George Bannerman Dealey

SAM ACHESON

George Bannerman Dealey, newspaper publisher, civic
planner, was born on September 18, 1859, in Manchester,
England, the second son of George and Mary Ann (Nellins)
Dealey. Business misfortunes caused his parents to emigrate
in 1870, and they made the voyage to Texas on an old style
sailing vessel. Upon arrival in Galveston, an older brother,
Thomas W. Dealey, promptly went to work for the Galveston
News, but it was not until four years later that George Ban-
nerman Dealey began his notable and lengthy career with the
same firm, which had been founded during the days of the
Republic.

Meanwhile young Dealey's schooling, which had been spotty
in England, was equally intermittent in the Galveston of Recon-
struction days. For a time he attended Galveston's first free
public school, which had been established in 1870 under pro-
visions of the state constitution of 1869. Later he attended
night sessions of the Island City Business College. His educa-
tion, however, consisted chiefly of a series of childhood jobs
ranging from Western Union delivery boy to runner for a Ger-
man cotton firm during the Franco-Prussian War. He also
served on Sundays and Wednesday nights as bell ringer and
organ pumper for the Episcopal church in Galveston.

The future owner of the publishing firm began as an office
boy in the Galveston News on October 12, 1874, a date which
became increasingly significant in his life as his span of service
with one institution stretched out more than three score and
ten years to give him a place unique in the annals of journalism
throughout the English speaking world. The chief proprietor
of the News in those days was Willard Richardson, indomitably
independent editor who had started the newspaper in 1842.
Richardson had only recently been joined by Alfred H. Belo, a
Confederate colonel from North Carolina, who was to succeed
him as guiding force of the enterprise. From these two figures
and their chief associates young Dealey was to inherit the
ideals and business ethics which had enabled the News to sur-
vive pioneer difficulties and to emerge from the destruction of
civil war. His first encounter with Richardson came a few days
after his employment. Noting the new office boy for the first
time, Richardson spoke to him and asked how much he was
being paid. When the youngster replied that he was to receive
$3.00 a week, the older man paused thoughtfully, then patted
him on the shoulder and remarked, "Well, maybe some day
you'll get more."

The prophecy of more pay was borne out shortly as young
Dealey was advanced to the mailing room, later becoming fore-
man of that department. In the early eighties he was named a
traveling agent and staff correspondent. This new assignment
sent him into all the then settled parts of Texas and began his
long and intimate familiarity with the various sections and
regions of the state. From Dallas, Waco, Austin, and other
points he sent news stories to the paper at Galveston, as well
as business and circulation reports to the business office. He
was soon named head of the Houston office, then the most im-
portant branch office of the company. A special leased train to
bring papers to Houston each morning had been put into service
sometime before on his suggestion.

It was in this period that Dealey met his life partner. In
the summer of 1882, while still working at Galveston, he was
delegated by his employers to help entertain a group of visitors
from Missouri. Among the excursionists to the seaside was Miss
Olivia Allen, daughter of the copublisher of the Intelligencer
of Lexington, Missouri. Dealey and Miss Allen were married at
the home; of the bride's parents in Lexington in 1884. He was
ever first to acknowledge the key part which his wife had in his
subsequent success. She bore him two sons and three daughters.
As he repeatedly said, she was an ever faithful and inspiring
companion in times of discouragement and misfortune as well
as in the brighter, triumphal days of their long life together.

The establishment of the Dallas Morning News had a pro-
found effect on the career of Dealey. In the early eighties the
owners of the Galveston News became acutely aware of the
rapid settlement of the northern half of Texas, notably the
area from Waco north to the Red River. The difficulty of de-
livering daily papers into this more distant area led to a solu-
tion designed to maintain the state-wide circulation of the
newspaper. Dealey had a significant if small part in the decision
to duplicate the News by telegraph, establishing an edition
printed at Dallas but fed by special leased wire from Galveston.
After he had made extensive studies of possible circulation in
the northern half of the state, Dealey was named business man-
ager of the new Dallas edition from its start on October 1, 1885.

