Briscoe, Dolph

South Texas landowner, rancher, oilman, banker, and politician Dolph Briscoe, Jr., (1923-2010) was a member of the Texas House of Representatives (1949-1957) and Governor of Texas (1973-1979). Born in Uvalde, Texas, son of Dolph Briscoe, Sr., and Georgie Briscoe, Briscoe, Jr. was valedictorian at Uvalde High School and graduated from the University of Texas at Austin in 1943, before serving in the U.S. Army during World War II. He married Betty Jane (Janey) Slaughter in 1942. After the war, Briscoe became a rancher in South Texas and was elected president of the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association in 1960.

Active in the Democratic Party of Texas throughout the 1950s and the 1960s, Briscoe served on the Texas House of Representatives (1948-1957), declining to seek reelection in 1957 so he could manage his ranching business. In 1968, he lost the Democratic gubernatorial nomination to Preston Smith, but Briscoe went on to win the general election in 1972 and was reelected to the first four-year term for a Texas governor in 1974. As Governor, Briscoe focused on the improvement of highways, new state funding for education, and granting public access to the records of state government agencies. In 1978, Briscoe was defeated in the Democratic Primary by John Hill.

Briscoe also served on the Southern Governors Association, the Interstate Oil Compact Commission, the National Petroleum Council, and owned the First State Bank of Uvalde. An active philanthropist, he donated to numerous Texas institutions, including the Center for American History at the University of Texas at Austin.

“Dolph Briscoe, Texan - Biography.” Dolph Briscoe Center for American History. Accessed on March 8, 2011. http://www.cah.utexas.edu/about/briscoe/bio.php.

Slaughter, George. “Briscoe, Dolph Jr.,” Handbook of Texas Online. Published by the Texas State Historical Association. Accessed on March 8, 2011. http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/fbrfa.

From the guide to the Dolph Briscoe Papers, 1932-2010, (Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, The University of Texas at Austin)