Billy Byars, Sr.

Billy Byars, Sr. (1901-1965) was the father of Billy Byars, Jr., owner of prominent naturist publisher Lyric International, and producer of the feature film The Genesis Children.

The elder Byars was a Texas oil man, sometimes referred to as "Humble Oil millionaire Billy Byars.”[Anthony Summers, Official and Confidential: The Secret Life of J. Edgar Hoover. New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1993, p. 329]. A history through 1948 of Humble Oil (which changed its name to Exxon in 1973) lists not a single Byars among the founders, officers, or executives. [Larson, Henrietta M. and Porter, Kenneth Wiggins. History of Humble Oil & Refining Company; a study in industrial growth, New York, Harper, 1959]. Whatever his Humble connection, there is no question that Byars was a prominent oilman, and even a small part of Exxon is a very large thing. There is a Northeast Byars Oil Field in Pottawatomie County, Oklahoma, latitude 34.93222 Longitude: -96.98639.[[1]]

In an interview, Byars, Jr. the interviewer described his late father as "a Tyler, Texas wildcatter" and a friend of presidents and of Pancho Villa. She says "Starting with nothing, Byars, Sr. became a millionaire at twenty, went broke at twenty-one and hit millionaire status again by age twenty-five."Viola Hegyi Swisher, Generating "''The Genesis Children''" , ''After Dark'' September 1972, p. 18. Mr Byars adopted his son Billy, Jr, in 1936 and the next year, in the midst of the Depression, built a very substantial house in Tyler, Texas, where he was to live until his death in 1965 [2]. He also owned a the Byars Royal Oaks Farm in Tyler, where he raised Black Angus cattle. [Eisenhower papers, infra]. The NY Times index lists no obituary.

Billy Byars, Sr. was a friend of J. Edgar Hoover. Summers says,

"Byars was close to Edgar. They used adjacent bungalows at [Texas oilman Cliff] Murchison's California hotel each summer. The phone log for the Director’s office shows that, aside from calls to Robert Kennedy and the head of the Secret Service, Hoover called only one man on the afternoon the President was shot – Billy Byars."

Byars had also met Jack Ruby, who would kill Lee Harvey Oswald. [Summers, supra, p. 329]

Byars was one of Lyndon Johnson’s financial backers when the Texas Senator sought the Presidential nomination in 1960. [Summers, ibid, p 263]

Byars was also on close terms with President Eisenhower. The Eisenhower family was also from Tyler, Texas. A letter from Eisenhower begins,

“Dear Mr. Byars: For the past several days I have seen a great deal of George and Mary Allen, who are visiting in Denver. George has told me so much about you and your venture in the raising of fine Black Angus cattle that although I am a stranger to you, I am tempted to write you a short note.”

“My feeling is that some day I should like a chance to sit down and talk to you for an hour or so about the matter, because when once I get out of public life I hope to indulge in a modest way in the raising of Angus cattle.”

“It is my habit during the fall and winter months to have periodic stag dinners at the White House. I wonder if you might be interested in coming to one of them during this season. If so, I could write to you later after my schedules are made out.”

[Eisenhower, Dwight D. Personal To Billy G. Byars, 7 October 1954. In The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower, ed. L. Galambos and D. van Ee, doc. 1101. World Wide Web facsimile by The Dwight D. Eisenhower Memorial Commission of the print edition; Baltimore, MD: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996][[3]]

Even in the era when the Presidency was less imperial than at present, notes of this nature cannot have been commonplace. Byars did attend the White House stag dinner on November 22.[ibid]

Billy Goebel Byars, Sr. was born October 6, 1901 and died on the same date in 1965.[4] Mr. Byars tends to appear on the Internet in connection with Kennedy assassination theories. Byars, Billy Sr.