His friends buried John Hannah Jr. yesterday. He was a friend of mine and a credit to political life in Texas. He was a member of the Dirty 30 in the 1970s and for that alone he should be remembered. He was a leader with a small band of State Representatives in fighting what they saw as a corrupt Speaker. He was a District Attorney, a Federal U.S. Attorney, a Secretary of State for Texas and then a Federal Judge. But he was also very funny, very smart and very honest. He worked for Common Cause trying to get ethics in our government and he kept track of his old legislative friends.

John was married to one of the smartest women I have ever met, Judith Guthrie who worked as a lobbyist, went to law school and is now a Federal Magistrate in East Texas. They were a wonderful team for justice in Texas

He ran for Attorney General and lost and that was too bad for if he had won that race and then went on to higher office the Democratic Party and the State of Texas would be better off today.

Here is what Texas Weekly wrote about John, but his resume will never cover all that he did for his state and for his friends.

"John Hannah Jr.

Federal Judge John Hannah Jr., who served in the Texas House (a member of the Dirty 30 that ran down House Speaker Gus Mutscher) in the early 1970s, died after a heart attack while out of state at a legal conference. He was Angelina County's district attorney, general counsel for Common Cause after that, and then President Jimmy Carter appointed him U.S. Attorney for the state's eastern district. He prosecuted more than two dozen public officials and continued building a reputation for upholding ethics in public life.

He lost a race for state attorney general in 1982, and stayed out of government until becoming Texas Secretary of State under Gov. Ann Richards with the mission of reforming state ethics laws during a scandal that enveloped then-Speaker Gib Lewis. Hannah became a federal judge on President Bill Clinton's watch in 1994. He later was elevated to chief federal judge for the eastern part of the state. Hannah was one of the three federal judges who drew the congressional maps now in use in Texas after the Legislature failed to act in 2001; he didn't rejoin the group for this year's trials. Hannah, husband of U.S. Judge Magistrate Judith Guthrie, was 64".