This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Surnames: Farris, Wall, Statham, Nippert Classification: Obituary Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/GeV.2ACEB/1712 Message Board Post: Commercial Appeal Memphis, TN August 8, 2003 Powerful Politician Bill Farris Dies at 79 By Shirley Downing and Jimmie Covington [email protected] [email protected] Memphis lawyer William W. 'Bill' Farris, a powerful force in local and state Democratic Party politics from the 1960s through the 1990s, was described by friends and colleagues as a man devoted to public service. Mr. Farris died about 3:30 a.m. Thursday at Methodist Healthcare-University Hospital. He had been hospitalized since Friday night after he fell getting out of a chair and struck his head. He was 79. On Thursday, friends and colleagues remembered Mr. Farris for his political abilities, advocacy for education and generosity. "He was my boss, my law partner, my mentor and my friend," said Homer B. Branan III, hired by Mr. Farris in 1967 as a law clerk. "He was a very honorable man of the highest integrity." Former U.S. representative Harold Ford Sr. said Mr. Farris "was one of a kind," a man who in 1974 said it was time to erase racial barriers in politics. "He was color blind." U.S. Rep. Harold Ford Jr. (D-Tenn.) said Mr. Farris "understood politics and business and law and how to make it work best for people." Retired State Technical Institute president Charles Temple agreed, and noted Mr. Farris's tireless efforts for education. "He personally recognized that through education every one could achieve a better life," Temple said. Although Mr. Farris failed to win the two highest offices he sought, Tennessee governor and Memphis mayor, he became a major power broker in local and state politics. He also had national influence as a Democratic National Committee member. As a 17-year member of the Tennessee Board of Regents, Mr. Farris played an important role in the development of higher education in the state outside of the University of Tennessee system. His mother died in childbirth and Mr. Farris was reared primarily by his grandmother and great-aunt on his father's Dyer County farm. He was born with a clubfoot and with one leg shorter than the other. Still he chopped cotton and slept in an attic where snow drifted through cracks in the roof. Mr. Farris attended Memphis State College, now the University of Memphis, finishing pre-law work without a degree. He graduated from Cumberland Law School in Lebanon, Tenn., in 1946. He volunteered for military service during World War II, but was declined because of his physical disabilities. John Farris, managing partner in the Farris law firm, said his father served as public works commissioner when the city was building Memphis International Airport, Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium, the Mid-South Coliseum and City Hall. When Mr. Farris turned his sights on the mayor's post in 1963, he had the backing of business leaders and many other leadership groups. However, William B. Ingram pulled off what many considered to be a stunning upset. "I think the one thing (Mr. Farris) wanted to do more than anything was to complete the expressway through Overton Park," longtime friend Oscar Edmonds, a former City Council and County Court member, recalled Thursday. In 1968, Mr. Farris was elected to the old Shelby County Court. A year later he was appointed to a state Senate seat to fill an unexpired term. Mr. Farris became chairman of the Shelby County Democratic Party in 1975 and state party chairman in 1976. He also went on to serve on the Democratic National Committee. In 1995, in a move to revive local Democratic Party fortunes at the polls, Mr. Farris was recruited by Harold Ford Sr. to return to the county party chairmanship. But age had crept up on Mr. Farris, then 72, and the party faced different challenges. He served two years. Former Shelby County mayor Bill Morris said Memphis "lost a mighty outstanding citizen, I tell you." Services will be at 10:30 a.m. Saturday at Eudora Baptist Church with burial in Elmwood. Mr. Farris, the husband of Jimmie Wall Farris for 57 years, also leaves two daughters, Laura Farris Statham of Collierville and Karen F. Nippert of Memphis; two other sons, William W. Farris Jr. of Somerville and James D. Farris of Atlanta; 11 grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. In lieu of flowers, memorials may be sent to Eudora Baptist Church or the William W. and Jimmie W. Farris Scholarship Endowment at Southwest Tennessee Community College