Charles R. Floyd

He earned a teaching certificate and taught in the English community in Red River County for four years, which greatly influenced his later efforts in the legislature on behalf of the public school system.

Upon his death during the legislative session of 1945, his daughter Louise ran for his seat in a special election, but was narrowly defeated at a time when there were only four women serving in the House and none in the Senate.

[1] On February 17, 1945, after serving only six weeks in the House of Representatives, Charles Floyd suffered a stroke and heart attack during a legislative session in Austin and died in Brackenridge Hospital.

Floyd's legislative career was marked by his strong commitment to public education and moral issues and tempered by his sense of patriotism, fairness, and the importance of good organization and administration of state government.

He contributed to establishing the availability of financial aid and appropriating funds for the rural schools and was instrumental in helping raise the standard of public education in Texas.

This financial step aided in the early years to provide more extensive funding for the institution, and it was the first legislation relating to the McDonald Observatory.

Floyd traveled to Austin from his district during the legislative sessions, a trip which his children remembered as being long and adventurous, taking four days.

He was also joint author of the Floyd-Strickland Bill which provided improved housing rights for tenants and the Dean Prohibition Enforcement Law; he also questioned Governor James "Pa" Ferguson during the impeachment trial of 1917; and one of the first pieces of legislation he authored when he entered the Senate was a bill to erect a monument on the Capitol grounds to the Texans who fought and died in World War I, a monument which was not completed until 1961.