William N. "Billy" Hall, Jr. (August 20, 1940 - February 19, 2002), was a Democratic

Democratic Party (United States)

The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...

 member of the Texas House of Representatives

Texas House of Representatives

The Texas House of Representatives is the lower house of the Texas Legislature. The House is composed of 150 members elected from single-member districts across the state. The average district has about 150,000 people. Representatives are elected to two-year terms with no term limits...

 from Laredo

Laredo, Texas

Laredo is the county seat of Webb County, Texas, United States, located on the north bank of the Rio Grande in South Texas, across from Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas, Mexico. According to the 2010 census, the city population was 236,091 making it the 3rd largest on the United States-Mexican border,...

, who served from 1973-1987. He was subsequently the county Treasurer

Treasurer

A treasurer is the person responsible for running the treasury of an organization. The adjective for a treasurer is normally "tresorial". The adjective "treasurial" normally means pertaining to a treasury, rather than the treasurer.-Government:...

 of Webb County

Webb County, Texas

Webb County is a county located in the U.S. state of Texas. The official 2010 population for the county is 250,304. In 2000, its population was 193,117, and in 2006 its population had been estimated to have reached to 231,470. Its county seat is Laredo...

, from 1995 until his death.

Biography

Hall served in the state House under the administrations of Governor

Governor

A governor is a governing official, usually the executive of a non-sovereign level of government, ranking under the head of state...

s Dolph Briscoe

Dolph Briscoe

Dolph Briscoe, Jr. was a Uvalde, Texas rancher and businessman who was the 41st Governor of Texas between 1973 and 1979....

, Bill Clements

Bill Clements

William Perry "Bill" Clements, Jr. was the 42nd and 44th Governor of Texas, serving from 1979 to 1983 and 1987 to 1991. Clements was the first Republican to have served as governor of the U.S. state of Texas since Reconstruction...

, and Mark White

Mark White

Mark Wells White is an American lawyer, who served as the 43rd Governor of Texas from January 18,1983-January 20,1987.-Biography:...

. He did not seek an eighth two-year term in 1986, instead running in the Democratic primary for the Texas State Senate but lost contest to Judith Zaffirini

Judith Zaffirini

Judith Zaffirini is a Democratic member of the Texas State Senate representing the 21st District, which includes her home city of Laredo. On January 9, 2007, Zaffirini became the second in seniority in the 31-member Texas Senate, where she has served since 1987...

. In the legislature, Hall was a strong advocate of Laredo State University (subsequently Texas A&M University

Texas A&M University

Texas A&M University is a coeducational public research university located in College Station, Texas . It is the flagship institution of the Texas A&M University System. The sixth-largest university in the United States, A&M's enrollment for Fall 2011 was over 50,000 for the first time in school...

 and located on a new campus off the Bob Bullock Expressway in east Laredo. Hall was a senior member of the House Appropriations Committee, chaired the Law Enforcement and Liquor Regulation committees, and served on the Revenue and Taxation Committee.

In 1959, Hall graduated from Martin High School

Martin High School (Laredo, Texas)

Raymond & Tirza Martin High School, known as Martin High School, is a secondary institution of learning located in the Laredo Independent School District in Laredo, Texas. Grades 9th through 12th are taught there. It serves students living in central Laredo...

, where he was a football

American football

American football is a sport played between two teams of eleven with the objective of scoring points by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone. Known in the United States simply as football, it may also be referred to informally as gridiron football. The ball can be advanced by...

 player. In 1963, he graduated from the University of Texas at Austin with a degree in Journalism. He was the former publisher of the South Texas Citizen, a newspaper

Newspaper

A newspaper is a scheduled publication containing news of current events, informative articles, diverse features and advertising. It usually is printed on relatively inexpensive, low-grade paper such as newsprint. By 2007, there were 6580 daily newspapers in the world selling 395 million copies a...

 started by his father, William Hall, Sr. Thereafter, Hall, Jr., sold the paper to a businessman in Nuevo Laredo, Mexico. A former teacher

Teacher

A teacher or schoolteacher is a person who provides education for pupils and students . The role of teacher is often formal and ongoing, carried out at a school or other place of formal education. In many countries, a person who wishes to become a teacher must first obtain specified professional...

, Hall was later an officer with the International Bank of Commerce

International Bank of Commerce

International Bank of Commerce is a state chartered bank owned by International Bancshares Corporation headquartered in Laredo, Texas . It is one of the largest banks based in Texas, and is the 90th largest U.S. bank by asset size. In addition, IBC is the largest minority-owned bank in the United...

 owned by former gubernatorial candidate Tony Sanchez of Laredo. Republican Governor William P. "Bill" Clements, Jr.

Bill Clements

William Perry "Bill" Clements, Jr. was the 42nd and 44th Governor of Texas, serving from 1979 to 1983 and 1987 to 1991. Clements was the first Republican to have served as governor of the U.S. state of Texas since Reconstruction...

, then named Hall in 1987 to the National Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission.

In January 1995, Hall was appointed Webb County treasurer by the commissioners court after the previous treasurer, Mike Urdiales, resigned to become one of the four commissioners. Hall was elected to a full term in 1998, but he died of congestive heart failure during the primary campaign of 2002, when he was a candidate for a second term. Hall's great-grandfather, A.M. Bruni, was also a Webb County treasurer. Hall was succeeded as treasurer by fellow Democrat Delia Perales, who in the general election

General election

In a parliamentary political system, a general election is an election in which all or most members of a given political body are chosen. The term is usually used to refer to elections held for a nation's primary legislative body, as distinguished from by-elections and local elections.The term...

 defeated the Republican

Republican Party (United States)

The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...

 candidate, Joe A. Guerra

Joe A. Guerra

Jose Antonio Guerra, Sr., known as Joe A. Guerra , was a businessman and a Republican political activist in the heavily Democratic city of Laredo, Texas...

, a former five-term member of the Laredo City Council.

In 2007, the Webb County Commissioners Court named the county administrative building after Hall. There is a bronze bust of Hall in the lobby of the building. Hall is also honored through the William N. "Billy" Hall Student Center on the Laredo Community College South Campus, located off U.S. Highway 83 in southeastern Laredo. Hall was married to the former Annabelle Uribe (born ca. 1947). Their son is William Hall, III.