Zollie Steakley

Who was Zollie Steakley?

Zollie Coffer Steakley, Jr. was Secretary of State of Texas from 1957 to 1962 and a Justice of the Texas Supreme Court from 1962 to 1981.

Steakley was born in Rotan, Texas, near Sweetwater. He graduated as valedictorian from DeLeon High School in 1926, and earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Simmons University in Abilene in 1929. He excelled as a baseball player, and after college he declined a professional baseball contract to attend law school. He earned an LL.B. from The University of Texas School of Law in 1932.

After finishing law school, Steakley practiced law in Sweetwater from 1932 to 1939 and also assisted his father, Zollie Steakley, Sr., in his Chevrolet dealership. Steakley married Leonna Ruth Butler, a Sweetwater native, in 1939 and moved with his new bride to Austin where he was assistant attorney general under Gerald Mann for the next three years. He joined the U.S. Navy during World War II, serving from 1942 to 1945 in naval intelligence and earning the rank of lieutenant commander.

Following the war, Steakley returned to Austin and served as assistant attorney general under Grover Sellers from 1945 to 1946. He then went into law practice in Austin from 1946 to 1957, when Gov. Price Daniel appointed him secretary of state.