The Dallas Morning News quickly outstripped its parent pub-
ication at Galveston both in circulation and business. Identified
with a lusty and growing young city, it promptly took on an
independent personality. Ten years after its start Dealey was
given almost full powers of direction of the Dallas News when
the management changed his title from business manager to
manager. From 1895 onward the newspaper at Dallas became
increasingly the reflection of the ideas and ideals of Dealey,
although it was not until 1906 that he became vice-president
and general manager of all properties at both Dallas and Gal-
veston.

Colonel A. H. Belo, who had been chief proprietor of the
News since 1875, died in 1901. He was succeeded as president
by his son, A. H. Belo, Jr. But in quick succession young Belo
and two other senior executives of the News, Colonel R. G. Lowe
and Thomas W. Dealey, died in 1906. The Belo family urged
Dealey to take the presidency, but he insisted that a representa-
tive of the family retain the office nominally. Colonel Belo's
widow served as president until her death in 1913, and Mrs.
Belo's brother-in-law, C. Lombardi, served until his death in
1919. Dealey then accepted the presidency of the company,
which he retained until 1940, when he became chairman of the
board and his son, E. M. (Ted) Dealey, was elected president.

Sentiment played a major part in Dealey's business as well
as his civic life. It was this quality which led to his decision
to retain the Galveston Daily News for many years, long after
it had ceased to be a commercial asset to the organization. But
in 1923 the original publication of the News was sold to W. L.
Moody, Jr., of Galveston in the belief that the best interests of
all concerned would thus be served. Corporate headquarters
were transferred to Dallas, and the Semi-Weekly Farm News
was retained until its consolidation with the Dallas Morning
News on January 1, 1941. The Texas Almanac and State In -
dustrial Guide was likewise retained by the company at Dallas

In 1926, Dealey and associates bought the News and asso-
ciated enterprises from the heirs of Colonel Belo. This move
was made in the belief that ownership of the property should
vest directly with those active in the management. This reor-
ganization was effected only after long and careful negotiations

One of Dealey's earliest and continuing interests both as a
newspaper publisher and as a citizen was the improvement of
rural as well as urban living conditions in Texas. Under his
aegis the News conducted various campaigns from 1896 onward
for better farming and ranching. He was a tireless advocate
of flood control, soil and water conservation. But it was in the
field of city planning, notably in that for his home city of Dallas,
that he saw the most striking results realized. Largely through
his efforts, individually and in his newspaper, the original Dallas
plan drawn up by George E. Kessler was adopted in 1910. This
was the cumulative result of activities by Dealey from as early
as 1899, when he organized the Cleaner Dallas League. Subse-
quently he was a driving force in basic revisions and enlarge-
ments of the program of public improvements in Dallas, notably
in the harnessing of the Trinity River flood waters through the
heart of the city, the Ulrickson bond program of 1927, and the
master plan adopted in 1945. He was long an official of the
American Planning and Civic Association and was recognized
as the father of city planning in the Southwest.

Never a schoolman in the ordinary use of that word, Dealey
was nonetheless a potent factor for many decades in the devel-
opment of education in Texas and the Southwest. He was a
deciding personality in the establishment of Southern Methodist
University in Dallas. He was a firm believer in the educational
as well as recreational values of radio broadcasting. Beginning
in 1922 with an eight hundred-watt radio station, the News
under Dealey and his elder son, the late Walter A. Dealey,
began the development of station WFAA, which in 1930 became
the first fifty thousand-watt super power station to be operated
by a newspaper in the South. Later, joint ownership of station
KGKO added to the public service in broadcasting provided by
the newspaper organization. Three institutions of higher learn-
ing, Southern Methodist University, the University of Missouri,
and Austin College, conferred the honorary degree of doctor
of laws upon him. He was an honorary member of Phi Beta
Kappa.

