McLemore, Atkins Jefferson (1857–1929)

Atkins Jefferson (Jeff) McLemore, journalist and legislator, the son of Robertson and Mary Howard (McEwen) McLemore, was born on March 13, 1857, in Maury County, Tennessee. He moved to Texas in 1878 and worked as cowboy, printer, and newspaper reporter. For a time he prospected for gold in Colorado, New Mexico, and Mexico, then returned to Texas in 1883 to do newspaper work in San Antonio. He published a weekly paper at Kyle from 1883 to 1886. He moved to Corpus Christi in 1889 and established the Gulf News. From 1892 to 1896 he was a member of the Texas House of Representatives from the Corpus Christi district. He moved to Austin, served on the board of aldermen, and was secretary of the Democratic Executive Committee from 1900 to 1904. 1n 1903, with Horace W. Shelton, he founded a weekly magazine in Austin, State Topics, which eventually became Texas Monthly Review and State Topics. In 1904 McLemore published Indianola and Other Poems. He represented Texas as delegate-at-large in the Sixty-fourth and Sixty-fifth United States congresses, 1915–19. He was defeated for reelection in 1918 and returned to newspaper work at Hebbronville. He ran unsuccessfully for the Senate in 1928. He died at Laredo on March 4, 1929, survived by his wife, the former May Clark of Galveston, and a daughter.