Birthsite of Beauford H. Jester

The Handbook of Texas describes a governor who held back on national civil rights and pushed hard on labor law. Jester opposed President Truman's civil rights program, but he supported state measures, including an antilynching law and a constitutional amendment to repeal the poll tax. He lobbied for a major university for Black Texans. His 1947 right-to-work law abolished the union shop, and other laws barred automatic dues deductions and mass picketing, which earned him an antilabor reputation among union leaders and liberal Democrats. He died of a heart attack on July 11, 1949.

What the plaque says

Birthsite of Beauford H. Jester (1893-1949) Governor of Texas (1947-1949) Chief executive when significant Gilmer-Aikin Law was passed, raising standards of public education in Texas, his administration also made strides toward prison reform, water control, improved public roads. Jester was born at family home in Corsicana, where he attended public school. He graduated from University of Texas, 1916; left Harvard Law School to serve as captain in 90th division during World War I. Graduated in law from University of Texas, 1920, and became avid baseball player. For many years, Jester practiced law and had oil interests in Corsicana. In 1946 he was elected governor as a Jeffersonian Conservative. At the inauguration, World War I buddies carried him on their shoulders into the Governor's Mansion, where he had slept as a boy when his father, George T. Jester, was lieutenant governor. After the disastrous Texas City explosions killed over 400 persons in 1947, Jester personally assisted rescue operations. He was re-elected in 1948. When the legislature adjourned in 1949 after the longest regular session in Texas history, he left to take a vacation in Galveston, but died en route of natural causes. He was the only Texas governor to die in office. His wife was Mabel Buchanan; they had 3 children. (1968)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Petroleum Industry Park — 0.3 mi
  The pipes and drilling tower mark where a city water well struck oil on June 9, 1894, the start of the first Texas field to produce oil and gas in important quantities.
• Blind Lemon Memorial Cemetery — 20 mi
  The Freestone County grave of the Texas blues singer Blind Lemon Jefferson, who recorded for Paramount in Chicago from 1926 and died there in December 1929.
• Ellis County Courthouse — 30 mi
  J. Riely Gordon's courthouse of 1897 in Pecos red sandstone and pink granite, with twenty-one carved stone faces and two cornerstones left by a quarrel over its building.

More markers nearby

• First Baptist Church of Corsicana — steps away
• Collin Street Bakery — steps away
• Samuel Wistar Johnson, M. D. — 0.3 mi
• Corsicana Public Library — 0.3 mi