Claude Allen Williams

WILLIAMS, CLAUDE ALLEN (1904~1957) Claude Allen Williams was born January 1, 1904, to Herbert Alanson Williams and Fannie Lacy Williams. A native of Longview, Texas, he graduated from Longview High School, where he was a star athlete and high-ranking student. He attended the University of Texas and graduated from Cumberland Law School in Lebanon, Tennessee.

After graduating from law school, he became associated with his uncle, Judge Edwin Lacy, in the practice of law. He was elected District Attorney of Gregg County in 1935, where he only served one term. At the expiration of his term as District Attorney, he was named by Governor O?Daniel as chairman of the Texas Employment Commission. Later he was one of the principal organizers and first president of the Transcontinental Gas Pipeline Corp. and was one of the organizers of the Pacific Northwest Pipeline Co.

He was actively identified with the oil and gas industry since he left his state position as head of the Employment Commission.

He was a member of the Harris County Bar Association; Texas Bar Association; American Bar Association, and was given permission to practice before the Supreme Court of the United States. He was a lifelong member of the Baptist church, his membership being in the First Baptist Church in Longview.

Williams resided in Houston, but since 1953 spent much of his time at a country place on Bolivar Peninsula near Galveston. He was killed in an automobile collision near Stowell, Texas, on October 17, 1957, at 53 years of age.