Edward Alexander Butts

Edward Alexander Butts, 88, died on April 19, 2009, in Austin, Texas. Born in Bartlesville, Oklahoma, on December 20, 1920, Butts grew up in Bartlesville and Wichita Falls, Texas. Butts graduated from Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri, in 1941 with a degree in economics. Butts served as a Weather Observer in the United States Army from 1942 to 1945 in China and India. Butts graduated from the University of Michigan Law School in 1948. He worked for Prentice Hall in New York City, where he met Ruth Jane Laessle of Moorestown, New Jersey. They were married in 1949 and gave each other cocker spaniel puppies for wedding gifts. They settled in Dallas, Texas, but returned to the East for one year to teach at the Putney School in Vermont. Returning to Dallas, Butts became an insurance agent for Allstate Insurance, where he worked for 38 years. His warmth, honesty, and humor made him an excellent insurance agent. Edward and Jane Laessle Butts had four children, Nina, Michael, David, and Sally. Butts was a longtime, active member of the First Unitarian Church of Dallas and served on its Pulpit Search and Pledge Committees. A fierce and passionate believer in justice, Butts fought for civil rights and voting rights and stood against racism in 1950s and 1960s Dallas. He was a Democratic precinct chair and active in the liberal wing of the Democratic Party. In the 1960s, his young sons Michael and David went to court against the Dallas Independent School District in corporal punishment and black arm band cases, with their father's enthusiastic support. Edward and Jane Butts were at the luncheon for Dallas Democratic Party faithful waiting for the arrival of President John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963, when the President was assassinated. Butts was a tireless and energetic volunteer for the Dallas Committee on Foreign Visitors of the Dallas Council on World Affairs. He and Jane hosted many foreign visitors in their home in North Dallas. Butts' close friends included Holbrooke and Millie Seltzer, Kathy and George Dewald, Sam and Ethel Ballen, Patricia Judd, Edward and Genie Fritz, Barney and Sarah McGrath, the Rev. Harold Beliveau, David and Carolyn Saunders, and Donald and Florence Lewis. He loved to play tennis and bridge. He loved his children, his dogs, swimming, travel, Will Rogers, Garrison Keillor, and Barack Obama. On the day Butts died, he listened to A Prairie Home Companion and held forth on the wrongdoings of Ronald Reagan. Butts had a brilliant mind, a stubborn streak, a huge laugh, a zest for living, and a deep and unchanging passion for politics. Butts was preceded in death by his parents, Louise Bucher Minton and Daniel Edward Butts, his stepfathers George Goddard and Max Minton, and his sister Katherine Ann Murray. He is survived by his first cousin Brian Kirby; his former wife Jane Laessle; his children Nina, Michael, David, and Sally; daughters-in-law Kazuyo Takagi and Amy Clinton Butts; Nina's companion Paul Pearcy; granddaughters Chloe East and Meredith Butts; and grandsons Chris and Erik Butts. Dad, we were so fortunate to have you and we will miss you so much. Memorial Service Wednesday, April 22, at 4:00 p.m., First Unitarian Universalist Church of Austin, 4700 Grover, Austin, TX 78756.