DALLAS -- Funeral services for former Texas Gov. Bill Clements will be Thursday in Dallas.
Clements, who in 1979 became the first Republican elected governor in Texas since Reconstruction, died Sunday.The 94-year-old had been ill for several months and grieving the death of his son, who was shot by a neighbor last year in East Texas.A memorial service will be held Thursday at Saint Michael and All Angels Episcopal Church in Dallas. A private burial will be held before the service.Clements served two terms despite losing his first re-election bid. The oilman ran Texas under the belief that state government should operate like a big business.Gov. Rick Perry called Clements the father of the modern-day Texas Republican Party, which now holds every elected statewide office.Clements was well aware of the historic importance of his election."I think that what happened in the last four years is without a doubt a new page in our Texas history in the management of our state government," he said at the end of his first term.He lost his re-election bid in 1982 to Democrat Mark White, a lawyer and part owner of a barbecue firm in the Central Texas town of Valley Mills.Clements came back four years later to defeat White.Clements' second term was marred from the beginning by his involvement in a pay-for-play football scandal at Southern Methodist University, which led the NCAA to suspend the football program for two years.He was chairman of the school's governing board between his terms as governor and acknowledged participating in the decision to let the payments continue.Have more to add? News tip? Tell us
