Edward Musgrove Dealey

Edward Musgrove (Ted) Dealey was born to George Bannerman Dealey and Olivia Allen on October 5, 1892, in Dallas, Texas.[1] Ted Dealey attended public schools in Dallas through grade five. However, in grade six, he was expelled from public school for unspecified reasons and sent to the Terrill School for Boys, which later became St. Mark's School of Texas. For three years, Dealey was the top ranked student at the Terrill School, and he would later say that it was the school's strict disciplinary code that had reformed him. He graduated in 1910 and then attended the University of Texas where he received a bachelor's degree in 1913. From there he went to Harvard University, earning a master's degree in philosophy in 1914.[2]

1n 1915, Ted Dealey returned to Dallas, after his father secured a job for him with the A. H. Belo Corporation where his father was vice president. A. H. Belo published The Dallas Morning News and Dealey became a reporter there. In 1920, he was promoted to staff correspondent for the Morning News.[3]

From 1920 to 1924, Dealey wrote many of the Morning News' anti-Ku Klux Klan articles. In a 1924 memo to his father, he insisted that the paper endorse candidate Miriam Ferguson over the Klan's preferred gubernatorial candidate.[4][5]

Ted Dealey became a board member of the Belo Corporation in 1926, was appointed vice president in 1932, and president in 1940, succeeding his father.[6] When his father died in 1946, Dealey became publisher of The Dallas Morning News as well.[7] With his father's death, the editorial tone of the Morning News changed, as investigative reporter Peter Elkind noted:

But the most critical difference between father and son was reflected on the editorial page.... Ted Dealey was a red-baiter, a supporter of Joe McCarthy, an unforgiving opponent of the United Nations, an enemy of social welfare and unions and federal aid, and so was his newspaper.[8][9]

In October 1961, Dealey attended a luncheon in Washington D.C., for newspaper publishers, given at the Kennedy White House. Toward the end of the event, President Kennedy asked if any of the guests wanted to comment. Dealey angered President Kennedy when Dealey stood up and read the following prepared statement:

The general opinion of the grassroots thinking in this country is that you and your administration are weak sisters. If we stand firm, there will be no war. The Russians will back down. We need a man on horseback to lead this nation, and many people in Texas and the Southwest think that you are riding Caroline’s [Kennedy's 3-year-old daughter] tricycle.[10][11]

Dealey is best remembered nationally for approving the publication of a full page, paid advertisement critical of President Kennedy that ran in The Dallas Morning News the morning of November 22, 1963. On that day, President Kennedy was assassinated in Dealey Plaza, named after Dealey's father.[12][13]

Ted Dealey died of a heart attack on November 27, 1969 in Dallas.[14]

Ted Dealey was played by Jim Backus in the 1985 film Prince Jack. This movie portrays Dealey as wheelchair bound and omits the White House encounter with President Kennedy listed above. The film presents Dealey as being present when Lee Harvey Oswald attempted to assassinate General Edwin Walker in April 1963.

Dealey's grave is located at Grove Hill Memorial Park, in Dallas, Texas.

• Notable alumni of St. Mark's School of Texas

• Dealey, Ted. Diaper Days of Dallas, Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1966, ISBN 0870741403
• Hazel, Michael. Dallas: A History of "Big D", Austin: Texas State Historical Association, 1997, ISBN 0876111630

• Edward Musgrove (Ted) Dealey in Handbook of Texas Online
• George Bannerman Dealey in Handbook of Texas Online
• Joseph MacDonald Dealey in Handbook of Texas Online
• James Q. Dealey in Handbook of Texas Online
• Samuel David Dealey in Handbook of Texas Online
• Dallas Morning News in Handbook of Texas Online
• Edward Musgrove Dealey at Find a Grave