Farenthold, Frances (Frances Tarlton), 1926-

Lawyer, member of the Texas Legislature (1968-1972); twice candidate for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination (1972 and 1974); first female nominated to be the Democratic candidate for the U.S. vice presidency (1972); first female president of Wells College in Aurora, New York (1976-1980).

Frances “Sissy” Tarlton Farenthold was born on October 2, 1926, in Corpus Christi, Texas. Her father B. Dudley Tarlton, Jr., an attorney, was the son of Judge Benjamin D. Tarlton, Sr., Chief Justice of the Texas Court of Civil Appeals, state legislator, professor at the University of Texas at Austin (UT) School of Law, and namesake of the UT Tarlton Law Library. Farenthold graduated from Vassar College in 1946 and the UT Law School in 1949. She began her career in politics in 1960, campaigning for John F. Kennedy as president and serving on the Corpus Christi City Council’s human relations commission until 1965. After serving two years as director of the Nueces County Legal Aid Program, Democrat Farenthold was elected as representative for Nueces and Kleberg counties in the Texas Legislature (1968-1972). She also ran twice for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination against Dolph Briscoe (1972; 1974) and became the first serious, and third ever, female nominee to be the Democratic candidate for the U.S. vice presidency, placing second out of seven.

During her tenure as a state legislator, Farenthold promoted civil and women’s rights, co-sponsoring the Equal Legal Rights Amendment with State Senator Barbara Jordan, and supported environmental protection for beaches, bays, estuaries, and Mustang Island. When opposing Governor Preston Smith’s efforts to expel people registering Mexican Americans to vote in Del Rio, she marched in support of the registration on Palm Sunday in March 1969. With the emergence of the Sharpstown stock fraud scandal, in which Houston banker Frank Sharp was accused of bribing lawmakers in 1971, Farenthold joined other representatives, named by their opposition as the “Dirty Thirty.” The group proposed a resolution for an investigation into the roles played by Texas House Speaker Gus Mutscher and other legislators in the scandal and into the history of the bills Sharp was accused of promoting through bribery. Although the bill did not succeed and redistricting eliminated Farenthold’s district, Mutscher was found guilty of his involvement in the scandal, and Gov. Smith’s and Lt. Gov. Ben Barnes’ political careers were essentially ended by the scandal.

After leaving politics, Farenthold continued to support humanitarian causes, including peace activism and opposition to the Vietnam War and the nuclear disarmament and the nuclear waste disposal movements. She also served as a human rights observer in Iraq, El Salvador, Honduras, South Korea, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Cuba, and the former U.S.S.R.

After teaching law at Texas Southern University, Farenthold served as the first female president of Wells College in Aurora, New York (1976-1980). With numerous national female political figures in 1971, she co-founded the National Women’s Political Caucus, an organization dedicated to increasing women’s participation in government and achieving equality for women, which elected Farenthold as its first national chair in 1973. Five years later, she established the Public Leadership Education Network to support an increased representation of women in government through educational programs for female college students interested in careers in public policy. Upon her return to Texas in 1980, Farenthold opened a law firm and began teaching law at the University of Houston.

In 1950, Farenthold married George Farenthold, and before divorcing in 1985, the couple had five children, including Dudley (b. 1951), George, Jr. (b. 1952), Emilie (b. 1954), and twins Vincent Bluntzer Tarlton (1956-1960) and James Robert Dougherty “Jimmy” (1956-1989?).

Sources:

Frances Tarlton Farenthold Papers, 1913-2011, Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, University of Texas at Austin.

Draper, Robert. The Blood of the Farentholds. Texas Monthly 20, no. 4 (April 1992): pp. 138-141, 164-171.

Jones, Nancy Baker, and Ruthe Winegarten. Capitol Women: Texas Female Legislators, 1923-1999. Austin, Tex.: University of Texas Press, 2000.

Mary and Jeff Bell Library. B. Dudley Tarlton Papers. Mary and Jeff Bell Library, Texas A&M University at Corpus Christi. http://rattler.tamucc.edu/dept/special/tarlton.html (accessed August 11, 2010)