Means of Ascent (94 page)

Humiliation over office space:
Taylor to John L. Nagle, Deputy Commissioner for Real Estate Management, Public Buildings Administration, May 6, 1947; Tom Clark to Steven Heffington, Travis County Tax Collector, Aug. 15, 1947, Box 48, Tom Clark Papers, HSTL; Jenkins, Shelton, Joseph interviews.

Hollers campaign:
Clark, Connally, Gideon, Hollers, Joseph, Pickle, Shelton, Smith interviews; Steinberg,
Sam Johnson’s Boy
, pp. 227–28; Dugger, pp. 298–302.
Vote Total:
Texas Almanac
, 1947–1948, p. 403.
“A crusade”
:
Hollers, typed transcript of Hollers’ public statement, “Hardy Hollers—24 July,” Box 55, JHP.
“Enriched”
;
“an errand
boy”
:
Hollers, quoted in Dugger, pp. 300–301.
“If”
:
Hollers, quoted in Steinberg,
Sam Johnson’s Boy
, p. 227.
“A watershed”
:
Mrs. Johnson interview with author.
“That’s simple”
:
Clark interview.
“He simply”
:
Steinberg,
Sam Johnson’s Boy
, p. 228.
“Never again”
:
Dugger, p. 300.

Johnson’s belief that he would die young:
Caro,
Path to Power
, p. 544; S. H. Johnson, Mrs. Johnson, Jenkins, Rowe, Young, Mary Louise Young interviews.
Uncle George’s death:
AA
, Mar. 12, 1940.
Uncle Tom’s heart attacks:
Cox interview.
“Too slow”
:
Johnson used this phrase to numerous people, including McFarlane and Young.

Consequences of one mistake:
S. H. Johnson interview.
“When a man reached forty”
:
Busby interview.

Telephoning Rayburn and Vinson:
Steinberg,
Sam Johnson’s Boy
, p. 210; Dugger, p. 255.

Doctor suggested:
Miller, p. 113.
“She insisted”
:
Johnson, quoted in Montgomery, p. 35.
Instructions to Mrs. English:
English OH.
105 degrees, blood transfusion, operation:
AA-S
, June 15, 16, 1945.
“It’s cheaper”
:
Johnson, quoted in Montgomery, p. 36.
“FDR-LBJ”
:
Busby interview.
His moods:
Among many who describe them: S. H. Johnson, Jenkins, Busby, Rowe interviews.
“He lost some of his drive”
:
S. H. Johnson interview.
“Driving himself late at night”
:
Latimer interview.
“Really sucking it in”
:
Jones interview.

1946 illnesses:
AA-S
, Jan. 1–Dec. 31, 1946; see also Chronology, Jan. 12, 19, 26; Feb. 2, 4, 7, 12; Mar. 2; Oct. 13, 15, 21, 30; Nov. 5, 1946; S. H. Johnson, Mrs. Johnson, Bolton, Jenkins, Shelton interviews.

“Hopes to return”
:
Jenkins to Bellows, Jan. 19, 1946, “Bellows, W. S.,” Box 141, JHP.

Wrote his cousin:
Johnson to Oriole Bailey, Feb. 7, 1946, “Bailey, Mrs. Oriole, Stonewall, Texas,” Box 140, JHP.

“Could not bear the thought”
:
Johnson, quoted in Kearns, p. 100.

Pose of indecision:
Connally, Pickle, Oltorf, Brown, Clark interviews.

O’Daniel’s unpopularity:
McKay, pp. 171–73.

SOURCES

Books and articles:

Allen, ed.,
Our Sovereign State;
Banks,
Money, Marbles and Chalk;
Fehrenbach,
Lone Star;
Gantt,
The Chief Executive in Texas;
Green,
The Establishment in Texas Politics, 1945–1957;
Heard and Strong,
Southern Primaries and Elections, 1920–1949;
Jenkins and Frost, “
I’m Frank Hamer”;
Lynch,
The Duke of Duval;
McKay,
W. Lee O’Daniel and Texas Politics
and
Texas Politics, 1906–1944;
Mooney,
Mr. Texas;
Tolbert,
Tolbert’s Texas;
Webb and Carroll,
Handbook of Texas;
Wyatt and Shelton,
Coke R. Stevenson: A Texas Legend
.

