William G. "Bill" Hall

The Museum of the Gulf Coast says Jack Clement left for Nashville in 1965 and Hall followed in 1967. There he built Hall-Clement and Jack & Bill into a leading publishing house, and in 1975 sold the seven-company group to Welk Music Group, staying on to run its Nashville division. Songs he placed there include Willie Nelson's "My Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys" and Ronnie Milsap's "Nobody Likes Sad Songs." He secured fourteen number-one hits for Don Williams and was known to friends as "Colonel."

What the plaque says

William G. "Bill" Hall (1929-1983) Music publisher William G. Hall helped start and promote the careers of dozens of musicians. Hall was raised in Beaumont's Multimax Village and graduated from South Park High School and Lamar State College. He was considering a career in law before turning his attention to the burgeoning Texas music scene. By 1956, he was managing George Jones. Soon after, he and his friend, J.P. Richardson ("The Big Bopper"), made plans to build a recording studio and publishing company in Beaumont to promote the latter's music. A tragic plane crash took the life of Richardson, Buddy Holly and Richie Valens on Feb. 3, 1959. Even after death, Richardson's songs continued to be number one hits. Hall opened a small studio called Hall-Way on Magnolia Street in 1959. Hall signed young musicians like Johnny (Winter) and The Jammers and Rod Bernard. Hall invited another old friend, Jack Clement, to move to Beaumont and become business partners. Hall and Clement opened a new studio on this site at 888 Pearl Street called Gulf Coast Recording Company, as well as two music publishing companies: Hall-Clement Publishing Co. and Jack & Bill Music Co. Within six months, Gulf Coast Recording produced a million-selling record with "Patches" in May 1962. Hall and Clement continued to recruit songwriters to join their team. Dickey Lee, Allen Reynolds, Bob McDill, Jerry Foster and Bill Rice were all eventually inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame. Gulf Coast Recording Company recorded its last song in 1964, but Hall remained active in producing country music. Bill Hall died in April 1983 in Beaumont and was buried at Forest Lawn Cemetery. In 1994, Hall was inducted into the Museum of the Gulf Coast's Music Hall of Fame. In 2009, he was posthumously bestowed the second-ever Frances Williams Preston Mentor Award. (2020)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• McFaddin-Ward House — 1.2 mi
  A Beaux-Arts Colonial Revival mansion finished in 1906 and lived in by one family for 75 years, with free guided tours of three furnished floors, the carriage house and gardens.
• Spindletop-Gladys City Boomtown Museum — 3.4 mi
  A re-created oil boomtown on the Lamar University campus, with a derrick, period shops, a 1941 granite monument and an optional re-enactment of the January 1901 Lucas gusher.
• Village Creek State Park — 12 mi
  A 2,466-acre state park on one of the few free-flowing creeks in Texas, with a launch for the Village Creek Paddling Trail, boat rentals and sandy-upland trails in the Big Thicket.
• Museum of the Gulf Coast — 17 mi
  Port Arthur's regional museum in a former bank building: fossils, Native Americans, the petroleum story, a 125-foot history mural and Halls of Fame for musicians, athletes and artists.

More markers nearby

• Henry Millard — steps away
• Beaumont — steps away
• Nancy Tevis — steps away
• Beaumont: Lumber Mill City of the Nineteenth Century — steps away