REDDITT, JOHN SAYERS (1899-1973). John Sayers Redditt, businessman and attorney, was born on April 4, 1899, in Center, Shelby County, Texas, the son of John David and Lewis Permellia (Miller) Redditt. His great-uncle was Joseph Draper Sayers.^qv Redditt graduated from the University of Texas law school in 1921 and opened a practice in Lufkin that year. He was active in civic affairs in Lufkin and was elected in 1933 to the Texas Senate, where he served until 1941. He was in the United States Army during World War II,^qv and in 1947 he was one of the founders of Winn's Variety Stores in San Antonio. In 1961 he was a director, vice president, and general counsel of Winn's Stores, Incorporated. Redditt held numerous state offices, including chairman of the Texas Economy Commission, chairman of the Texas Highway Commission, and president of the Texas Good Roads Association. He was credited for helping upgrade Texas highways and improve the forestry service. He was a member of the Texas Commission on Higher Education and served as a regent of the University of Texas from 1961 until 1964, when he resigned two years before the end of his term in protest against Governor John Connally's^qv failure to approve an architect chosen by the regents to design a building at Texas Western College. Redditt received a distinguished alumnus award from the University of Texas at Austin in 1971. He married Hazel Lee Spears on December 27, 1928; they had two daughters. He died on April 13, 1973, in Lufkin and was buried there.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Frank Carter Adams, ed., Texas Democracy: A Centennial History of Politics and Personalities of the Democratic Party, 1836-1936 (4 vols., Austin: Democratic Historical Association, 1937). East Texas, September 1950. Proceedings of the Philosophical Society of Texas, 1972. Vertical Files, Barker Texas History Center, University of Texas at Austin.