Billy Byars, Sr.

Billy Byars, Sr. (1901-1965) eas a Texas oilman and cattle breeder, underwriter of President Eisenhower's Gettysburg farm, friend of J. Edgar Hoover, and one of three men Hoover called the afternoon of President Kennedy's assassination.

His son Billy Byars, Jr., owner of prominent naturist publisher Lyric International, and producer of the feature film The Genesis Children, may have inherited some of his father's flair for self-promotion, along with a share of his apparently substantial fortune.

The elder Byars was a Texas oil man, sometimes referred to as "Humble Oil millionaire Billy Byars.” A history through 1948 of Humble Oil (which changed its name to Exxon in 1973) lists not a single Byars among the founders, officers, or executives. . Whatever his Humble connection, there is no question that Byars was a prominent oilman, and even a small part of Exxon is a very large thing.

An interviewer of Byars, Jr. described his late father as "a Tyler, Texas wildcatter" and a friend of presidents and of Pancho Villa. She says "Starting with nothing, Byars, Sr. became a millionaire at twenty, went broke at twenty-one and hit millionaire status again by age twenty-five.". Mr Byars adopted his son Billy, Jr, in 1936 and the next year, in the midst of the Depression, built a very substantial house in Tyler, Texas, where he was to live until his death in 1965 .

Angus Cattle Breeder

He also owned the Byars Royal Oaks Farm in Tyler, where he raised Black Angus cattle.(Eisenhower papers, infra).

Byars, Jr. may have gained some of his showmanship from his father. LIFE Magazine devoted a full page of its April 12, 1954 edition to "BULL IN THE BEDROOM: Prize sire gets prize treatment in governor's suite of Texas hotel". The text informs:

... the world's most valuable beef bull [...] Prince 105TT, an Aberdeen Angus, is more comfortable in a barn. But recently Rancher B.G. Byars and four other Texans bought a half-interest in him [...] to welcome the bull to Tyler for a six months' stay, nothing short of a formal reception in the governor's suite at the Blackstone would do. The rooms were carpeted with hay, an elevator repairman stood by while the guest of honor rode up to the fourth floor, and a boy (right) stood by with a gold-plated shovel."

The boy with the golden shovel was a black pre-teen dressed in an Arabian Nights outfit with a turban, large hoop earrings, open vest, cummerbund and skirt or harem pants. Time-Life's archive includes a photo of the bull, the boy, and four gentlemen, one of whom is certainly Billy Byars, Sr. Besides earning a page in LIFE, Prince 105 TT's hotel stay was re-enacted a decade later in the Texas pavilion at the 1964 World's Fair.

A young man holds the bull's lead in several of photos in the Life archive. He bears a distinct resemblance to adult photos of Byars, Jr., who was 17 at the time, and where else would the elder Byars's son and heir have been on such an occasion? There is no evidence as to whether the flair for publicity was the father's or the son's, but the later career of Byars, Jr., suggests the bare-chested boy with the golden shovel may have been his idea.

Six months after the LIFE article, and possibly because of the resulting fame, Byars was invited to a White House dinner:

“Dear Mr. Byars: For the past several days I have seen a great deal of George and Mary Allen, who are visiting in Denver. George has told me so much about you and your venture in the raising of fine Black Angus cattle that although I am a stranger to you, I am tempted to write you a short note.”

“My feeling is that some day I should like a chance to sit down and talk to you for an hour or so about the matter, because when once I get out of public life I hope to indulge in a modest way in the raising of Angus cattle.”

“It is my habit during the fall and winter months to have periodic stag dinners at the White House. I wonder if you might be interested in coming to one of them during this season. If so, I could write to you later after my schedules are made out.”

Even in the era when the Presidency was less imperial than at present, notes of this nature cannot have been commonplace. Byars did attend the White House stag dinner on November 22.(ibid)

Eisenhower's farm, and Mamie's brother-in-law's

Byars' relationship with Eisenhower developed. A footnote in the 1956 Eisenhower presidential papers observes, "Eisenhower had written to Billy G. Byars of Tyler, Texas, on May 21, 28, and June 1 (AWF/N). For developments see no. 1892. " Byars was involved in the selection and purchase of cattle for Eisenhower's Gettysburg, PA farm. "Eisenhower's partner, George E. Allen and his partner, Billy G. Byars, had given Arthur Nevins permission to purchase Black Angus cattle (Byars to Nevins, May 16, 1956; Eisenhower to Byars, May 21, 28, 1956; Byars to Eisenhower, May 29, 1956; and Eisenhower to Byars, June 1, 1956, all in AWF/N)"(ibid)

