Ralph Hall, Former Congressman From Rockwall, Dies at 95

Former Rep. Ralph Hall, a political survivor whose career mirrored the massive partisan shift that marked the last 50 years of Texas politics and made him the oldest person to ever serve in the U.S. House, died Thursday. He was 95.The Rockwall Republican died of natural causes at his home overlooking Lake Ray Hubbard, a spokesman confirmed.Services will be held on Saturday March 16 at 2 p.m. at First United Methodist Church in Rockwall. Visitation will take place on Friday March 15 at Rest Haven Funeral Home in Rockwall between 6 and 8 p.m.Hall represented a largely rural northeast Texas district in Congress for 34 years after serving two decades years in other public office before that. He left, in his own way, an indelible imprint on a massive swath from his hometown of Rockwall all the way to Texarkana.Hall’s longevity — he left office in 2015 at age 91 — was truly for the record books. But that tenure, which included Hall’s switch in 2004 from the Democratic Party to the GOP, also marked the change and end of an era.“There have been many great members from Texas that served in the House,” former Rep. Joe Barton, an Arlington Republican, said in 2014. “But none has been more beloved and none has been more effective than Ralph Hall of Rockwall, Texas.”When Hall was first elected to public office in 1950, he served in an area so Democratic, the primary effectively determined the election. By the time he was voted out of office in 2014, the primary was still the vote that mattered, just on the Republican side.A retired Navy pilot, Hall was one of a host of World War II veterans in Congress when he got elected in 1980. By the time he left office, he was one of the last two World War II veterans left in the House or Senate.No signature legislation bears Hall’s name. But he represented one of the last in “old-style” Texas politics: using seniority, influential committee postings and friends in both parties to secure vast federal dollars for his district and to offer strong constituent service.And as a storyteller, jokester and charmer — with his tales often hovering somewhere between truth and legend — Hall connected with residents in his district in a way that endeared him to friend and foe alike.“He has this capacity to talk to someone for a minute or two and talk to them for a long, long time,” Bob Slagle, the former Texas Democratic Party chairman, told The Dallas Morning News in 2009.Ralph Moody Hall was born May 3, 1923, in Fate, a small town just east of Rockwall.He got into politics at an early age, handing out campaign cards for candidates and chauffeuring around office seekers. He also worked at a Rockwall drug store, where he said he served Bonnie and Clyde, and delivered copies of The News.He would joke that he was a “terrible student,” telling people that he graduated 38th in a high school class of 38 students. He said he wasn’t any good at football. And he said his mother complained to the other mothers that their daughters wouldn’t date him.But those challenges set the tone for the rest of his life, he said.In school, he spent extra time studying or went in early for help. On the campaign trail, he walked blocks in the far-flung corners of his expansive district. In Congress, colleagues who were 30 years younger than Hall marveled at his schedule.“I always overpowered everybody with work,” he said in a wide-ranging interview in 2009.In high school, Hall met Mary Ellen Murphy, who had moved to Rockwall in her senior year from Kaufman. He pursued her intently, taking her on trips to Dallas in his Model A. After Hall joined the Navy during World War II, they agreed to marry.Murphy traveled with Hall by train to Pensacola, Fla., where he was set to receive his pilot’s wings.They got into town late at night and checked into the San Carlos Hotel. Hall recalled that he was kicking off his shoes, when his fiancée asked what he was doing. He said he was tired, and wasn’t she, too?“Oh yeah, I’m dead tired,” she said. “But you are not going to bed here.”Hall sheepishly booked another room. The couple got married the next day, he said.“In 63 years of marriage, we never had a single, solitary argument,” Hall explained, before pausing with a wink, “that I won.”Hall’s formal entrance into politics was a matter of necessity.He pursued a college degree after leaving the Navy and ran out of money from the G.I. Bill while at SMU’s law school. He was working three jobs to pay tuition and support his family, but he realized he needed a bit more money.Hall started looking for a night job, but his wife wouldn’t hear it. She pointed out that Hall had always liked politics. And so in 1950, Hall gave her a check and told her to announce him for an office.She did.“But she didn’t go ask if any office was open,” Hall recalled. “She asked what was the highest-paying position in the county, and it was county judge.”He won.“I got it because I was pitiful looking,” he said. “I was about 6-foot-2 ½, weighed about 150 pounds, looked like Ichabod Crane and was having a hard time in school. ... They were sorry for me.”Hall served as Rockwall County judge, an administrative position, for the next 12 years. He earned his law degree from SMU in 1951 and started a practice. In the early 1960s, he dabbled as a boxing promoter — a gig he eventually gave up on the advice of “his wife and his banker.”In 1962, Hall won an open state Senate seat as a Democrat, a victory that also marked a hallmark of his future campaigns.He drew attention for giving voters miniature campaign cards, rather than the lengthy literature that comes in pamphlets or mailers. Emblazoned on the cards was, “All for Hall from Rockwall - smallest county - biggest man.”Those campaign cards would turn into Hall’s signature campaign coins: decorated metal washers that were fitted around pennies. Hall figured he went through more than two million of the small tokens during his political career.