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As conscious as West Texans are of water, it comes as little surprise that the state enacted one of its most important pieces of water legislation while a West Texan was speaker. In 1957, while Waggoner Carr (1918-2004) of Lubbock was serving as presiding officer of the House of Representatives, the 55th Legislature proposed a constitutional amendment and passed enabling legislation creating the Texas Water Development Board. On its creation, the board was authorized to issue up to $200 million in water development bonds for the purpose of funding local water projects. Waggoner Carr was born in Fairlie, a tiny community in Hunt County, on October 1, 1918. In 1932, his family moved to Lubbock, where Carr was graduated from Lubbock High School and Texas Technological College. After receiving his undergraduate degree in 1940, Carr enrolled at The University of Texas Law School. His education was temporarily interrupted, however, when he joined the United States Army Air Corps and served during World War II. Following his service, he was graduated from law school and admitted to the State Bar of Texas. Carr served in 1948 as assistant district attorney in Lubbock and from 1949 to 1951 as county attorney for Lubbock County. First elected state representative in 1950, Carr was a member of the house in the 52nd through 56th legislatures. He was chosen speaker in the 55th Legislature and successfully sought a second term in that office, a distinction attained by only two other Texans before him. Carr's speakership witnessed, besides the water amendment, the adoption of a constitutional amendment to promote tourism and industrial development and the establishment of a code of ethics for legislators and lobbyists. It also witnessed the creation of the Texas Youth Council and the recodification of juvenile laws, the modernization of workers' compensation statutes, the reorganization of the State Insurance Board, and the authorization and financing of a new State Library and Archives Building. Carr left the legislature in order to run for attorney general. Successful in his second attempt to become the state's top legal officer in 1962, he subsequently served two elective two-year terms. As attorney general from 1963 to 1967, Carr completed prosecution of the important Billy Sol Estes and slant oil well cases that he had inherited from his predecessor. He also founded the Attorney General's Youth Conference on Crime. When President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Carr led the Texas investigation and participated in the work of the Warren Commission. The nation's 50 state attorney generals voted him the outstanding attorney general of 1966. That same year, Carr ran unsuccessfully for the U.S. Senate, opposing Senator John Tower, who was reelected. Two years later, Carr entered a crowded Democratic primary campaign for the governorship but missed the runoff by finishing third. After leaving public office, Carr resided in Austin, where he was of counsel to the law firm of DeLeon & Roggins. In 1971, he was tried on federal fraud and conspiracy charges for the Sharpstown stock fraud scandal, but was eventually acquitted. A Distinguished Alumnus of Texas Tech University, he was appointed by Governor Preston Smith to the university's board of regents, serving from 1969 to 1972. He also was state commander of the American Legion, Department of Texas, and in 1989, was selected to chair the Action for Metropolitan Government Committee of the city of Austin and Travis County. He was awarded a certificate of appreciation from the Austin City Council in 1991 and that same year was appointed by the Supreme Court of Texas to serve on a citizens' commission examining the Texas Judicial System. Waggoner Carr was married to Ernestine Story Carr. They have one son, Dr. David W. Carr, a dentist in Austin. Waggoner Carr died February 25, 2004. BIBLIOGRAPHY: Presiding Officers of the Texas Legislature, 1846-2002. [Austin, Tex.]: Texas Legislative Council, 2002. link: Waggoner Carr.
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