The cause of scientific social service was consistently fur-
thered by Dealey. He was personally interested in a number
of philanthropic and charitable movements. He served as pres-
ident, from its inception in 1908, of the pioneer social agency
in Dallas, the Family Welfare Bureau. He was a director, from
its origin shortly after World War I, of the Richmond Freeman
Memorial Clinic for Children. He was chiefly responsible for
the establishment of the Texas Children's Hospital, which
opened its doors in the medical center in Dallas in 1940. While
he believed that welfare agencies should operate according to
the proved practices of social science, his personal interest was
based on a deeply felt religious conviction. Tolerant and re-
spectful of all creeds, he was himself committed to the Christian
concept of the Golden Rule. He was chairman of the board of
trustees of the Westminster Presbyterian Church of Dallas for
the last forty years of his life. His interest in fraternal societies
centered chiefly in the Masonic order, in which he was a Shriner,
a Knight Templar, a member of the Red Cross of Constantine,
and a thirty-third degree honorary member of the Scottish Rite.

Dealey's furtherance of historical research and writing, as
well as popular understanding of the role of history, was a
notable factor. The Texas State Historical Association named
him an honorary life member. He was the founder and life
president of the Dallas Historical Society, which in 1939 became
custodian of the Hall of State in Dallas, where its museum,
archives, and library have been established. His interest and
pride in the men and achievements of the past were reflected
over the years in the columns of his newspaper. One or more
members of his staff worked constantly on historical and bio-
graphical material, the major part of which was at his direction
and was published originally in the newspaper.

The life of George Bannerman Dealey was so interwoven
with that of the newspaper enterprise he directed that it is
difficult to separate the story of one from the other between
1895 and 1946. He held firm and fixed principles of journalistic
ethics which he felt bound to support even when that meant
turning down profitable advertising contracts or the loss, even
temporarily, of subscribers and readers. In the words of one
who knew his heart and mind most intimately, Dealey consid-
ered "it the business of a newspaper always to be a newspaper
first and a money making business second. It stood to reason
with him that, if the newspaper was good, it could not help but
be successful. He did not consider that the proprietors of a
newspaper owned that paper half so much as did the public it
served. He did not esteem any newspaper as being half good
if it did not feel its responsibility to its city, its community.
its state, and its nation-—and actively exercise that responsi-
bility."

Continuing his revelation of Dealey's most heartfelt convic-
tions, the same source declared that he believed both sides of
any controversy should receive equal treatment in the news
columns, "and that any editorial bias should be reserved for
the editorial page. He would never have worked for any paper
that could have been dominated or even influenced by outside
forces, unless those forces brought to his attention matters for
the public good which otherwise might have been overlooked
by the busiest mind. He considered it a privilege to be the
publisher of a newspaper. He considered it as high a calling
as there is in the world."

The honors and awards which accrued to Dealey over the
years from fellow-members of the newspaper craft testified to
the great esteem in which he was held. He took these tributes
in the same measured, poised stride with which he faced both
personal tragedies and triumphs. A gentleman of "the old
school," he was gravely courteous to all, irrespective of rank or
station in life. He had a sense of humor which he never spared
turning upon himself when he felt that his ego required the
corrective of laughter or a smile. Of slightly more than medium
height and build, he carried himself with unpretentious and
friendly dignity. He was social by nature and enjoyed attending
gatherings of his fellow-citizens, whether as guest of honor,
presiding officer, or merely one of the group. The high color
of his complexion contrasted sharply in his later years with his
carefully groomed white hair and mustache. He was punctilious
in dress as in speech. An oil portrait by Douglas Chandor made
in the latter years of his life captures a high degree of veri-
similitude to both the physical appearance and spiritual qualities
of one who was known at the time of his death on February 28,
1946, as the dean of American journalism and as the first
citizen of Texas.

How to cite:
Sam Acheson, "George Bannerman Dealey", Volume 50, Number 3, Southwestern Historical Quarterly Online, http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/publications/journals/shq/online/v050/n3/contrib_DIVL5602.html
[Accessed Tue Dec 2 13:17:39 CST 2008]