Billy Byars, Sr.
Billy Byars, Sr. (1901-1965) was the adoptive 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.”[1]. 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. [2]. 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.
An interviewer of Byars, Jr. 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."[3]. 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 [4]. He also owned the Byars Royal Oaks Farm in Tyler, where he raised Black Angus cattle. [Eisenhower papers, infra]. The New York Times index lists no obituary.
Byars, Jr. may have gained some of his showmanship from his father. LIFE Magazine devoted a full page of its April 12, 1954 edition to "BULL IN THE BEDROOM: Prize sire gets prize treatment in governor's suite of Texas hotel". The text informs:
... the world's most valuable beef bull [...] Prince 105TT, an Aberdeen Angus, is more comfortable in a barn. But recently Rancher B.G. Byars and four other Texans bought a half-interest in him [...] to welcome the bull to Tyler for a six months' stay, nothing short of a formal reception in the governor's suite at the Blackstone would do. The rooms were carpeted with hay, an elevator repairman stood by while the guest of honor rode up to the fourth floor, and a boy (right) stood by with a gold-plated shovel." [5]
The boy with the golden shovel was a black pre-teen dressed in an Arabian Nights outfit with a turban, large hoop earrings, vest, cummerbund and skirt. Time-Life's archive includes a photo of the bull, the boy, and four gentlemen, one of whom is certainly Billy Byars, Sr.[6] Besides earning a page in LIFE, Prince 105TT's hotel stay was re-enacted in the Texas pavilion at the 1964 World's Fair.[7]
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 [del Charro] 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, supra, p. 263-264)
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.”[8]
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.[9] Mr. Byars tends to appear on the Internet in connection with Kennedy assassination theories.
References
- ↑ Summers, Anthony (2003). Official and Confidential: The Secret Life of J. Edgar Hoover. Putnam Publishing Group. p. 329 ISBN 0-399-13800-5.
- ↑ Larson, Henrietta M. and Porter, Kenneth Wiggins. History of Humble Oil & Refining Company; a study in industrial growth. New York, Harper, 1959
- ↑ Swisher, Viola Hegyi. "Generating The Genesis Children", After Dark, September 1972, p. 18
- ↑ Historic Tyler on Tour, 2004
- ↑ "Bull in the Bedroom". LIFE Magazine. April 12, 1954, p. 41
- ↑ Prize Bull photo by John Dominis
- ↑ Texas Pavilion World's Fair
- ↑ 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
- ↑ Find A Grave
