A crowd of thousands yesterday paid their respects to former Texas Attorney General Jim Mattox in Austin at a church service and as he was laid to rest in the Texas State Cemetery in Austin following a 14-block procession.

Mattox’s son, James Sterling “Jimmer” Mattox, 18, a star football player for Dripping Springs, eulogized his father during the services at Austin’s First Baptist Church:

[He] described his father as a good Samaritan who always kept an extra can of gas and a tow-strap in his pickup to help stranded motorists whenever he saw them.

“He never told anybody who he was,” said the younger Mattox. “He just wanted to help people.”

[...]

“I never dreamed I would lose my father this early in life,” he said, recalling their “long discussions about right and wrong.” Long after his father left public office, he “never lost his common touch,” the younger Mattox recalled.

The Statesman has some other great stories about Jim Mattox:

John Bryant, who succeeded Mattox representing a Dallas congressional district, said Mattox wasn’t afraid of anything.

Mattox waded into a mass arrest of people at a Dallas park to protest its legality, Bryant said, and later shouted down a legislative leader over a proposal making it harder for labor unions to organize. Mattox was also proud of the first opinion he approved as attorney general, Bryant said, requiring justices of the peace to perform wedding ceremonies for interracial couples.

Sissy Farenthold, the former legislator who ran for governor in the 1970s, said Mattox accepted her invitation to join a fact-finding trip to Central America when other leaders were hesitant: “I won’t ever, ever forget that.”

Jimmy Nassour, Mattox’s business partner, said Mattox could be scared.

Mattox once brought his daughter, Sissi, to visit a development site. When they came across a snake, Nassour said, he motioned her aside before picking up a stick. “Jim began to sneak up on the snake,” he said, “when all of a sudden his cell phone rang in his pants. Jim jumped 10 feet. Sissi spent the rest of the afternoon trying to find another pair of pants for her father.”

The Democrat-heavy crowd included U.S. Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Austin, who said Mattox hired him at the state after he graduated from law school.

McCaul praised Mattox’s public service: “He made a difference for the better.”

Jim Mattox did make a difference for the better–for millions upon millions of Texans. RIP, General Mattox.

Capitol Annex extends our deepest sympathies to Marta, Jimmer & Sissy Mattox, and the other family members he leaves behind.

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