Background
He was born on February 18, 1911 in Fort Worth, Texas, United States, the son of William Wesley Pool, a mattress manufacturer, and Bonnie Jean King. Pool grew up in Dallas.
He was born on February 18, 1911 in Fort Worth, Texas, United States, the son of William Wesley Pool, a mattress manufacturer, and Bonnie Jean King. Pool grew up in Dallas.
He attended Oak Cliff High School from 1925 to 1929. He then enrolled at the University of Texas, where he pursued business and prelaw studies until 1933. In college he was called "Porky" Pool for his round face and rounder figure: he stood five feet, six inches tall and weighed more than 200 pounds.
Pool won a campus election as chairman of the Judicial Council before financial problems made him leave college. Two years later Pool entered Southern Methodist University in Dallas and earned his LL. B. in 1937.
Pool practiced law with J. Frank Wilson, a former congressman, until 1943, when he entered the Army Air Corps as an intelligence investigator. After returning to civilian life in 1945, he practiced law again, did some farming, and opened Alden Mills, a mattress and bedding business, in Plano, Texas.
Pool first participated in state politics in 1952 as a Democratic candidate for the Texas House of Representatives. During the campaign he handed out fans bearing the slogan "Keep Cool with Pool. " He won the election, and in six years as a state legislator he chaired several committees. Pool also introduced a measure to shift the state primary election to May so that Senator Lyndon Johnson could run simultaneously for reelection and for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1960. Pool lost races for the United States House of Representatives in 1958 and 1960.
Then in 1962 he ran for congressman-at-large when Texas became entitled to an additional congressman after the 1960 census. Distributing his fans, shaking hands across the state, and opposing federal aid to education and socialized medicine, Pool won the Democratic runoff primary when his principal opponent was indicted for tax evasion. In the House of Representatives, Pool was given a place on the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) and on the Post Office and Civil Service Committee. On most votes, he opposed the programs of Presidents Kennedy and Johnson. His vote was the only against the 1964 bill establishing the National Wilderness Preservation System.
Pool was reelected in 1964 and continued to oppose Johnson's Great Society measures. He also said that he would vote to declare war on North Vietnam, stating, "I think we should accelerate and get it over with as fast as possible. " Early in 1966, Pool served as acting chairman of HUAC when it conducted hearings on the Ku Klux Klan.
In the fall elections Pool ran from the newly apportioned Third Congressional District of Dallas County, where he faced strong Republican opposition. He narrowly defeated James M. Collins, his Republican challenger, with 34, 890 votes to 30, 186. The last years of his life were marked by minor legal troubles (such as arrests for reckless driving) and little of the public attention that had surrounded him in 1966.
Pool died of a heart attack in the Houston airport.
He advocated the acquisition of parkland in Texas and in 1960 recommended the creation of a lake near Dallas that would control Mountain Creek.
Quotations: "Most Americans live for the day when they can do something that will go down in history".
On April 1, 1940, he married Elizabeth Chambless; they had four children.