Paul Bolton, “Profile—Sheep Rancher,”
State Observer
, July 28, 1941; George Carmack, “Calculatin’ Coke Stevenson: Horatio Alger of the Llano,”
SAE
, 1974 (otherwise undated), Barker Collection; Mitchell McLendon, “Coke R. Stevenson, of Kimble County,”
West Texas Today
, Sept., 1941; Walter Moore, “Stevenson Practiced Economy,”
DMN
, July 18, 1963; Lewis Nordyke,
“Calculatin’ Coke,”
Saturday Evening Post
, Oct. 28, 1944; Ed Rider, “Hon. Coke R. Stevenson Becomes Governor,”
Frontier Times
, Aug., 1941; Charles E. Simons, “Log Cabin Statesman,”
Texas Parade
, Mar., 1942; Byron C. Utrecht, “Coke Stevenson, Ranchman
Candidate,”
Sheep and Goat Raiser
, July, 1948.

Austin American-Statesman, Dallas Morning News, Dallas Times-Herald, State Observer
, 1941–1944.

Barker Texas History Center.

Oral Histories:

Charles K. Boatner, Eugene B. Germany, Callan Graham, Josh H. Groce, Robert W. Murphey, Coke R. Stevenson.

Interviews:

About the more intimate, personal portions of his life, interviews with a number of persons close to him were helpful. These include his son, Coke Stevenson, Jr., and Coke’s wife, Edith Wills Scott Stevenson; his nephew, Robert W. Murphey, and Murphey’s wife, Nada; his executive assistant, Ernest J. Boyett; Congressmen O. C. Fisher and Wingate Lucas.

Among the state officials, newspapermen and political observers who were in Austin during the 1940s and dealt with Stevenson during his lieutenant governorship and governorship, the most helpful in interviews were Paul Bolton, Edward A. Clark, Ann Fears Crawford, William J. Lawson (O’Daniel’s Secretary of State), R. J. (“Bob”) Long, Gerald C. Mann, Margaret Mayer, Frank C. (“Posh”) Oltorf, Emmett Shelton, Arthur Stehling, E.
Babe Smith, Ralph Yarborough.

NOTES

Coke Stevenson’s youth, his self-education and early political career
are drawn from Wyatt and Shelton; Mooney; Nordyke, “Calculatin’ Coke”; Simons, “Log Cabin Statesman”; McLendon, “Coke R. Stevenson”; Bolton, “Profile”; and from Stevenson’s Oral History. Among hundreds of newspaper articles, the most valuable include
DT-H
, July 3, 1941;
Amarillo Sunday News
,
Aug. 3, 1941;
DMN
, July 2, 1941; Carmack, “Calculatin’ Coke Stevenson.” Also valuable are interviews with Coke Stevenson, Jr., Ernest J. Boyett and Robert W. Murphey, and Murphey’s Oral History.

Only twenty-two months:
Simons, “Log Cabin Statesman”;
DT-H
, July 3, 1941.
Work as youth:
Wyatt and Shelton, p. 17.
“Never any doubt”
:
Carmack, “Calculatin’ Coke Stevenson.”
His experiences running the freight line:
Simons, “Log Cabin Statesman”; Wyatt and
Shelton, pp. 23–24; McLendon, “Coke R. Stevenson.”
“The task”
:
Simons, “Log Cabin Statesman.”
“I saw opportunity”
:
DMN
, July 3, 1941.
Riding the lead horse:
Stevenson, Jr., interview;
DT-H
, July 3, 1941.
“Seldom traveled trails”
:
McLendon, “Coke R. Stevenson.”

“Rare”
;
“anything”
:
Simons, “Log Cabin Statesman.”
“Evenings of loneliness”
:
McLendon, “Coke R. Stevenson.”
“The president laughed”
;
“work up to something”
:
Stevenson, quoted in
DT-H
, July 3, 1941.
Finding the ranch;
“as pretty”
:
Stevenson, Jr., Murphey, Boyett interviews; Carmack, “Calculatin’ Coke
Stevenson.”

“The Southwestern stare”
:
Fehrenbach, p. 561.
“Sense of humor”
;
“slow to speak”
:
Bolton, Murphey, Boyett, Lawson interviews. “That shone through”: Lucas interview.

Capturing the rustlers:
Mooney, p. 10; Wyatt and Shelton, p. 35; Simons, “Log Cabin Statesman”;
DMN
, July 3, 1941; Stevenson, Jr., Boyett interviews.

Had never considered:
Stevenson was to say that as a young man he had become interested in politics, but he thought of politics as political philosophy and issues; he was to say that he “felt an urge to get into politics” because of “wonderfully eloquent speeches” he had heard during the debates that were then a feature of political campaigns. But, he was to say, while he was to be active in sparsely settled Kimble County in
the campaigns of various candidates, he had never wanted to run for political office (Stevenson OH, a recollection confirmed by his son and other interviews).

