From the Backroads of East TX to MS Politics: The life of Billy R. Powell

By Billy R Powell

Born into poverty in rural Montgomery, Texas, Billy Ray Powell overcame early hardships to make quite a life for himself and significantly impact many others. 

Cadet, Oilman, Banker, Political Advisor, Husband, Father, and Grandfather, are just a few roles you'll hear more about in this memoir written primarily for his fam

• Language: English
• Publisher: Hallett Group Marketing
• Release date: Sep 17, 2020
• ISBN: 9781087904078

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From the Backroads of East TX to MS Politics

From the Backroads of East TX to MS Politics

From the Backroads of East TX to MS Politics

The life of Billy R. Powell

Billy R. Powell

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Contents

Dedication

Foreward

1 CHILDHOOD

2 EDUCATION

3 FAMILY

4 OILMAN

5 INVESTMENTS

6 POLITICS

7 BOARDS & COMMISSIONS

8 TRAVELS

9 RIVER RATUS AMERICANUS

10 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

For Barbara, Keith, Brent, Natasha, Bridget, Justin,

Blake, Trevor, Mattie Frances, Samantha, & Kyle

Foreward

By William (Billy) D. Mounger

When Billy Powell arrived in Jackson in August 1969 to be Petroleum Engineer for Deposit Guaranty National Bank, I was the Oil Department's titular head. I immediately confronted him with a $10 monthly pledge to the Republican Party of Mississippi, which he felt compelled to sign. Billy's background was unknown to me; however, as a Petroleum Engineer graduate of Texas A&M, ROTC cadet, and now banker Petroleum Engineer, and oilman, I assumed he must be conservative – therefore, Republican!

From this inauspicious beginning, in my opinion, Billy progressed to be among three of the most consequential non-elected individuals involved in the Mississippi Republican Party's successful development. Those three included: Wirt Yerger, Jr., founder, myself, fundraiser-builder, and Billy Powell, builder-expander!

Fortunately, with the encouragement of me and many others, Billy has written his memoir so that his family, friends, and associates will understand that he has created a very influential and successful life despite the hardships he withstood. In this memoir, Billy has pulled no punches and has let the facts be.

Billy's story begins with the description of a meager and deprived early life. He would eventually earn his drive and perseverance in obtaining a Petroleum Engineering Degree from Texas A&M University, which ultimately led him to banking and to Jackson, Mississippi.

Billy proceeded to succeed in the banking business, petroleum engineering, oil-producing realms, and many other investments, all of which depict a classic Horatio Alger story and merits a memoir. However, with the addition of his familial and political accomplishments, it is evident that Billy has become one of the most influential people in Mississippi, and his autobiography has been needed!

Billy's political history began when he became involved with the Rankin County School system. He then engineered Phil Bryant's election as a Republican to the Mississippi House of Representatives. Next, he was the essential factor in getting Kirk Fordice elected as the first Republican Governor of Mississippi.

In a rowdy Rankin County convention, Billy was elected Rankin County Republican Chairman, thus developing the most Republican county in Mississippi.

Billy proceeded to convince Gov. Fordice to appoint Phil Bryant as State Auditor, followed by recruiting Lt. Gov. Amy Tuck to switch from Democrat to Republican. Billy then played a critical role in getting Amy re-elected as a Republican Lt. Governor.

Billy was paramount in many other political accomplishments: Jim Smith as Chief Justice of the Mississippi Supreme Court, Phil Bryant as Lt. Gov. and twice Governor, Gregg Harper to the U.S. House of Representatives, and assisting many other political elections to victories along the way.

As Republican Chairman of Rankin County, Billy made Rankin County the most Republican county in the state. Consequently, the most powerful and influential county in Mississippi. Rankin County's support is now almost necessary for election as a Republican in Mississippi. During this time, I dubbed him the Tsar and Barbara the Tsarina of Rankin County.

Furthermore, Gov. Fordice appointed Billy to several governmental positions where he beneficially served the state. Lastly, Gov. Fordice desired that Billy serve as Chairman of the Mississippi Republican Party. Billy utilized his Chairman position to switch more democrats to republican than anyone else, with the election of many more republicans. Now, Mississippi republicans have elected and re-elected the only governors in history (three), and seven of eight elected statewide offices, three of four U.S. Representatives, and both U.S. Senators. Billy was the most crucial factor in this tremendous growth of the Mississippi Republican Party.

