Many famous successful lawyers in our state have served a stint in politics. Jere Beasley, the legendary Montgomery trial lawyer served eight years as lieutenant governor. Having been born and raised in Barbour County, he has a good many great political stories. He shared a few with me over the years.
Jere tells a great story that illustrates how fleeting political fame and notoriety can be for a politician. Beasley was elected lieutenant governor in 1970. A young Bill Baxley was elected attorney general that same year. Albert Brewer lost a very close race to Wallace for governor that same year. All three were primed to run for governor in 1978, as Wallace could not succeed himself. State Senator Sid McDonald and Fob James also joined the “Three B’s” in the race.
As was common at that time, there were political rallies and candidate forums all over the state. Most political pros will tell you that these forums got you very few votes. The reason being that almost all the attendees were already committed supporters of the other candidate. However, if you did not attend one, it gave you a black eye in that county for shunning that particular community.
The folks in north Alabama were especially sensitive about your not attending their county gathering. Each gubernatorial candidate would have his most loyal supporters there, adorned head-to-toe in their campaign paraphernalia. They would congregate early to hear their candidate. Wallace used to even have professional yellers follow him all over the state. One particular one looked like he belonged in a circus, but he could cut a rebel yell like you have never heard. Each candidate was given 30 minutes to speak but very few confined themselves to that time limit once they got cranked up.
Beasley mused that at an event up on Sand Mountain, all five gubernatorial candidates appeared. As was the protocol, they drew straws to see who would go first. As luck would have it, Beasley ended up as the last speaker, which means he would have to sit on the stage dutifully and politely for three hours or more listening to his enemies extol their virtues and occasionally lambast him or his fellow candidates, depending on who the speaker thought was his primary opponent. The speeches dragged on and as was customary, after each candidate spoke, they would excuse themselves and head on to the next campaign event in an adjoining county or elsewhere in the state. Likewise, when the candidate left the scene and stage, so did his supporters.
By the time Beasley got up to speak, there were only a handful of people left in the audience. Beasley dutifully began to give them his best speech. As he droned on, he noticed an overalls-wearing farmer standing right in front with rapt attention.
When Beasley finished, he came down off the flat-bed truck and shook the old farmer’s hand vigorously and hugged him and looked him squarely in the eye and said, “You don’t know how much I appreciate you. You have to be the best Beasley supporter I’ve got in Alabama.”
The farmer looked at Beasley apologetically and with a little sympathy and said, “Boy, I ain’t never heard of you. That flatbed truck y’all been shouting from is mine. I was just waiting for you to get off my truck so that we can both go home.”
Beasley was an outstanding high school quarterback at Clayton High School. Clayton is a small community in Barbour County in southeast Alabama. It is also the hometown of George Wallace.
Clayton’s archrival in football in Beasley’s heyday was Brundidge, about 15 miles down the road from Clayton. Beasley recalls a Friday night game against Brundidge during his senior year. Brundidge, like many small Alabama towns of that day had some large well known family names, such as Godwin and Senn.
Beasley says they were leading Brundidge a good bit and Brundidge was substituting a lot. As he broke the huddle to head to the line of scrimmage the hometown Brundidge fans were quiet. All of a sudden, the PA announcer broke the silence with the announcement, “God went (Godwin) in, Sin (Senn) goes out.” Beasley thought maybe he was in an early Sunday school class rather than the middle of a Friday night football game.
Jere Beasley has an outstanding legacy in Alabama history.
See you next week.
Steve Flowers is Alabama’s leading political columnist. His weekly column appears in over 60 Alabama newspapers. He served 16 years in the state legislature. Steve may be reached at [email protected].