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Federal Judge Steger Dies in Tyler {Was 1960 GOP Nominee for Governor}
AP ^ | 06-05-06 | AP

Posted on 06/06/2006 2:09:24 PM PDT by Theodore R.

Federal judge Steger dies in Tyler

06/05/2006

Associated Press

U.S. District Judge William Merritt Steger, who handled more than 15,000 cases in 35 years on the federal bench, died Sunday night in a Tyler hospital.

Steger was 85. His failing health had kept him from the courtroom the past couple of months.

Former law clerks and fellow judges praised Steger for his fairness and honesty.

"When I took the job working for Judge Steger, I knew I was going to learn a lot about the law and how to be a good lawyer," Matt Flanery, the judge's law clerk, said in a story in Monday's Tyler Morning Telegraph. "But after working for him for six years, I realize that he taught me how to be a good person and a good man. He is loved and well respected by all his former clerks. He had a way of making us feel like we were part of his family. And we're all really proud to be Steger clerks."

U.S. District Judge Leonard Davis said Steger was a role model for him as well as for other judges and lawyers.

Robert Davis, another of the 35 to 40 clerks who served during Steger's career, said Steger was the most honest and ethical men he had ever met. He worked for Steger from 1989 to 1991.

"He is my all-time hero," he said.

Attorney Robert Wilson, another former clerk, said Steger was instrumental in the growth of the Republican Party of Texas. He served as state party chairman from 1969-1970.

"He will be greatly missed by many of us," he said. "There are so few great men like Judge Steger."

Steger served in World War II.

He earned his law degree from Southern Methodist University.

President Eisenhower appointed Steger as a U.S. attorney in 1953. After six years, he returned to private practice. He ran for governor in 1960 and received more than 600,000 votes. He ran an unsuccessful race for Congress in 1962.

Steger took senior active status in 1987, but still continued to handle a full docket.

Funeral services are pending with Burks Walter Tippit Funeral Home in Tyler.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Government
KEYWORDS: eisenhower; judgesteger; nixon; obituary; republican; tx; tyler
He was the Republican candidate against the late Price Daniel, Sr., in 1960. Daniel won nearly 75 percent of the vote, but the next year, the bottom fell out for Governor Daniel, when he let the state sales tax become law. John Connally retired Daniel in 1962.
1 posted on 06/06/2006 2:09:31 PM PDT by Theodore R.
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To: Theodore R.

Interesting.

Had Daniel been re-elected as Governor in '62, he'd have been travelling in the Kennedy motorcade in Dallas in November of '63.


2 posted on 06/06/2006 2:14:48 PM PDT by MplsSteve
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To: Theodore R.
He was the Republican candidate against the late Price Daniel, Sr., in 1960. Daniel won nearly 75 percent of the vote, but the next year, the bottom fell out for Governor Daniel, when he let the state sales tax become law. John Connally retired Daniel in 1962.

Price Daniel, Sr.'s son Price Daniel, Jr., a former Texas Speaker of the House was shot and killed by his second wife in 1981 under very strange circumstances. The famous Texas defense attorney "Racehorse" Haynes got her acquitted of murder charges. There was TV movie made in 1992 starring Susan Dey about the case.

3 posted on 06/06/2006 2:25:05 PM PDT by Paleo Conservative
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To: Paleo Conservative; Theodore R.

The part of "Racehorse" Haynes was played by Fred Thompson the now former US Senator from Tennessee.


4 posted on 06/06/2006 2:29:20 PM PDT by Paleo Conservative
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To: MplsSteve

Maybe not.


5 posted on 06/06/2006 2:30:16 PM PDT by Paleo Conservative
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To: Paleo Conservative

Texas politics is great pickins' for a lot of "made for TV movies" if someone would produce them. We nowhere near compare to our sister state across the Sabine River, Louisiana, however.


6 posted on 06/06/2006 2:47:15 PM PDT by no dems ("Mr. President: Put up that wall.")
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To: Theodore R.; All

Where did he run for governor?


7 posted on 06/06/2006 2:53:16 PM PDT by NapkinUser (Why isn't there a 'virtual fence' around the White House?)
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To: NapkinUser
Texas!
8 posted on 06/06/2006 3:09:28 PM PDT by Paleo Conservative
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To: Theodore R.

Judge Steger was damned proud of the fact that he was appointed to the bench by Richard Nixon. He vowed that he would never retire, but would die on the bench.

He also enjoyed fishing, and was known to take his clerks out on the lake often.

If anyone were so inclined, they could ask one of his clerks about an incident with a fishing lure. He chuckles about it now, but wasn't quite so jovial at the time.


9 posted on 06/06/2006 3:16:24 PM PDT by HiJinx (~ www.proudpatriots.org ~ Operation 4th of July ~ Supporting Those Who Serve ~)
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