When McLennan County District Clerk Karen Matkin was wooed by the Texas Court Records Preservation Task Force to participate in a project to save precedent-setting legal cases from the dust bin of state history, she could only imagine what intriguing cases from these parts might be examined for posterity.

After all, Waco has seen its share of infamous characters, inside and outside the McLennan County Courthouse. From juvenile delinquent Clyde Barrow to would-be messiah David Koresh, any number of fascinating cases could have been selected for historians to scrutinize.

The original lineup of the Light Crust Doughboys was (left to right) Bob Wills, KFJZ announcer Truett Kimsey, Milton Brown and Herman Arnspiger.

The task force was formed by the Supreme Court of Texas more than two years ago to develop a comprehensive plan for generating greater public awareness of the historical treasures found in the court records throughout the State of Texas, and to develop ways for making those items more accessible to the public.

This was accomplished after collecting and analyzing data from counties on the current status of Texas court records and related preservation activities.

“For a large period of our history, we did not care for our records very well,” Matkin said, citing neglect such as leaving records in unsecured locations, or failing to keep fragile papers in climate-controlled vaults. At one point, records were allowed to molder in an attic.

McLennan County court records extending back to 1851 are themselves historical treasure troves of data.

So what case was chosen by the Task Force to represent McLennan County’s contribution to the Top 20 proceedings in Texas?

A civil disagreement about commercial speech and trademark protection – albeit a celebrity-packed one, she explained.

The case of Burrus Mill and Elevator Company versus Jim Rob Wills et al, filed in October 1933, was a result of a falling out between Texas music legend Bob Wills (1905-1975) and his then-employer, W. Lee “Pappy” O’Daniel, who later spun his own legend into two terms as Texas governor.

The Western swing band that would one-day be known as the Texas Playboys was formed in 1931 by Wills, guitarist Herman Arnspiger and vocalist Milton Brown. They called themselves the Light Crust Doughboys to promote the products of the Burrus flour mill, which sponsored their daily radio show on Fort Worth’s KRJZ.

O’Daniel, the mill’s president, at first despised the show because he did not like “hillbilly music,” but was impressed with the fan following it enjoyed.

After Wills was fired from the Doughboys in September 1933, the fiddler formed his new band, the Texas Playboys, with musicians Tommy Duncan and Kermit Whalin, broadcasting for WACO.

But O’Daniel, bent on economic revenge, obtained a temporary injunction against the Playboys, charging the band’s use of “formerly of the Light Crust Doughboys” in its advertising was a deceptive trade practice and injurious to his business.

District Judge Sam R. Scott ruled, however, since all three defendants had indeed “formerly worked” for the flour mill, there was nothing untruthful about their identification as such.

After losing the first round of the lawsuit, O’Daniel took the new Doughboys to recording sessions and continued as manager and announcer until the mid-1930s.

He and Burrus Mill appealed the Waco decision to the 10th Court of Civil Appeals, becoming a landmark legal proceeding for being new to Texas law. Precedent was set on Jan. 13, 1935, when the lower court’s decision was affirmed.

O’Daniel, still steamed, instructed his attorney posse to continue to appeal, but a motion for a rehearing was quashed in September 1935, ending the brouhaha.

Following his own firing from Burrus Mills that same year, O’Daniel formed his own band, the Hillbilly Boys — fronted by his son, Pat O’Daniel — and his own flour company, using the musical tie-in in his successful bid for the governorship in 1938.

W. Lee “Pappy” O’Daniel (1890-1969) was sales manager of the Burrus Mill and Elevator Co. in 1931 when he hired a band featuring Bob Wills to advertise the company’s Light Crust Flour on radio. O’Daniel eventually started his own radio show — with his son as bandleader — and rode that celebrity to the Texas governor’s mansion.

“It was fun doing the Bob Wills case,” Matkin said. “It turns out that one of the main leaders of the Task Force is a huge Bob Wills fan, so the case really appealed to him.”

The Task Force plans to take some of the celebrated cases on a public tour this fall, she added.

And what about the fate of the Light Crust Doughboys? Well, in 1942 Burrus Mill ended the radio show.

Although the flour company reorganized the band in 1946, broadcasts never held the same appeal as they had in the years before World War II. The company even hired other frontmen — like Waco’s own Hank Thompson (1925-2007) and Slim Whitman — to revive the radio show, but by 1950, the dominance of radio faded as the fortunes of television rose.

A revival of roots music in the 1970s brought Doughboys tunes to new fans, and versions of the ensemble perform and record even to this day.

In December 2005, the Light Crust Doughboys Hall of Fame and Museum officially opened in Quitman. The facility displayed exhibits of historic memorabilia of the group as well as hosted live performances.

Additional sources: San Antonio Rose: The Life and Music of Bob Wills (Charles Townsend, 1976); Handbook of Texas Online; TexasPlayboys.net, BobWills.com; TheLightCrustDoughboys.com