Preston Smith | |
Order1: | 40th |
Office1: | Governor of Texas |
Term Start1: | January 21, 1969 |
Term End1: | January 16, 1973 |
Lieutenant1: | Ben Barnes |
Predecessor1: | John Connally |
Successor1: | Dolph Briscoe |
Order2: | 35th |
Office2: | Lieutenant Governor of Texas |
Term Start2: | January 15, 1963 |
Term End2: | January 21, 1969 |
Governor2: | John Connally |
Predecessor2: | Ben Ramsey |
Successor2: | Ben Barnes |
Office3: | Member of the Texas Senate from the 28th district |
Term Start3: | January 8, 1957 |
Term End3: | January 8, 1963[1] |
Predecessor3: | Kilmer B. Corbin |
Successor3: | H. J. "Doc" Blanchard |
Office4: | Member of the Texas House of Representatives from the 119th district |
Term Start4: | January 9, 1945 |
Term End4: | January 9, 1951 |
Predecessor4: | Hop Hasley |
Successor4: | Waggoner Carr |
Birth Name: | Preston Earnest Smith |
Birth Date: | 8 March 1912 |
Birth Place: | Corn Hill (now Jarrell), Texas, U.S. |
Death Place: | Lubbock, Texas, U.S. |
Resting Place: | Texas State Cemetery (Austin, Texas) |
Children: | 2 |
Alma Mater: | Texas Tech University (BBA) |
Profession: | Entrepreneur, politician |
Party: | Democratic |
Preston Earnest Smith (March 8, 1912 – October 18, 2003) was an American entrepreneur and politician who served as the 40th governor of Texas from 1969 to 1973. A member of the Democratic Party, he previously served as the lieutenant governor from 1963 to 1969.
Smith was born into a tenant farming family of 13 children in Corn Hill, a town in Williamson County, Texas, that has since been absorbed into nearby Jarrell.[2] [3] The family later moved to Lamesa, Texas, where Smith graduated in 1928 from Lamesa High School. In 1934, he graduated from Texas Technological College (now Texas Tech University) in Lubbock with a bachelor's degree in business administration.[4] Staying in Lubbock, he founded a movie theater business and invested in real estate.[4] [5]
Smith was first elected to the Texas House of Representatives in 1944 and then to the Texas State Senate in 1956.[6]
Smith's inauguration on January 21, 1969, had what was called "the flavor of the South Plains". The Texas Tech University marching band led the parade just behind the marshal and the color guard. A mounted masked Red Raider rode with the band. Governor and Mrs. Smith, both Tech graduates, followed in an open convertible. Other Smith family members rode in the parade, followed by the new lieutenant governor, Ben Barnes. The band of Lamesa High School, Smith's alma mater, was the first among the high school groups. Before the oath taking, the first to be televised in Texas history, Smith had been feted with a $25-per-place victory dinner in the Austin Municipal Auditorium, now the Long Center for the Performing Arts.[7] [8]
In 1971 and 1972, Smith was embroiled in the Sharpstown scandal stock fraud scheme, which eventually led to his downfall. Smith lost his third-term bid for the governorship of Texas to Dolph Briscoe of Uvalde in the Democratic primary in 1972.[9] [10] [11]