BILL BLAKELY SERVES IN BOTH SENATORIAL LINES
By June R. Welch: The Texas Senator, Dallas 1978

William Blakley served in the Ruskline under a 1957 appointment made by Governor Allan Shivers to succeed Price Daniel. Ralph Yarborough won the seat in the special election, Blakley ran against Yarborough the next year and lost, but Governor Daniel stated that he would gladly appoint Blakley if another opening should occur.

When Senator Lyndon Johnson was a candidate for vice president in 1960, he also sought re-election; in the event he and John Kennedy were defeated. The Democrats carried the country, and Johnson won another Senate term by 1,306,625 votes to 926,653 for John Tower. As a result, on January 3, 1961, Johnson took the oath as senator and then resigned. Governor Daniel appointed Blakley as interim senator pending a special election in April.

The situation was similiar to that of 1957, when Yarborough's victory was achieved by the presence of a great number of candidates, but now the legislature had provided for a runoff to prevent another liberal or Republican-victory. But the legislators' efforts were to no avail; the Republican John Tower led Blakley into a runoff, and there he won by 448,217 votes to 437,874.

Sam Rayburn, a close friend, tried to advise Blakley but complained that he was "the hardest fellow to help" that he had ever seen. "He never did say what he was for, only what he was against." As to the victory of Tower, Rayburn pointed out that half the two million registered voters did not bother to go to the polls to choose between the two conservatives because neither was attractive to them; Tower and Blakley simply split the conservative vote. Rayburn warned, "If the Republicans think they have achieved a two-party system in Texas, let them try to elect a governor.

At the close of his term, on June 14, 1961, Blakley returned to Dallas where he was active in business and philanthropy. He gave huge sums to the University of Dallas and to the Scottish Rite Hospital for Crippled Children.

Senator Blakley died in Dallas on January 5, 1976.

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