The life and legacy of Barry Telford

Whether it was as a state representative, a business owner, a community member or a friend, Barry Bradford Telford was a man respected and revered by those who knew him.

Telford died Saturday, June 1, in a Mount Pleasant, Texas, hospital. He was 77.

Telford served the citizens of Texas House District 1 from 1987 until his retirement from politics in 2005.

“He was a man I dearly loved, and the one who shaped my idea of what a servant leader should be. Barry represented my hometown in the legislature as well as all the residents living among the red dirt and piney woods of northeast Texas’s House District 1,” said Kathy Green.

“He was a big man, in size and spirit and laugh. And he had come to Austin for all the right reasons— to speak for the citizens of his district, not to grandstand or score shallow political points. This earned him the respect of many, many legislators and staff and HD 1 residents over the years.” Green, the director of state and federal strategy for AARP, began working for Telford as a legislative aide in 1992 as a senior at the University of Texas.

A lifelong Democrat, Telford entered politics in 1980 as the Bowie County Democratic Chair and served until his 1986 run for the Texas House seat.

“Barry was a leader in the House almost from the beginning. He quickly grasped the legislative process and how to use it. He got along with almost everyone – fellow members, staffers, lobbyists and yes, even Republicans,” said Ken Whalen.

Whalen served as Telford’s chief of staff for eleven years.

To Whalen, working with Telford showed him the person Telford was.

“I was the second person Barry ever hired as a state representative and was with him for 11 years. That’s somewhat unusual, but I recognized pretty quickly how lucky I was to work for him. Barry cared about people and wanted his staff members to succeed in life, not just in politics,” Whalen said.

Green even recounted a time when Telford cheered for her on a new career change.

“And when I finally got the next opportunity in my career to work for then-Comptroller John Sharp, it was Barry that was my biggest cheerleader, telling me, ‘Girl, I was just here to get you started. Go do good things.’ I know I was just one of many in the Capitol who he helped get started,” Green added.

The son and husband of educators, Telford spent much of his political career championing education.

As a lawmaker, he co-sponsored a bill allowing teachers with 30 years of service to retire at 55 years of age and co-sponsored a bill to give tuition refunds to college students called to active duty during Desert Storm.

He authored House Bill 1566. Its passing in 2003 allowed Texas A&M University-Texarkana to begin offering lower level courses, giving Bowie County the opportunity to have a state owned four year university. Prior to the bill’s passing, TAMUT only offered junior and senior level courses.

But his crowning achievement was the passing of an act to increase pensions for retired teachers through the Teacher Retirement System.

“He had a particular interest in education and teachers’ pensions since his mom had been a longtime public-school teacher. When he found out that many long-time TRS retirees were living in poverty, he set out to change that,” Whalen said.

Telford served on the Sunset Commission with Patricia Gray when the teacher’s retirement bill came before congress. Gray served the people of Galveston County from 1992 until 2005.

“ You would have thought we were selling people’s children or something. It was just one of the nastiest political fights ever; but one of the most meaningful things that either of us worked on. And he was just stalwart during that. He was just amazing,” Gray said.

Green added that it was during the fight for this bill that Barry showed how meaningful it was to him.

“The only time I heard him raise his voice was on the House floor, defending a teacher retirement bill, the issue he was most passionate about,” Green said.

He was also supportive of law and order in his district and the state.

He was a driving force behind the location of the 1997 Texas Department of Criminal Justice prison which bears. The opening of the Barry B. Telford Unit on Texas Hwy 98 created more than 800 jobs for the region.

Additionally, he was instrumental in the creation of the first County Court At Law in Bowie County.

His work to support law enforcement in the area also earned him the 1996 Crime Fighter of the Year award from the Combined Law Enforcement Association of Texas and a commendation by the County Attorney’s and Texas District Attorney’s Association.

Those who worked alongside Telford in the Texas House said his integrity stood out most.

“He just had that reputation. My staffer said, ‘ You know you can always go to Mr. Telford’s office and get a word of encouragement.’ And as I’ve read comments and postings on Facebook, it’s people remembering his sense of humor, his kindness to staff that rarely gets recognized and rarely gets attended to, his absolute integrity,” Gray said.