“You don’t have room to promise as much,” he said. “And people keep them.”Hall served 10 years in the Senate, chairing a variety of committees, including the County, District and Urban Affairs panel. News clips show that Hall’s focus was making sure that his rural district and others like it shared in Texas’ growing prosperity.Hall ran an unsuccessful campaign for lieutenant governor in 1972 and lost his Senate seat in the process. He returned to the private sector keeping his law practice open, becoming chief executive of Texas Aluminum Corp and founding a bank in Rockwall.But he didn’t stay out of politics for long. In 1980, Rep. Ray Roberts retired, and Hall won the seat.Hall became legendary - in Washington and back home - for his focus on constituent service. He would come home to Rockwall every weekend when Congress was in session, visiting small towns in the district, meeting with voters and taking up concerns.One friend recalled Hall personally driving a constituent about 300 miles roundtrip to the VA’s regional office in Waco to get his benefits set up.Hall also treated district visitors to Washington, taking them on tours of the White House and posing for pictures in front of his office window that looked out at the Capitol. His folksy charm made it difficult for even his critics to dislike Hall.“He’s a wonderful person,” Smith Gilley, chairman of the Hunt County Democratic Party said in 2010. “I just disagree vehemently with his position on so many subjects.”Hall also received spots on the Energy and Commerce, and Science, Space and Technology committees — where he championed the space program and other topics important to Texas. He made fast friends with key lawmakers on both sides of the aisle.And as a conservative Democrat for his first 20 years in Congress, Hall could often serve as a swing vote.Those levers allowed him to win projects, funding and other improvements for his district. Testaments to that work — and the feelings of those who kept re-electing him — exist in a road, an airport and a proposed reservoir that all bear his name.“I'm sort of amazed we don't have more things named after him,” Walter Casey, a political scientist at Texas A&M University-Texarkana, told The News in 2014.Even with Hall’s popularity and conservative credentials, his status as a Democrat proved a challenge as Texas grew more Republican.He resisted switching parties, saying he wanted to keep alive the Democrats’ conservative wing. Since he regularly voted with the GOP, he was spared by Republicans in the contentious 2003 redistricting that effectively knocked out several other veteran Democrats.But Hall said his affiliation was starting to hurt his constituents — that leaders in GOP-controlled Congress ignored his appropriations requests. And he was increasingly at odds with his party, especially with his strong support for President George W. Bush, a Republican.He finally switched in 2004, agonizing over the decision to the point that he forget a key part: telling his wife, whom he called “an old-time Irish Democrat.”“I just heard it on the television,” she told him when he arrived home after making the switch, he recalled. “That’s a terrible way to learn how our life’s going to be.”She eventually forgave him, but only after Hall ate all his meals out and slept by himself for six weeks, he said with a grin. Mary Ellen Hall died in 2008. Ralph Hall would get misty-eyed at her mention, saying simply that he had the “best woman in the world.”The party switch prolonged Hall’s political career. But critics said it robbed him of his admirable independent streak.As years went on, opponents charged that Hall had not produced major legislation. They seized on some of his more controversial rhetoric, such as suggesting that Baghdad should’ve been leveled during the Iraq war.In Hall’s last several campaigns, the topic always eventually turned to age.Hall dismissed the concerns with humor, joking that he was waiting on Walmart to say he was old enough to become a greeter. And he remained in remarkable shape. He didn’t drink or smoke. Into his late 80s, he was still running a mile or two most days.He even went skydiving at age 89, in part to prove his vitality.“Sometimes you have to do crazy things,” Hall explained in 2012.Ultimately, it was a well-funded, well-respected Republican challenger who ended Hall’s 34-year House tenure. Former U.S. Attorney John Ratcliffe, arguing the need for new leadership, forced Hall into primary runoff in 2014 and then beat him heads-up.In late 2014, many of Hall’s House colleagues — Republican and Democrat — spent about an hour paying tribute to him. They shared, of course, countless funny stories about him or told by him. And they recalled his integrity, hard work and love for his family.“If there were a congressional hall of fame,” former Rep. Lamar Smith, a San Antonio Republican, said, “Ralph Hall would be a first-ballot inductee."  Continue reading...

Copyright The Dallas Morning News
Contact Us