From Pioneer to Patriarch: Reminiscences of Lloyd M. Bentsen Sr., 1893-1989

This exciting memoir includes selected tales from the life of Lloyd M. Bentsen Sr., father of former U.S. senator and vice presidential candidate Lloyd M. Bentsen Jr.

Bentsen Sr. led a long and eventful life. The book begins with his days growing up on the South Dakota prairie, attending a one-room schoolhouse, hunting, fishing, and racing his motorcycle. During World War I Bentsen, while on crutches after a motorcycle accident, haunted military recruiting stations until one finally accepted him. He then enlisted as a mechanic and became a pilot.

After the war, Bentsen moved to South Texas, where he was instrumental in the growth of the Rio Grande Valley through his work as a land developer, rancher, and banker. He and his wife, Edna Ruth "Dolly" Bentsen, raised a family of four--Lloyd Jr., Don, Kenneth, and Betty. His daughter, Betty, has compiled this collection of her father's stories about his life in an effort to preserve not just her family's history, but a history of the times in which Lloyd Bentsen Sr. lived.

The Dolph Briscoe Center for American History at the University of Texas at Austin is pleased to publish this rollicking account of Bentsen's life.

26 black-and-white illustrations