The showmanship apparent in hosting the bull in the hotel also shows up here. Byars orchestrated the gift of a calf to Eisenhower from him, his partner and 38 newsmen who covered the "Denver White House"; Byars sent along with the calf an elaborate chain engraved with the names of all the donors - which was too heavy for the calf to use, as President Eisenhower noted in a letter. But, the President of the United States did notice, which may have been the point:

A letter just received from Mr. Byars says that he sent the young calf along with George's heifers to the farm.³ He sent also a duplicate of a large chain he sent to me, but since it is too heavy for the calf to wear you will have to mark her some other way.⁴

³ For background on the George E. Allen-Billy G. Byars partnership see no. 1101. Byars had arranged to have Eisenhower receive two Black Angus heifers for his sixty-fourth birthday on October 14. The heifers were gifts from the Allen-Byars partnership, and the Denver White House newsmen. [...] (see Eisenhower to Byars, Oct. 18, 1954 [...]

⁴ Engraved on the bronze and steel chain were the names of the thirty-eight Denver White House newsmen who had presented the heifer to Eisenhower.

Muckraking journalist Jack Anderson had a different view:

"As a measure of their boldness, three oil millionaires contributed to the upkeep of former President Eisenhower’s Gettysburg farm during his eight-year term. This certainly should be recorded as the most incredible scandal in White House history"(emphasis in original).

Anderson describes how Texas oilmen leased and operated Eisenhower's Gettysburg farm,

… the new President entered into a fantastic secret agreement with three oilmen to take over his Gettysburg farm.

Allen brought two partners into the Gettysburg farm deal, Texas oil millionaire B.G. “Billie” Byars and the late W. Alton Jones of Cities Service. Among them, the three represented a substantial segment of Big Oil. Allen and Byars promptly opened an an account in the Gettysburg National Bank and began paying Ike’s farm bills. Although they later told tax agents they were running the farm as a business, they made no serious effort to produce a profit. But they did transform the Pennsylvania Dutch country farm into a luxurious Presidential retreat ….

… a letter from the farm manager, retired Gen. Arthur Nevins, to Allen and Byars with a copy marked for Jones. The letter read: “Dear George and Billie. The funds for the farm operation are getting low, so would each of you also let me have a check for the usual amount of $2500. A similar amount will also be transferred to the partnership account from Alton Jones’s account. I bought an exceptionally fine cow …”

“… officials of the Maryland Angus Breeding Association describe Angus ranching as an “avocation” – in other words, a rich man’s hobby, not a commercial operation.(Anderson, 1967, pp. 214-216)

Anderson claims that the IRS eventually set a value on the largess - $500,000, in 1950s dollars -- and a classification, gift.(Anderson, 1967, p. 206)

He also claims that Texas oil money set up Mamie's brother-in-law on a 550-acre estate in Virgina's horse country, boarding race horses there and buying and selling a racetrack, with the brother-in-law getting commissions coming and going. Anderson names names in both deals, but only one name appears in both: Billy Byars, Sr.

The quid for the pro quo, Anderson claims, was that when a Cabinet advisory committee was set up on oil regulations, industry representatives were simply called in to write policy. One was the treasurer of Humble Oil.(Anderson, 1967, p. 216-217)

Friend of J. Edgar Hoover

Billy Byars, Sr. was a friend of J. Edgar Hoover. Summers says,

"Byars was close to Edgar. They used adjacent bungalows at [Texas oilman Cliff] Murchison's California hotel [del Charro] each summer. The phone log for the Director’s office shows that, aside from calls to Robert Kennedy and the head of the Secret Service, Hoover called only one man on the afternoon the President was shot – Billy Byars."

Byars had also met Jack Ruby, who would kill Lee Harvey Oswald. (Summers, supra, p. 329)

Byars was one of Lyndon Johnson’s financial backers when the Texas Senator sought the Presidential nomination in 1960. (Summers, supra, p. 263-264)

Billy Goebel Byars, Sr. was born October 6, 1901 and died on the same date in 1965. The New York Times index lists no obituary. Mr. Byars tends to appear on the Internet in connection with Kennedy assassination theories.