DUANE
Duane's take
The official marker tells this story, and I'm passin' it along to you the way Duane does — straight from the record, with a little room to breathe. Out in Navarro County, in the city of Corsicana, there stands a colonial revival home that carries more history in its walls than most buildings twice its size. It was 1923 when Beauford H.
Jester and his wife, Mabel — born a Buchanan — built that house on land that had been his family's dairy farm. A fine piece of ground with roots already deep in the Jester name. Now Beauford wasn't just a man with a handsome home.
He was a Corsicana attorney, and he had a way of rising. He served as chairman of the University of Texas Board of Regents. He served as director of the State Bar.
He served as a member of the Texas Railroad Commission. The kind of record that makes people start looking at a man sideways and thinking — governor. And sure enough, in 1946 the people of Texas elected Beauford H.
Jester governor of the state. All through his administration, he kept coming back to that colonial revival home in Corsicana, the one he and Mabel had built on the old family land. Some roots, it seems, don't let go no matter how high a man climbs.
Beauford Jester was born in 1893. He died in 1949. And here is where the story takes its quiet, heavy turn — he was the first governor of Texas to die in office.
The house is still there. Built in 1923, standing past the man who built it, past the office he held, past everything. That's the thing about a well-made home on family land — it tends to outlast the ambitions of even the most remarkable men.
What the marker says
In 1923 Beauford H. Jester (1893-1949) and his wife, Mabel (Buchanan), built this colonial revival home on land that had been his family's dairy farm. A Corsicana attorney, Jester later served as chairman of the University of Texas Board of Regents, as director of the State Bar, and as a member of the Texas Railroad Commission. Elected governor of the state in 1946, he was the first governor to die in office. During his administration he continued to maintain this home. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1983