William C. McCraw (August 15, 1896 – November 8, 1955) was
Dallas County, Texas
Dallas County is the second-most populous county in the U.S. state of Texas. As of the 2020 U.S. census, the population was 2,613,539, making it the ninth-most populous county in the country. Dallas County is included in the Dallas-Arlington-F ...
District Attorney and
Attorney General of Texas
The Texas attorney general is the chief legal officer of the from 1935 – 1939.
McCraw was elected District Attorney of Dallas County. When he resigned, he joined his friend
Tom C. Clark
Thomas Campbell Clark (September 23, 1899June 13, 1977) was an American lawyer who served as the 59th United States Attorney General from 1945 to 1949 and as Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1949 to 1967.
Clark ...
in forming the law firm of Clark and McCraw. Clark served as McCraw's campaign manager when he received the Democratic nomination and was elected Attorney General of Texas in 1934. He served two terms. During his tenure as Attorney General he petitioned the
United States Supreme Court
The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...
unsuccessfully for Texas to take a share of the estate of Edward Howland Robinson Green who had lived for many years in
Terrell, Texas
Terrell is a city in Kaufman County, Texas, United States. As of the 2020 census, the city population was 17,465. Terrell is located about east of Dallas.
History
Terrell developed as a railroad town, beginning in 1873 with construction here ...
.
In 1938, McCraw ran for Governor as the more conservative candidate against W. Lee "Pappy" O'Daniel, but lost the Democratic Primary.
While he was Attorney General of Texas, McGraw owned and flew an airplane over Texas "as casually as he would drive a car." Having logged 1800 flying hours, he was called to active duty with the Army Air Corps in World War II.
From 1944 to 1945, McGraw was commanding officer of the Liberty Ship ''Major General Herbert A. Dargue'', as part of the classified project "Ivory Soap." Ivory Soap was a secret project to put aircraft repair shops close to the battlefields of the Pacific. http://www.usmm.org/felknorivory.html The ship saw action in Saipan and Iwo Jima. It was credited with shooting down 1 1/2 Betties (Japanese bombers). ''Major General Herbert A. Dargue'' returned from its successful mission to Mobile Alabama on 11-Dec-1945 under the command of Colonel McGraw.