“If he wasn’t going to vote for your bill, he would tell you and tell you why. If he was going to vote for your bill, he would tell you yes and you could count on him doing that. You wouldn’t get to the floor and suddenly he’s voting no when you needed his vote. If something came up between the time he said yes and the time the vote came that he didn’t feel like he could follow up, he would come talk to you about it and say, ‘look, I have learned this. I don’t think I could vote for this after all but I want you to understand why.’ And there just isn’t enough of that today. There wasn’t a person on the floor who didn’t trust Barry Telford.” “Barry was willing to help anybody who needed help but he wasn’t going to stand there and let people hurt other people,” Gray said.

Gray recounted a time when she and Telford were reviewing a request to allow automatic banking machines into horse racing establishments in the state.

The difference between the requested machines and automatic teller machines was that the ABM would nullify the cap that ATMs had on the amount of money that could be withdrawn.

“The restriction on ATMs really kept people from betting their whole paycheck and Barry was very attuned to that. People are going to gamble and we couldn’t really stop that, but we could try to keep people from betting their children’s milk money,” she said.

It was during this questioning that Telford showed some of his sense of humor.

“So he was trying to get the guy to explain the difference … So he said, ‘What’s the difference?’ And they didn’t want to answer the question … He went through that several times and on the third time, Barry said, ‘ You know I just sell propane gas.’ And I thought, if he says ‘and propane gas accessories’ we’re going to all fall out of our chairs because the first thing that came to your mind was Hank Hill.”

Whalen said that was Telford. “Never intimidated. Always accommodating if possible. And quick-on-his-feet funny,” he said.

After he left the legislature, he maintained a friendship with some of his fellow lawmakers.

“Barry was just a great friend and a great member of the legislature and a great citizen of the State of Texas. And although we lived as far apart in Texas as you possibly could live, we became very good friends and he was a very very important part of my speakership,” said Pete Laney, who served as speaker of the house from 1993 until 2007. “He was a good friend in the legislature and a good friend outside of the legislative process.”

Telford was also known to be generous. Green recounted a time when he helped her and her then-husband as a young and financially struggling couple with their first major appliance purchase.

As the owner of Telford Gas and Furniture in DeKalb, Green said “he happily sold us a nice set super cheap and let us pay him out as we could.

“When the time came to get the washer and dryer, Barry loaded them in the back of his pickup and personally drove the 350 miles to Austin to deliver them to us. In the hot summer sun, sweating profusely, Barry and his dolly helped move that new set into our little duplex in South Austin. Our neighbor said, ‘ Your delivery guy sure is working hard.’ I said, ‘That’s not a delivery guy. That’s my state rep!’” His work in politics, dedication to his fellow human and his love for his community earned him the 2011 Heart of the Community, or Nobel, award.

His longtime friend, former DeKalb Municipal Court Judge Joni Haldeman, said of Barry that night, “It was said that Telford walked into the Chambers of the Texas House of Representatives and knew that he wanted to be a part of that very special place. Many years later he did go to Austin and “took with him the values and ethics he was born with, had learned from his parents, his teachers and the people of this community.”

In his acceptance speech, Telford again brought the sense of humor he was known for.

“This is an honor. I have gotten a lot of awards, some I thought I deserved and some not. This is one I’m not sure I will ever deserve, but I am going to take it because I love Nobel Bates,” he humbly and humorously said.

But the true love of his life was his wife of 57 years, Marsha, children and grandchildren. And he was a family man.

“I did not know Barry as a colleague legislator. I did not serve him as an earnest or harried staffer. Or ply him as some energized lobbyist, sincere or otherwise. I did not work for him under Telford Gas and Furniture nor at the store in Bagota. No, he was my uncle. And, yes, he made time for us,” said Bradford Telford, his nephew.

Telford was laid to rest Saturday with hundreds of friends and former colleagues in attendance.

“There are some people in your life you can never repay for what they have done for you. Barry was one of those people for me. I’m glad that he knew that, and I was able to tell him how much I loved him,” Whalen said.