He’s been Grapevine’s mayor for 50 years. This weekend kicks off a golden jubilee
When William D. Tate was first elected mayor of Grapevine, it was still a farming town of a few thousand people. Dallas-Fort Worth airport hadn’t opened yet. And gasoline cost less than 40 cents a gallon.
Today, after serving 50 years in office, Tate is the longest-running mayor of any Texas city the size of Grapevine.
The city is celebrating Tate’s Golden Jubilee starting this weekend at the Grapevine Main Street Fest. Meanwhile, the 84-year-old mayor has been doing a lot of reflecting on how his hometown has grown from a small farming community into one of Texas’ tourism destinations.
In his law office on West Wall Street, Tate is surrounded by law books, papers, family photos and old taxidermy mounted animals he hunted during the earlier part of his life. He returns to his childhood as he shared memories of his life in Grapevine and how those times influenced who he became.
Tate first worked as the city attorney and was elected as a council member in 1972. A year later, he won election as mayor and served until 1985. Three years later, he was elected again and has held the position ever since. His current term ends in May 2027.
Many of Tate’s childhood memories involved him finding creative ways to entertain himself, including making his own toys from whatever scraps of material he could find or wandering for hours, chasing crickets, making bows and arrows and visiting with the neighbors’ hens.
His family owned a hardware store and grocery store and lived just a block away in his mothers’ family home. Tate said he remembers when merchants would come into town weekly to sell their goods on Main Street.
“There wasn’t any crime, there really wasn’t any traffic,” he said. “We were a farming community, and most of the business was out in the country, but I was shy and used to call myself a lone wolf.”
Tate said that time was so much different, he remembers hot summer nights spent sleeping outside with his dad in hopes of catching a small breeze while staring at the stars.
Tate graduated from high school and went on to college to study law, which had been a dream that his dad had for himself. The father ended up working in the family store, where older men in town would gather to talk about their hopes for Grapevine’s future.
“I didn’t forget about the old men, you know, their dreams and aspirations for the city, and it didn’t look like we had a lot of opportunity back then as a farming community. Business was primarily Saturday, when the farmers came to town.
“So we’ve had a lot of milestones in my lifetime,” he said. “We became a recreation center when the lake came. We became a transportation center with the airport, we became a retail center with Mills Mall, and we became a hospitality center with the Gaylord and all the hotels, and now we are an international festival city.”
Tate said he is proud of all the city’s accomplishments, but what he is most proud of and motivates him the most is that people chose to move to Grapevine from all over the country, and live together as friends and family.
“I think the fact that people have put down roots here, they’ve invested in business here, they’ve made memories here for their family, and they tell me every day that they love to live and work in our community,” Tate said. “I think that’s the measuring stick of how successful you’ve been, is what the people feel about where you are and what you have.”
Another accomplishment for the city during his time was bringing Bass Pro Shop to Grapevine in 1999. Tate said he was told that John Morris, the founder, was hesitant to bring the store to Grapevine and preferred a location in Irving. He came around after a conversation with Tate. The pair spoke about their fathers teaching them how to hunt and how they were raised.
“I talked to him about what I thought Bass Pro meant to his hometown,” Tate said. “I told him what I thought he had meant to Springfield, Missouri, and then I told him what I thought it meant to Grapevine, Texas, and I saw a little tear come in his eye and he didn’t say a word. But I knew I had moved him because I saw a little tear come in his eye.”
Tate said at the end, Morris told him he never makes a decision without sleeping on it and called him at 6 a.m. to see if they could meet. When they did meet, Morris told him he hadn’t been able to sleep all night because he wanted to tell him that he would be bringing the shop to Grapevine after all.
Grapevine’s tourism industry has continued to grow over the years with Christmas Capital Texas and the Grapevine Vintage Railroad and Main Street, which has been named one of the most charming Main Streets in the U.S.
Tate said there is a lot of uncertainty about the future right now and things happening in the country and that concern him. He said he thinks about the Irish and Scottish who immigrated here with little to nothing to make a life for themselves and their families, and he worries about where we are headed.
“I think about where we are as a country and as a state, and it’s hard to even look at the internet and see what’s going on every day, pretty scary,” Tate said. “Then I look at our community and where we are, and what we have and the leaders who have yet to come.”
Tate’s time as mayor will come to an end
“I’m the oldest mayor we’ve ever had, I was the youngest mayor,” Tate said. “I’d like to see me be alive for new leaders, so maybe they can fall back on me, and we can have a transition where we can keep things going.”
But some residents still want him to continue. Tate said that is probably because people like how things are going and are generally fearful of change.
“I gave them more for less, and government can’t hardly do that,” Tate said. “Very few governments have been able to give more for less, if any, but we were able to do it.”
Tate said there were a lot of decisions to be made during his time to keep the city on track for growth as the surrounding areas expanded.
“We made the tough decisions that we had to make to keep us on schedule and to get us to where we are today,” Tate said. “To make sure that those dreams of those elders of my childhood came true.”
Celebrations for the mayor’s jubilee will begin at the 42nd Annual Main Street Festival on May 15, 16 and 17. More events to honor the mayor will take place throughout the year and in to May 2027 with a final reception at the William D. Tate ballroom at the Gaylord Texan resort.
An exhibit called “Heritage to World Class” Mayor Tate’s 50-Year Legacy will also be showcased during the celebrations on May 15. The free exhibit is open to the public and will be running through June 1.
A mayoral statue will be unveiled on May 16 from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. between City Hall and Palace Theatre.
Those interested in a train ride can also hop on the Grapevine Vintage Railroad’s Golden Jubilee Express Trains which is sponsored by SEA LIFE Grapevine during Main Street Fest with a special fare ride for $5 per person or $20 for a group of four or more in honor of Tate.