Tedford Williamson

Infobox Officeholder
name= Tedford Fielden "Ted" Williamson
caption= Tedford Williamson
office= Round Rock, Texas, City Council
term_start=2005
term_end=2007
birth_date= birth date and age |1957|12|11
birth_place= Vivian, Caddo Parish, Louisiana, USA
death_date=
spouse= Divorced from former Mary Jane Peters
children=Kevin Williamson Two stepdaughters: April and Melanie
party= Republican
occupation= Businessman
religion= Baptist
footnotes=(1) Williamson is among five members of two generations of his extended Louisiana-based family who has served in public office.

(2) A successful businessman in the Austin area, Williamson served two years on the Round Rock City Council.

Tedford Fielden Williamson, known as Ted Williamson (born December 11, 1957), is a Texas businessman who is the scion of a politically-connected family from North Louisiana and himself a former member of the Round Rock, Texas, City Council. Round Rock is located along Interstate 35 in Williamson County north of the state capital of Austin. Williamson hence coincidentally bears the same name as his county of residence. Though municipal elections in Texas are all conducted on nonpartisan ballots, Williamson identifies himself as a Republican. Williamson County is majority Republican in recent political behavior. Williamson was elected to a partial term in November 2005 did not seek a full two-year term on the council in the elections held in May 2007, having cited business and family obligations which precluded his further service.Billy Hathorn, "The Williamsons of Caddo Parish: The Unfolding of a Political 'Mini-dynasty'", "North Louisiana History", publication of the North Louisiana Historical Association, Winter 2008, hereinafter cited as NLH, pp. 25-43]

Early years, education, business

Williamson was born in the small town of Vivian in northern Caddo Parish in far northwestern Louisiana, to Earl Guyton Williamson, Sr. (1903-1992), and his second wife, the former Mary Ann Hearne (1926-1992). Earl Williamson was a Vivian businessman and local Democratic politician who served for forty years on the Caddo Parish Police Jury (now called the Caddo Parish Commission, the parish governing body), as a Vivian alderman, and for twelve years as mayor of Vivian, a community of some 4,000 inhabitants. Earl Williamson was a strong supporter of the Louisiana Long dynasty, having been close friends as well a political associates of Huey Pierce Long, Jr., and Earl Kemp Long. Mrs. Williamson, a Vivian native, was descended from pioneers for whom the city of Hearne, near Bryan-College Station is named. Ted Williamson, through his mother's lineage, is a distant cousin of the late Texas Governor John Bowden Connally, Jr. Mary Jane Williamson served on the Caddo Parish Levee Board under appointment from Governor John Julian McKeithen, another chief executive whom Earl Williamson worked to elect. [NLH, p. 40] Tedford Fielden Williamson is named for former Mississippi Governor Fielding Wright, who was Strom Thurmond's vice-presidential choice on the States Rights Party. (The middle name "Fielden" does not exactly match "Fielding", however.) Earl Williamson was a Mississippi native and supported the Thurmond-Wright ticket, which was also the official Democratic slate in Louisiana in 1948. [NLH, p. 41] Ted Williamson graduated in 1976 from North Caddo High School (formerly Vivian High School), where his mother was the school secretary. Thereafter, he studied building construction at the University of Louisiana at Monroe, then called "Northeast Louisiana University". He moved to Austin in 1983, after graduation from ULM, and was employed by Texas Industries. In 1985, he relocated to Round Rock.NLH, p. 42] Subsequently, he became affiliated with businessman Jack Wheeler in Ironhorse Concrete, Inc., Limited Partnership based in Hutto. [ [http://www.bizjournals.com/austin/stories/2002/11/11/story2.html Concrete firms gear up - Austin Business Journal: ] ]

His Louisiana half-brothers

Williamson has four half-brothers and a half-sister by his father's first marriage to the former Mamie Greer (1904-1948). Two of those half-brothers also carved out political careers. James Whitfield Williamson, a Democrat, (born 1925) served nonconsecutive terms as mayor of Vivian and a single term on the Caddo Parish Police Jury. He succeeded his father in the latter position. Donald Wayne "Don" Williamson (born 1927) is a former member and president of the Caddo Parish School Board and a member of both the Louisiana House of Representatives and the state Senate. Another half-brother, the retired Earl G. Williamson, Jr. (born 1923), worked in industrial development and eschews politics. [NLH, p. 26]

Clayton Williamson

Williamson has an older brother, Clayton Lamar Williamson (born February 7, 1952) of Montgomery, Texas, near Houston, who has embarked on a second career as a counselor. Like Ted Williamson, Clayton Williamson graduated from North Caddo High School in Vivian. He obtained his bachelor's degree from Louisiana State University at Shreveport. At the time, Clayton Williamson was a member of the LSU-S student government which lobbied for a change from two-year to four-year status for the institution. And state Senator Don Williamson was successfully getting the legislation for LSU-S through the legislature. Clayton Williamson later obtained a master's degree in public administration from the University of North Texas in Denton. While at the university, he was the assistant city manger in Garland in Dallas County. Thereafter, Clayton Williamson became the city manager in Bovina (Parmer County), Brady, and Tomball, Texas. He is also a former right-of-way acquisitor for Houston Light and Power Company. [NLH, pp. 40-41]

Political memories

Williamson recalls as a still five-year-old (nineteen days before his sixth birthday) the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. He was in his father's Williamson Motors, the Chevrolet dealership in Vivian, when Earl Williamson entered the business and shouted in dismay: "Some SOB has just shot Kennedy!" Ted Williamson said that his father's high-powered public profile caused his brother Clayton and himself to become keenly interested in the political world. He recalls having heard a family about his father and then Governor Earl Long going to the races in Hot Springs, Arkansas, and loading a 1948 Cadillac with buttermilk in the trunk. They forgot the time and drove from Hot Springs to Baton Rouge with the buttermilk intact but ruined. Both Earl Long and Earl Williamson were avid buttermilk drinkers. [NLH, p. 30]

Round Rock City Council

Ted Williamson (like his half-brother Don but not his half-brother James) left his father's Democratic ties and became a Republican. In May 2005, Williamson ran unsuccessfully for the Round Rock Council. When a vacancy occurred on the council some six months later, he ran in a special election and was victorious with 63 percent of the ballots.

Ted Williamson is divorced from the former Mary Jane Peters. He is the father of one son and two stepdaughters. He grew up in a Methodist home, but, like half-brothers James and Don, Williamson is Baptist. Williamson's accomplishments have been recognized by the group Outstanding Young Americans (OYA), founded in 1965. [ [http://www.oyaawards.com/list/list58.lasso OYA_rushmore.gif] ]

References