It has been a pleasure to work with Billy as a partner, cohort, and friend I call Pal-owell, which connotes friendship and competence. Lastly, if you believe that you can outsmart, outthink, and outwork Billy, you are doomed to failure, for Billy occupies his unique niche! He is a common sense polymath!

Billy's memoir is beneficial, informative, educational, and overall, an outstanding demonstration of perseverance, determination, and intelligence. These traits evidence how much influence an individual can exert on society if he is sufficiently dedicated!

1

CHILDHOOD

My name is Billie Ray Powell, and I was born on July 15, 1938, at our home on Route 2 in Montgomery, Texas. However, my birth certificate shows I was born a day later on July 16, 1938. Later in life, I changed my name to Billy Ray Powell.

I was the fourth son of Ila and Minnie Pet Doughtie Powell. My older siblings were George Robert Powell, Roy Ancil Powell, and James Clinton Powell.

Our home was located approximately 6 miles from Montgomery, Texas, with the last three miles being a dirt road. Our nearest neighbors were my grandparents Ancil and Amanda Powell, who lived a quarter-mile away, and the Dave Lawson family, a minority family who lived a half-mile away.

Our home was a wooden frame with a living room, a dining room, a kitchen, and one bedroom. The living and dining rooms served as bedrooms.

We did not have electricity, so we used our fireplace and a wood cooking stove as our sole sources of heat. Our light was provided by kerosene coal oil lamps. The kerosene lamp would occasionally pull the flame down in the oil container so we would pull off the globe and have to toss the lamp into the dirt in our front yard to extinguish the flame.

When I was around 10-years-old, the Rural Electric Association ran an electrical power line to our neighbors and us. Dad and a friend wired our home with one lone light fixture and an electrical outlet. With his single light bulb screwed into our ceiling's socket, we were able to read so much easier.

We did not have indoor plumbing when I was younger. We had an outhouse for our toilet facility, and we bathed in a #3 washtub. The water we used came from rainwater that we collected from our roof or from a spring located a half-mile away near the Lawson home.

Shortly after we received electricity, we dug a water well. One of my older brothers, Roy, did most of the digging with a shovel. We constructed a winch with a rope tied to a wooden pole to lower him to the bottom of the well where he would fill a 5-gallon bucket with dirt before we pulled it back up. The water level was about 22 feet down. Mom purchased some round concrete blocks that Roy used to encase the ground's 3-foot diameter hole.

After completed, we were able to draw all of our water from the well. This was so much easier than walking a half-mile to our neighbor's spring, where we would have to remove the water and then carry it another half-mile home. We eventually added a wooden top to the well to keep our chickens from falling into it.

Our food came from our garden, chickens, and a few hogs that we butchered each winter. We canned, salt-cured, or smoked the meat that we smoked in our smokehouse out back. We also had a milk cow that provided our milk. We supplemented our food sources by fishing and hunting for rabbits and squirrels. We would also pick wild berries and grapes and make jams, jellies, and refined sugar cane for syrup.

Our transportation was walking, riding a plow horse, or hitchhiking. My parents eventually bought a Model T Ford.

Our entertainment growing up was primarily hunting, fishing, reading, listening to our battery-powered radio, or playing dominos and cards.

When it came to washing our clothes, we had to boil clothes in a cast iron pot with soap made from hog fat. We would then hang our clothes on an outside fence or clothesline to dry.

The mid-1930s were right after the depression, so times were tough for everyone. My dad was very smart, but he had a hard time getting a job. Most of his work consisted of cutting timber or doing carpentry work. Later on, he raised and sold watermelons for extra money.

My mom was a hard worker and supplemented our income by selling vegetables, milk, butter, and cosmetics and also by helping the boys cut timber.

When I was around 5 or 6 years old, Granddad, George Doughtie, died, so mom's mother moved in with us. Our sleeping arrangements meant that all four boys slept in our one-bedroom, Mom and Dad slept in the living room, and Grandmother slept in the dining room.

Montgomery School was 6 miles from home. Our original school transportation was a pickup truck with a homemade shell and wooden benches for seats. The school bus driver would pick up 7 or 8 students and turn around at our house. However, a red clay hill was a half-mile from our home, so if it rained, the bus could not climb it, meaning we would have to walk to catch the bus. If we received abundant rain, the creeks below the hill would flood, so we could not get to school.

I took on my first job when I was around eight years old. A neighbor who lived over a mile away grew cotton. I asked Mom to make me a cotton sack so I could pick cotton for money. She took a 100-pound feed sack from our hog feed, sewed one of her belts to it, and presented me with my new cotton picking sack.

