Brian Christopher Zimmerman (August 20, 1972 – September 20, 1996) was an American politician who in 1983, at the age of 11, was elected mayor of the community of

Crabb, Texas Crabb is a small unincorporated community in Fort Bend County, Texas, United States. Crabb is located along Farm to Market Road 762 and the BNSF Railroad southeast of Richmond, Texas. The Crabb road sign is located west of the intersection of Crab ...

.Garcia, Guy D. (April 18, 2005)
"People"
''

Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, to ...

''. He won by a landslide, garnering 23 of the 30 votes cast."Boy mayor may lose if he wins campaign"
''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

''.

Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. newspa ...

. August 10, 1985. His stated goal as mayor was to incorporate the

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a region that is not governed by a local municipal corporation. Widespread unincorporated communities and areas are a distinguishing feature of the United States and Canada. Most other countries of the world either have ...

of approximately 200 people to avoid annexation by neighboring cities such as

Houston Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 in ...

. His sole campaign promise led to a "hard fought" incorporation battle, because many residents feared that incorporation would result in higher taxes. However, Mayor Zimmerman held that an impending

annexation Annexation (Latin ''ad'', to, and ''nexus'', joining), in international law, is the forcible acquisition of one state's territory by another state, usually following military occupation of the territory. It is generally held to be an illegal act ...

would result in even higher taxes than incorporation, which instead would give the town some control over tax rates. The other major issue was that incorporation would force him out of his position as mayor, since Texas law stated that mayors of incorporated communities had to be at least 18 years of age. He nonetheless supported a referendum to incorporate the community, stating "The mayor isn't there to sit and worry about keeping his job. He's there to do what's best for the people." Zimmerman's incorporation bid was ultimately unsuccessful, but he was reelected as mayor following the referendum. During his first two years in office, he reportedly had one of Crabb's roads paved. His unique mayorship garnered considerable attention - "worldwide" according to the ''Texas Almanac''"Obituaries"
''Texas Almanac''. - that included articles in ''

People A person (plural, : people) is a being that has certain capacities or attributes such as reason, morality, consciousness or self-consciousness, and being a part of a culturally established form of social relations such as kinship, ownership of pr ...

'' magazine and ''

''. In 1986, his story was chronicled in a

made-for-television film A television film, alternatively known as a television movie, made-for-TV film/movie or TV film/movie, is a feature-length film that is produced and originally distributed by or to a television network, in contrast to theatrical films made for ...

calle
''Lone Star Kid''
In 1996, Brian Zimmerman died of a

heart attack A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when blood flow decreases or stops to the coronary artery of the heart, causing damage to the heart muscle. The most common symptom is chest pain or discomfort which may tr ...

in Houston at the age of 24.Muck, Patti (September 25, 1996)
"'Boy mayor' of 1983 dies of heart attack/Brian Zimmerman put Crabb on map"
''

Houston Chronicle The ''Houston Chronicle'' is the largest daily newspaper in Houston, Texas, United States. , it is the third-largest newspaper by Sunday circulation in the United States, behind only ''The New York Times'' and the ''Los Angeles Times''. With it ...

''. Archived fro
the original
on October 21, 2012. As of 2008, Crabb remains an unincorporated community and has been neither incorporated nor annexed during or after Zimmerman's life.

References

1972 births 1996 deaths Mayors of places in Texas People from Fort Bend County, Texas 20th-century American politicians {{Texas-politician-stub