Price Daniel
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| Price Daniel | |
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38th Governor of Texas
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| In office January 15, 1957 – January 15, 1963 |
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| Lieutenant | Ben Ramsey |
| Preceded by | Allan Shivers |
| Succeeded by | John Connally |
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| In office January 3, 1953 – January 14, 1957 Served alongside Lyndon B. Johnson |
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| Preceded by | Tom Connally |
| Succeeded by | William A. Blakley |
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| In office 1943–1945 |
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| Governor | Coke Stevenson |
| Preceded by | Homer Lakerby Leonard |
| Succeeded by | Claud Henry Gilmer |
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| Born | October 10, 1910 Dayton, Texas |
| Died | August 25, 1988 (aged 77) |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Spouse(s) | Jean Houston Daniel |
| Children | Price Daniel, Jr. Jean Houston Daniel Murph |
| Profession | Attorney |
Marion Price Daniel, Sr. (October 10, 1910 – August 25, 1988), was a Texas politician. He served as Democratic Party U.S. Senator and the 38th Governor for the state of Texas.
Daniel was born in Dayton, Texas, and he graduated from Baylor University. He worked as a lawyer in Liberty County, Texas. Daniel won a seat in 1939 in the Texas House of Representatives. Daniel opposed Texas adopting a sales tax and he was elected Speaker of the House in 1943. After a term as Speaker, Daniel enlisted in the United States Army as a Private. He was discharged in 1946 with the rank of captain.
He returned to Texas and won the seat of Attorney General. Daniel defended the University of Texas law school in the Sweatt v. Painter case. Daniel was also involved in the Tidelands controversy, and he endorsed Dwight D. Eisenhower in the 1952 presidential election. Daniel was elected to the United States Senate in 1952 and one of his first acts in the Senate was to draft a tidelands bill which was signed by President Eisenhower. Opposed to desegregation efforts, he also signed the so-called Southern Manifesto in 1956. Daniel also worked on a narcotics probe and reforming the electoral college.
Then U.S. Senator Daniel was elected governor of Texas in 1956. Thereafter, Daniel's chief intraparty rival Ralph Yarborough went on to succeed Daniel (after a temporary appointee, William A. Blakley of Dallas) in the Senate in a special election held in 1957. Also in the 1956 Democratic primary was a flamboyant former Republican, the historian J. Evetts Haley, who pledged to support segregation, remove price controls from natural gas, and halt the activities of South Texas political boss George Parr of Duval County. Haley returned to the Republican Party in 1964.
Daniel was reelected governor in 1958 and 1960. In 1960, Daniel won renomination over Jack Cox, an oil equipment executive from Houston. Daniel then prevailed in the general election by a much larger margin than that obtained by John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson as the Democratic presidential and vice presidential nominees. Daniel received 1,637,755 votes (72.8 percent) to Republican William M. Steger of Tyler, who obtained 612,963 ballots (27.2 percent). Yet Kennedy and Johnson barely won the Texas electoral votes over Richard M. Nixon.
In 1961, the legislature passed a 2-cent sales tax, which Daniel allowed to become law without his signature so the state would not go broke. After the passage of the sales tax, Daniel's popularity waned, and he failed at his attempt to be elected to a fourth term in 1962. He lost the Democratic nomination to former Navy Secretary John B. Connally, Jr. Other 1962 Democratic candidates included highway commissioner Marshall Formby of Plainview, state Attorney General Will Wilson, a future Republican convert, and Major General Edwin A. Walker, who made anticommunism the centerpiece of his campaign. Connally went on to defeat Jack Cox, who had switched to Republican affiliation, to claim the right to succeed Daniel as governor.
President Johnson later appointed Daniel to head the Office of Emergency Preparedness. In 1971, Governor Preston Smith named Daniel to fill a vacancy on the 9-member Texas Supreme Court; he was re-elected twice in 1972 and 1978, before he retired during his second term. The Price Daniel Sr. State Office Building is named in his honor.
Daniel's wife, Jean Houston Daniel, was a great-great-granddaughter of the legendary Sam Houston. Daniel's eldest son, Marion Price Daniel Jr. (properly Marion Price Daniel, III), was, like his father, later Speaker of the Texas House but served just one term. Later he was killed by a gunshot wound in 1981. His second wife was accused of murder, but she was acquitted when it was proven in court that she had been beaten a number of times by her husband. Price and Jean Daniel's other children were Jean Houston Murph, Houston Lee, and John Baldwin.
[edit] External links
- Marion Price Daniel, Sr. from the Handbook of Texas Online
- Historic photographs of Price Daniel, hosted by the Portal to Texas History
- Governor's Message to the 56th legislature., hosted by the Portal to Texas History
- Photos of Price Daniel, hosted by the Portal to Texas History
| Texas House of Representatives | ||
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| Preceded by Alfred Roark |
Member of the Texas House of Representatives from District 14 (Liberty) 1939–1945 |
Succeeded by David Read |
| Political offices | ||
| Preceded by Homer Lakerby Leonard |
Speaker of the Texas House of Representatives 1943–1945 |
Succeeded by Claud Henry Gilmer |
| Political offices | ||
| Preceded by Grover Sellers |
Attorney General of Texas 1947—1953 |
Succeeded by John Ben Shepperd |
| Political offices | ||
| Preceded by Allan Shivers |
Governor of Texas 1957—1963 |
Succeeded by John Connally |
| United States Senate | ||
| Preceded by Tom Connally |
United States Senator (Class 1) from Texas 1953—1957 Served alongside: Lyndon B. Johnson |
Succeeded by William A. Blakley |
| Legal offices | ||
| Preceded by Clyde E. Smith |
Justice, Texas Supreme Court, Place 7 January 1, 1971–December 31, 1978 |
Succeeded by Franklin S. Spears |
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