W. T. BAGBY FUNERAL HELD AT HALLETTSVILLE
The body of W. T. Bagby, prominent for many years in courtrooms and on the political forum of South Texas, was brought to his home at Hallettsville on Thursday of last week for burial. Mr. Bagby died at Houston Wednesday night. Although he was only 55 years of age, Mr. Bagby had been in poor health for several years.
Bill Bagby as he had been know [sic] to two generations of State officials, who saw him first as a man of 30 with a voice that was full of music and deep-toned, stand on the floor of the House of Representatives and in the vigor of debate win the sobriquet, “the Lion of Lavaca.” Mr. Bagby was a member of the Thirty-Second House of Representatives and continued in the Legislature through the Thirty-Fifth, when James E. Ferguson was impeached while Governor. He was one of the leaders among those friendly to the Governor and took a principal’s role in the debate.
While Mr. Bagby was in the Legislature the 9:30 o’clock closing law was enacted and he was in a defending role against ultraprohibitionists, who would have made it more drastic. Although Governor O. B. Colquitt was an antiprohibitionist, he had agreed to the enactment of an early closing law and his supporters, including Mr. Bagby, were favorable to it.
In the Thirty-Third Legislature, which elected United States Senator Morris Sheppard for both the long term and a few-month tenure from which Joseph Weldon Bailey had resigned, Mr. Bagby was among those who made a spectacular and losing fight for election of Col. R. M. Johnston of Houston, who had been appointed to the place by Governor Colquitt.
In the last decade Mr. Bagby had served as member of the State Democratic executive committee sometimes as proxy, but always there was a demand for a debate that would bring his eloquence to play and his foes were great admirers of his powers of speech, as were his colleagues. The debates between Dwight Lewelling of Dallas and Mr. Bagby over questions involving prohibition were outstanding features of the Thirty-Third Legislature.
Among the survivors are his wife and a daughter, Mrs. Sam Duvall of Hallettsville; a brother, A. P. Bagby, of Austin, and a niece, Mrs. Fred J. Proctor of Dallas
