George Pierce (Texas politician)

George Boyd Pierce, also known as George B. Pierce (born August 19, 1941),^[1] is a businessman from his native San Antonio, Texas, who was a Democrat-turned-Republican member of the Texas House of Representatives for District 57-G from 1979 to 1983 and District 122 from 1983 until 1993. He switched parties in 1981.^[2]

In his last five sessions in the House, Pierce was the chairman of the Urban Affairs Committee.^[2] On March 10, 1992, Pierce with 4,407 votes (10.6 percent) finished a weak fourth in the Republican primary for the District 26 seat in the Texas State Senate.^[3] Victory ultimately went to Jeff Wentworth, a Moderate Republican, who defeated state Representative Alan Schoolcraft in a runoff election^[4] and then topped the Democrat Carlos Higgins in the general election.^[5]

Pierce was the only child of George Walter "Dub" Pierce (1905-1981) and the former Alice Pearl Beckner (1917-2002), a native of Charlotte in Atascosa County south of San Antonio.^[6] George and Pearl Pierce are interred at Mission Burial Park North in San Antonio.^[7] Pierce is named for his father and a maternal uncle, Boyd Beckner. He graduated in 1959 from Harlandale High School in the Harlandale Independent School District in San Antonio, at which his mother, an employee of the credit department at Sears, was active in the Parent-Teacher Association.^[6]

In 1965, Pierce obtained a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Texas at Austin.^[8] In 1978, Pierce married his wife, Debra Lynne. The couple lived for a time in Bowling Green, Kentucky.

Pierce is the president of the Texas Southern Railroad, Inc., in San Antonio.

Upon their deaths, the Pierces will be interred at the Texas State Cemetery in Austin, a prerogative of state lawmakers and their spouses.^[1]

References