Longtime legislator DeWitt Hale dies at 100
Texans have Hale to thank for women being allowed on juries and for making it possible to buy mixed drinks in restaurants.
Texans have L. DeWitt Hale to thank for writing the state’s education code, expanding jury pools to include women and, not least,
making it possible to buy a mixed drink in a bar or restaurant.
Hale, who served as a Democrat for 28 years in the Texas House, died Tuesday in Austin after a several-year struggle with hip issues and other challenges of advanced age, his daughter Janet Wilde said. He was 100.
Ben Barnes, who was House speaker in 1965-69, said that Hale was a workhorse in a building with more than its share of show horses.
“DeWitt was so prepared. He always amazed me because he attempted to read through every
bill, which was unusual,” Barnes said. “When I needed to know something about an amendment, I would call DeWitt Hale up to the dais, and he would explain its effect to me in 60 seconds. He was so prepared.”
“When I think of an effective legislator I served with, DeWitt Hale comes up immediately,” he said.
Hale was born in Caddo Mills and grew up in Farmersville, northeast of Dallas. While attending the University of Texas in 1938, he was elected to represent his home Collin County district in the House at age 21. He left the Legislature after a single term — he got a law degree from UT in 1940 — and served in the Army Air Force during World War II.
After the war, he moved to Corpus Christi to practice law, but politics came calling again. He was elected to represent a Nueces County House district, and held that seat for 26 years.
In his first term, Hale authored a proposed constitutional amendment allowing women — who had held the right to vote for more than three decades but were barred from jury duty by Texas’ 19th century Constitution — to join jury pools. Voters approved the amendment in 1954 with 57 percent of the vote.
In 1969, he wrote a bill that collected Texas education law,
which had been strewn haphazardly throughout the statutes, into a new Texas Education Code. Education law would remain a focus even in his retirement from the Legislature.
Archie McAfee, executive director of the Texas Association of Secondary Principals, said the group kept Hale on retainer until eight years ago, turning to him to advise principals on legal questions.
“He was one of the most knowledgeable men about education law I ever met,” McAfee said. “He was just a great guy. It just amazed me how sharp his mind was, even in his later years.”
But Hale’s legislative interests and accomplishments were diverse. He was the House sponsor of legislation in 1971 allowing what was known as “liquor by the drink.” Before that time, Texans had to bring their own liquor to bars or restaurants and blend it with mixers bought on the premises.
Hale chaired the House Judiciary Committee for eight years and headed various other committees before retiring from elected office in 1978.
He and his late wife, Carole, moved to Austin in the early 1980s.
Services will be held at 10 a.m. Saturday at WeedCorley-Fish, 3125 N. Lamar Blvd., with burial to follow at the Texas State Cemetery.