I left early one morning on foot for our neighbor's cotton farm with my cotton sack, a 1/4 quart fruit jar for water, and a peanut butter sandwich for lunch. I had heard if you picked cotton in the early morning, the dew would make the cotton heavier. I picked all morning, ate my lunch, and then finished filling my sack by late afternoon.

When I carried my cotton sack to the farmer at the end of the day, he weighed it on an old cotton scale and told me it weighed 13 pounds. He then paid me 26 cents. I was extremely disappointed. I had been looking at my sack that had 100 pounds net written on it all day long. At eight years old, I did not understand density, so I had assumed that if I filled my sack, it would weigh 100 pounds, and I would be paid $2.00 at the end of the day.

Frustrated, I took my 26 cents, my cotton sack, and my remaining jar of water and walked 1¼ miles back home. I was thinking the whole time that the farmer had cheated me out of my well-earned money.

In those days, typical cotton pickers were mostly minority women who could pick up to 100 pounds of cotton a day. Years later, I was able to pick up to 200 pounds of cotton a day.

As kids, our main chores were helping in the garden, cutting firewood, feeding the pigs, and milking our cow. Occasionally while milking the cow, she would kick over the milk bucket or step into it, making a mess of things. On many occasions, the milk cow would smack my head with her burr covered tail.

Our country-life was very simple. I would often cut a cane pole, attach a fishing line and hook, and walk one mile to a natural lake to fish all day. Other times I would spend the day hunting. Many of those hunting days, I would walk over 10 miles and occasionally get lost. No matter if I were fishing or hunting all day, I would always return home just before dark, so Mom would not have to worry.

In the spring, I would attempt to catch baby squirrels to keep as pets. I could generally tell if a nest high in the tree had squirrels in it or not. I would climb the tree, knock on the nest to scare the mother away, and then take the baby squirrels. It never occurred to me that I could fall out of a tree with nobody knowing where I might be that particular day.

Most of the time, I would find anywhere from one to four baby squirrels in a nest. I had to be careful about their age because the older babies would bite and attempt to run away. However, the ones who had just opened their eyes were never afraid. I would take the squirrels with me, and by the time I returned home, they were usually acting like pets.

I fed the baby squirrels milk with an eyedropper or a baby doll bottle until they could feed themselves. I kept them in a box in the house and always took them out to play. Whenever the squirrels got tired, they would find me, climb into my pocket, curl up and fall asleep. On occasion, I would sell my pet squirrel for spending money.

Mom sewed most of the clothes for our family. However, by the time I was 11 or 12 years old, I earned all of my own spending money to purchase my clothes.

To earn more money, Roy, James, and I would cut pulpwood and logs with a bow saw or cross-cut saw. Mom would often carry us to work and usually stayed and worked right along with us. We would occasionally miss a day of school so we could go out and work.

Our neighbor Dave Lawson often hired Roy and me to cut timber. We were always embarrassed to ride through town in the back of his truck with other hired help, but it was much better than walking.

After I entered high school at Montgomery County High School, I was tired of walking everywhere. I saw a young colt I wanted to buy for $10.00, so I started earning money to purchase him. I picked cotton off a family's cotton field who lived between Montgomery and Conroe, Texas. The family allowed me to stay with them for a week and furnished me with room and board. That old cotton field where I earned money for my first horse is now located under Lake Conroe.

One Monday morning, after I had the money in hand, Mom took me to buy the horse. I took a rope so I could lead him home. The young horse had never been led, so I had to practically drag him a mile to Montgomery, where he became a little more cooperative for the next 6 miles home. I started spending all my time training him, only to go out one morning to find him dead. I never knew what happened.

A couple of years later, I bought another colt. I also worked to train this horse, but I'm not so sure I did a great job. The colt was swift and always wanted to run. I could always get him started by making a clicking sound with my mouth and a quick kick to his side. My problem was he would still virtually run wild, and it would take some time to stop him. I occasionally raced with a friend and would start every race with that click. I never lost a race with that horse.

Since I could not afford a saddle, I always rode bareback. If the horse decided to come to a quick stop, it was tough to stay on his back. While we would be running, I would sometimes see danger ahead, and I would try my best to slow him down. He usually never slowed. However, there was one random time he decided to obey and came to an abrupt halt. The sudden stop sent me flying right over his head onto the ground.

The summer after high school, I was working for my cousin setting tile in Houston, Texas. I came home one weekend and decided to take my horse for a ride. We were headed back home on the dirt road to our house, where I would usually let him