ambition. These other things I did
were to support the family in case
I was not successful in my political
endeavors.”
DECEMBER 2015 PA R K E R C O U N T Y T O D AY
The Watermelon Party
The Wrights invited all their
friends to a party in their back yard,
where he announced his candidacy for the United States House of
Representatives. Bodiford, whose
family lived next door to the Wrights
and were close friends, remembers
the party and the kickoff of yet another Wright political campaign.
“There was always excitement
and energy at their house - I loved
being there,” Bodiford says. “I was
licking envelopes before I ever licked
lollipops.”
Not only was Wright a young,
relatively unknown candidate, he was
running against an incumbent who
had the endorsement of Amon Carter,
owner and publisher of the Fort
Worth Star Telegram and a daunting
political power in Tarrant County.
Wright fought smart. At the
time, there were only two television
stations in the area, Channel 5 and
Channel 8. Wright had determined
that three out of five farmhouses in
his district had a television antenna,
and people in Fort Worth and west
generally watched Channel 5. He
figured the only way to beat his
opponent, Wingate Lucas, was by
television - with just one station serving his district, he could reach a huge
audience.
“I bought 30 minutes in the
evening when people were home
watching TV for $560. I looked
straight into that camera and I told
them what I believed in and what
I thought this country could be. I
felt very strongly that I wanted the
Congress to be for all the people,
not just for a handful, not just for the
privileged, but for everybody,” he
says. “The gurus were saying, ‘Jim,
they won’t listen for 30 minutes.’ But
they did.”
He won the election and prepared
to move his family to Washington.
“Jim convinced the people that
he was sincere and capable of doing
what he thought they needed and
wanted,” Borden says. “Oh, it might
not have been a landslide, but it was
34
a landslide in that Amon Carter was
on the other side.”
Where The Heart Is
For all her enthusiasm for Wright’s
campaign, Bodiford says she was
sad when he went to Washington
because he took her best friend,
his daughter Ginger, with him.
After Wright’s election to Congress,
Bodiford’s mother, Jimmie Lee as
Wright called her, ran his Fort Worth
office for 35 years, and Jamie later
worked for him for five years.
The girls remained close,
however, because when Congress
wasn’t in session, the Wrights lived
in Weatherford. Ginger Wright
McGuire, who lives in Austin now,
says she would start the school
year in Weatherford and transfer
to Washington in January when
Congress convened.
“I was 5 when my father was
elected, so I started kindergarten
in Washington, D.C. I really didn’t
understand what had happened. I
knew we’d won something, but I
thought it was a prize that would
be ended and we could go back
to Texas and everything would
be great,” McGuire says. “As I
progressed in school and got to
about fourth grade, it started sinking
in that this was something special.
Washington was so metropolitan and
people were so involved in national
and world affairs. In Weatherford, we
were very involved in market days,
school plays and that sort of thing. It
was a dramatic shift.”
Wright represented Texas’ 12th
congressional district from 1955
to 1989, served as House Majority
Leader from 1987 to 1989. He championed projects that would benefit
his district, including federal support
of General Dynamics and other local
defense companies, keeping Carswell
Air Force Base open and funding for
public buildings and highways. Those
who know him well say a genuine
desire to serve was at the root of all
he did.
Current Weatherford Mayor Joe
Tison recalls a time when Speaker
Wright visited an event at the
National Guard Armory on Charles
Street. Tison attended, representing
the Weatherford ISD as superin-
tendent. Gathering his courage, he
approached Wright to ask a favor.
“In my timid way, I said,
‘Sometime when you’re back in
Texas, would you be interested in
speaking to a government class at
Weatherford High School about what
you do in the leadership of our country?’ His response was, ‘How about
right now?’” Tison says. “He spent an
hour answering their questions. He
had an ability to relate to a group of
high school students just as he has
the ability to relate to any audience.
And so he just sat there and captured
them. I don’t think they could ever
have gotten a lesson on the government of the United States more valuable than that.”
Weatherfordites like V.A. Littleton
and her husband Mark on occasion
would visit the nation’s capitol and
stop in to see their friend.
“Every time we’d go up there with
family or friends, we’d always go by
and see Jim, and he always had time
for us. He was that way with everybody,” V.A. says.
His friendships knew no political
boundaries. Anne and Bob Bergman,
Republicans as staunch as Wright
was Democratic, called on their
friend when they forgot to reserve
tickets for the George H.W. Bush
inauguration.
“We got our ball tickets, but I
didn’t worry about getting to the
inauguration itself,” Anne says.
“When we realized the situation, I
guess I called Jimmie Lee. She had to
move heaven and earth to get those
tickets, I think. They are in a wonderful section, too, near the center.”
When Wright reached his goal
of becoming Speaker of the House,
he wanted to be surrounded by
those who had helped him with his
first campaign. A businessman from
Arlington donated a plane or two the number is in question by those
whose memories have dimmed - to
take not only local dignitaries, but his
friends from the watermelon party to
Washington to witness his swearingin.
Whether teaching Sunday School
or preaching as a lay Presbyterian
minister, whether mentoring young
men as scoutmaster or boxing coach
or whether writing personal letters