FROM JANUARY 2011
Jack Borden
Wit and Wisdom
SPONSORED BY BORDEN & WESTOFF, ATTORNEYS AT LAW
STORY BY SARAH SLEE ANDERSON
PHOTO BY TANYA HAYES
lives in Austin.
The Borden family is rooted deeply in Parker County
soil. Jack’s great grandfather first settled in the area
in 1854. Several generations lived in the Cartersville
community, an early settlement in the north reaches of
the county. Jack’s family lived where Lake Weatherford
now ripples; his parents, grandparents and greatgrandparents are buried in the Willow Springs Cemetery.
His life story is so rich that in 2003, Parker County
historian and life-long friend Mary Kemp and his
childhood friend Leon Tanner wrote Jack’s biography,
Boots to Briefcases: Jack Borden Country Lawyer, ToilsTrails-Tales.
Jack’s friend and former law partner Roy J. Grogan,
Sr. wrote the book’s foreword, which is sold by
Weatherford’s Texas Butane Co. and the Weatherford
Chamber of Commerce.
“As you read this book, you can’t help but be amazed
at Jack’s incredible memory … Jack’s love of the law,
of life and of people is so meaningfully reflected in his
stories,” Grogan wrote in the foreword.
The biography begins with Jack’s birth in 1908 and
follows his childhood on the Clear Fork Creek, a section
now covered by Lake Weatherford. The book tells, as he
does, of his adventures at the Borden School and Dicey
School. They often include his younger brother C.B.
“C.B, who is two years younger, says it doesn’t matter
what Jack tells people anymore because there are only
two people who can remember the truth anyway, and he
[C.B.] won’t tell,” Westhoff says.
DECEMBER 2015 PA R K E R C O U N T Y T O D AY
With a twinkle in his blue eyes, Jack Borden points
out a small white sign resting behind his large desk on a
matching wall-length credenza.
“Old age and treachery will overcome youth and
skill,” state the pink and maroon letters. The modest
plaque, almost lost amid walls awash in awards and
proclamations, quickly becomes the centerpiece of his
roomy law office on Santa Fe Drive in Weatherford,
Texas.
Jack’s 98 years certainly give him claim to old age.
And “treachery?”
That’s a given, he asserts.
In my 98 years, I’ve always had a bad habit of saying
what I think and not thinking about what I say,” he
says with a grin, and proceeds to tell many tales with a
glimmer of ornery pride to prove his playful claim.
Natural born storyteller
Jack’s tales are grounded in an impressive recall of
detail, related in a light-hearted manner. The result is a
delightful, bountiful repertoire of amusing stories.
Most are drawn from his four-year term as Parker
County’s district attorney that began in 1939 or his fouryear term during the 1960s as Weatherford’s mayor.
Countless others relate to his childhood and 70-year legal
career—which has yet to end.
One of his favorite stories involves a young woman
who came before the Weatherford City Council when he
was mayor. She requested permission to shoot fireworks
with her boys at Christmas. She lived inside city limits,
but her land was surrounded by vacant property and a
nearby creek. The council declined her request because
of a city ordinance, but Jack called her back as she
started to leave. As the story goes, he told her he shot
fireworks with two neighborhood boys in the vacant land
behind his house during the holidays.
“Then, I told her, when the police were nearly there,
we would run in the house and turn the lights off and
lock the doors,” he laughs.
Needless to say, the council members were outraged.
They nearly impeached him, but it wasn’t long until they
approved a new law.
“I was not always popular, but I always spoke the
truth,” he says.
1908-1947: The early years
Jack is one of six children born to John Samuel Borden
and Bess Wallis: Willy May, Fines Cleveland (who died
as a baby), Jack, C.B., Erma Neal (nephew and law
partner John Westhoff’s late mother) and Sammye, who
Continued on page 64
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