Bill Clements, former Texas governor, dies

Former Texas Gov. Bill Clements has died at the University of Texas Medical Center in Dallas, his family said. He was 94. Clements had been in poor health since suffering a stroke last year. He died Sunday, one day after undergoing a surgical procedure, the Houston Chronicle reported. Clements was the first Republican governor of Texas in modern times. He was a former roughneck who went on to found an international oil-drilling company. A family statement said Clements had been grieving the death of his son, B. Gil Clements, who was murdered last year. Clements never held public office before beating Democrat John Hill by just 17,000 votes in 1978, shocking the Texas political elite. He served two terms as governor from 1979-1983 and 1987-1991. By the time he left office, the GOP had started making inroads in Texas. "That's a historic change, and I guess I'd like to say that I put a brick in place to bring that about," he said about the GOP breakthrough in a 1990 interview with the Chronicle. "He was never a big party man, but he sure as hell built the Republican Party in Texas," said Jack Rains, who served as Clements' secretary of state. Clements was born April 13, 1917, in the wealthy Dallas suburb of Highland Park. In 1934, his family went broke as a result of the Great Depression. His widow Rita Crocker Clements and a daughter, Nancy Clements Seay, survive him.