Repairing the trail; building the roads:
Simons, “Log Cabin Statesman”; Mooney, pp. 11–13.
Taught himself engineering;
“testimony”
:
McLendon,
“
Coke R. Stevenson.”

“My public life”
:
Simons, “Log Cabin Statesman”; see also Stevenson OH.

During the next eight years:
During these eight years, his only connection with politics was in the campaigns in Kimble County of various gubernatorial candidates. And, he was to say, “about running for the Legislature in the first place I got into all these races by accident.” In another place in his Oral History, he explains that he would not have
run for the Legislature had not other potential conservative candidates
refused: “I tried to get Claude Glimer” to run, “but he refused” (Stevenson OH).
Would never defend:
Nordyke, “Calculatin’ Coke.” Once, when an accused sheep stealer asked Stevenson to represent him, Stevenson replied: “I won’t defend you, but I’ll help prosecute you” (Bolton, “Profile”).
Docket for a single term:
Amarillo Sunday News
, Aug. 3, 1941.
“One of the greatest”
:
Wyatt and Shelton, p. 37;
DT-H
, July 3, 1941.
“Best all-round”
:
Martin, quoted in Wyatt and Shelton, p. 37.
Try more lawsuits:
Wyatt and Shelton, p. 37.

“A sincere tribute”
:
Simons, “Log Cabin Statesman”; Mooney, p. 9.

“Treats his books like friends”
:
Simons, “Log Cabin Statesman.”

Building the ranch house;
“baronial”
;
“unbelievable”
:
Tolbert, “Tolbert’s Texas”; Carmack, “Calculatin’ Coke Stevenson”; Wyatt and Shelton, pp. 47–48; Stevenson, Jr., Murphey, Boyett interviews.
“A Dream Ranch”
:
Carmack, “Calculatin’ Coke Stevenson.”
“I don’t suppose”
:
Stevenson, quoted in
DMN
, July 2, 1941.
Driving down the river:
Rider, “Hon. Coke Stevenson Becomes Governor.”

“Mother believed”
:
Stevenson, Jr., interview. “The most beloved”:
State Observer
, July 28, 1941.

“He buried himself”
:
Simons, “Log Cabin Statesman.” And see Mooney, p. 8.
“An anti-government instrument”
:
Fehrenbach, pp. 434–36.
“Everything
possible”
:
Gantt, p. 32.
“An ingrained hatred”
:
Simons, “Log Cabin Statesman.”
Sheltering the Bowie cabin:
Stevenson, Jr., interview; Wyatt and Shelton, p. 96.
Raising the flag:
Kathryn Duff,
HP
, Jan. 19, 1964.
“Ranch people
need”
:
Stevenson, quoted in
DT-H
, July 3, 1941.
“I did not approve”
:
Amarillo Sunday News
, Aug. 3, 1941.
Trying to persuade others to run:
Simons, “Log Cabin Statesman”; Boyett interview; Stevenson OH.

“A marked man”
:
Simons, “Log Cabin Statesman.”
Coke as a legislator:
Nordyke, “Calculatin’ Coke”; Simons, “Log Cabin Statesman”;
Amarillo Sunday News
, Aug. 3, 1941.
Shooting the horse:
Amarillo Sunday News
, Aug. 3, 1941.
“You just instinctively knew”
:
Clark interview.
“
Truly
hated
it
”:
Lucas interview.

Auditing, bookkeeping bills:
Moore, “Stevenson Practiced Economy”; Mooney, pp. 18–19; Stevenson OH.
“Glaringly simple”
: Mooney, p. 18.

Highway bond fight:
Bolton, “Profile”; Mooney, pp. 18–20.
“Gradually”
:
Simons, “Log Cabin Statesman.”
Prison reforms:
Amarillo Sunday News
, Aug. 3, 1941; Stevenson OH.

“The darn thing”
:
Stevenson, quoted in Murphey interview.

Coke as Speaker:
Nordyke, “Calculatin’ Coke”; Simons, “Log Cabin Statesman”; Mooney, pp. 20–22.
“As long as”
:
Stevenson, Jr., Clark interviews.
“Hot and heavy”
:
Mooney, pp. 25–26.
“On your own”
:
Amarillo Sunday News
, Aug. 3, 1941.
“They have never”
:
DMN
, July 2, 1941.

“Whenever”
:
Murphey interview.
“Hardly a man”
:
Amarillo Sunday News
, Aug. 3, 1941.
“That worked”
:
Lawson interview.
“It’s a country of laws”
:
Murphey interview.
“His legion”
:
DT-H
, July 2, 1941.
“Borders on genius”
:
Simons, “Log Cabin Statesman.”