Full Text of the Excerpt

CHANDLER DAVIDSON:

At this time, along with Amon Carter —— he turns out to loom very large here——were there other families who would be considered members of the establishment at that time?

MARGARET CARTER:

Yes. Raymond Buck was a very dependably loyal Democrat through the Texas Regulars, and the "no third term" movement, and it seems to me that those movements to break the Democratic party lasted for at least three presidential elections. And Raymond Buck was the son of a district judge and a very highly regarded lawyer himself who was aware that the New Deal had saved the privileged class and that included himself and he once said to my husband, "I have not forgotten what made me a rich man and I do not intend to turn my back on the Democratic party." He never did.

CHANDLER DAVIDSON:

Are you referring here to the Jesse Jones Reconstruction Finance Corporation?

MARGARET CARTER:

That type of thing, yes. 4 * The RFC was organixed during Hoover's administration.

CHANDLER DAVIDSON:

So, then …

MARGARET CARTER:

And of course, Mr. Buck was Mr. Carter's right hand man and although he never crossed Mr. Carter, he had the sophistication to give Mr. Carter detailed advice about how to get done what he wanted to get done.

CHANDLER DAVIDSON:

How about Ann Tandy and that group of wealthy ranching families who lived in Ft. Worth?

MARGARET CARTER:

To the best of my knowledge, they never took any direct active interest in politics. Anne Burnette Tandy has always been a private person until she married Mr. Tandy. Mary Sears, the former editor of the Star-Telegram's society section, was inundated with information about parties in which she had little interest. She never found it difficult to get copious, accurate information about Mrs. Carter's parties, but Anne Burnett's social life was a closely guarded secret. Most ordinary people were hardly aware of the names of Anne Burnett's successive husbands. The Tandys were guests at John Connally's party for President Nixon at Connally's ranch during Nixon's campaign for reelection. The guest list for that affair was not given to the press.

CHANDLER DAVIDSON:

So, really Amon Carter was Mr. Ft. Worth.

MARGARET CARTER:

Yes.

CHANDLER DAVIDSON:

And the two Carters had a falling out in the late thirties …

MARGARET CARTER:

Well, they never had a falling out. [Laughter] My husband was just among the people that he didn't have to notice.

CHANDLER DAVIDSON:

He was never "in" so he couldn't very well fall out.

MARGARET CARTER:

He couldn't very well fall out.