the candidate of what later became known as the "Religious Right". Granberry handily defeated McBrayer, an attorney, 53,617 votes (77.6 percent) to 15,489 ballots (22.4 percent) in a low-turnout primary.

Granberry was the choice of Republican U.S. Senator John G. Tower, the nominal head of the Texas GOP at the time. He would carry his party's tattered banner in the year in which the national party was dragged down by the Watergate scandal, which had forced the resignation of U.S. President Richard M. Nixon.

Dolph Briscoe hence defeated Granberry in the strongly Democratic year nationwide. Briscoe polled 1,016,334 votes (61.4 percent), compared to 514,725 (31.1 percent) for Granberry, and 93,295 for the Hispanic Raza Unida Party nominee, Ramsey Muñiz, who had also been the La Raza candidate in 1972. Another approximately thirty thousand ballots were cast for other candidates. Briscoe, who had served the last two-year gubernatorial term in Texas, therefore became the first Texas governor to win a four-year term since the establishment of the Texas Constitution of 1876. Yet, Briscoe polled 617,159 fewer votes against Granberry than he had with his initial election in 1972 against the conservative Republican Henry Cushing Grover of Houston, because of a much lower turnout in 1974.

Bush "Beer Bash"

In 1978, Granberry advised congressional candidate George W. Bush, who was seeking to succeed the retiring veteran Democrat George Mahon of Lubbock. Bush said that Granberry urged him to "expose Hance's ownership" of a Lubbock bar across the street from Texas Tech that sold beer to Tech students. But Bush declined to do so. An advertisement appeared in the Texas Tech University newspaper in Lubbock which invited students to a "beer bash" at Granberry's home to drum up support for Bush. Hance, the Democrat candidate who defeated Bush in that election, attributed his victory more to the endorsement by Mahon than from public outrage over the "beer bash."

Later years

In 1989, William Perry "Bill" Clements, Jr., the first Texas Republican governor since Reconstruction, appointed Granberry as chairman of the Texas Board of Pardons and Parole. He resigned in the summer of 1991.

Granberry has a son, James H. Granberry, Jr. (born 1965), who practices law in Bryan, the seat of Brazos County. Another son, Zach Granberry (born 1967), who lives in Houston with three children, Ryan (born 1997), McKenna (born 1999), and Aidan (born 2001). Zach is married to the former Melissa Rotan (born 1969).

In his later years, Granberry, an orthodontist, returned to his native Smith County. He was born in Lindale and resides in Hideaway, Texas, in the nearby county seat of Tyler.

Notes

References

• http://www.lubbockonline.com/tornado/stories/May13/002.shtml
• http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-rv/politics/campaigns/wh2000/stories/bushtext072999.htm
• http://web.archive.org/web/20030827112550/http://www3.baylor.edu/Library/BCPM/Guttery/guttery_posters.html
• http://www.adopteeconnect.com/d/a/62657
• http://council.ci.lubbock.tx.us/history.htm
• http://library.tamu.edu/cushing/collectn/modpol/clements/ap2/2_3.html
• http://www.pafgbmfi.org/officers.php