John Lee Smith (May 16, 1894 – September 26, 1963) was the 32nd

lieutenant governor of Texas The lieutenant governor of Texas is the second-highest executive officer, executive office in the government of Texas, a state in the United States, U.S. It is the second most powerful post in Texas government because its occupant controls the wor ...

from 1943 to 1947. A member of the Democratic Party, he represented the 24th district in the

Texas Senate The Texas Senate is the upper house of the Texas Legislature, with the Texas House of Representatives functioning as the lower house. Together, they form the State legislature (United States), state legislature of the state of Texas. The Senate ...

from 1941 to 1942 and was a vocal opponent of Texas labor unions during his tenure.

Biography

Born May 16, 1894 at

Chico, Texas Chico is a town in Wise County, Texas, United States. The population was 946 in 2020. Geography According to the United States Census Bureau The United States Census Bureau, officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of th ...

, and raised in

Throckmorton, Texas Throckmorton is a town in Throckmorton County, Texas, United States. Its population was 727 at the 2020 census. It is the county seat of Throckmorton County. Geography According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of ...

, Smith was educated at Stamford College and West Texas State Teachers College before teaching school. In 1918, he went to France as a member of

American Expeditionary Forces The American Expeditionary Forces (AEF) was a formation of the United States Armed Forces on the Western Front (World War I), Western Front during World War I, composed mostly of units from the United States Army, U.S. Army. The AEF was establis ...

; while overseas, he also studied at a French university. Upon his return, he studied law at Chautauqua, New York, and went back to Throckmorton to practice law. In 1920, Smith was elected Throckmorton County Judge and was the youngest judge in Texas at the time. He served until 1926, and then spent five years as a lawyer with the state education department in Austin. Smith returned to the private practice of law in 1931. Smith was elected to the Texas Senate in 1940, and ran for and won the lieutenant governorship in 1942. He was reelected in 1944. While in the Legislature, both as member and presiding officer of the Senate, Smith was a critic of the

closed shop A pre-entry closed shop (or simply closed shop) is a form of union security agreement under which the employer agrees to hire union members only, and employees must remain members of the union at all times to remain employed. This is different fr ...

; he supported legislation that would prohibit a person from interfering with another person's right to engage in a lawful occupation. He also supported a provision that would make it a felony for any union laborer to commit an act of violence while on strike and the Manford Act of 1943, a union regulation bill. In 1946, Smith sought the Democratic nomination for governor, but he finished fifth behind Beauford Jester, Homer Rainey, Grover Sellers, and Jerry Sadler. Returning to the private practice of law, he formed a partnership with his son in Lubbock, where he died on September 26, 1963. In 1956, Smith, who had supported the

Dixiecrat The States' Rights Democratic Party (whose members are often called the Dixiecrats), also colloquially referred to as the Dixiecrat Party, was a short-lived segregationist, States' Rights, and old southern democratic political party in the ...

s in 1948 strongly criticized the ''Brown v. Board'' ruling in 1954, supported the campaign of T. Coleman Andrews–

Thomas H. Werdel Thomas Harold Werdel (September 13, 1905 – September 30, 1966) was an American politician and lawyer who served as an California State Assembly, assembly member and United States House of Representatives, Representative from California as a me ...

, who ran as the nominees for the States' Rights Party.

References

*Tex. Legis. Council, ''Presiding Officers of the Texas Legislature: 1846-1995'' 79 (1995).

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Smith, John Lee 1894 births 1963 deaths Dixiecrats Lieutenant governors of Texas Democratic Party Texas state senators People from Wise County, Texas Texas lawyers People from Throckmorton, Texas Politicians from Lubbock, Texas 20th-century American lawyers 20th-century members of the Texas Legislature United States Army personnel of World War I