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Bishop Gregory Kelly installed as Bishop of Diocese of Tyler
TYLER â Bishop Gregory Kelly was installed on Monday as the Bishop of Diocese of Tyler. According to our news partner KETK, Kelly was appointed as Bishop of Tyler on Dec. 20, 2024, by Pope Francis. Kelly will be the fifth bishop to ever be appointed to lead the Tyler Diocese since it was founded in 1986 by Pope St. John Paul II. Kellyâs appointment comes after Bishop Joseph Strickland was removed as Bishop of Tyler in November of 2023, following a months-long investigation by the Vatican.
Man arrested for criminally negligent homicide after Gun Barrel City shooting
GUN BARREL CITY â Our news partner, KETK, reports that a man was arrested after a woman was shot in Gun Barrel City Sunday afternoon.
According to Gun Barrel City Police Department, around 4:08 p.m. officers responded to 346 Flagship Lane regarding the shooting of Mackenzie Wisdom, 22 of Gun Barrel City. Wisdom was then transported to a local hospital where she died due to her gunshot wound. Officials said officers determined this was an isolated incident and arrested John David Bunch-Stiles, 23 of Gun Barrel City, for state jail felony criminally negligent homicide.
âThe Gun Barrel City Police Department would like to extend our condolences to the Wisdom family,â the department said.
East Texas teacher accused of bestiality, possession of child porn
ANGELINA COUNTY â According to reports from our news partner, KETK, an East Texas teacher was arrested on Saturday after being accused of bestiality and possession with intent to promote child pornography.
According to Wells ISD Superintendent Friday Wright, Hillary Danielle Williams, 33 of Lufkin is currently employed as a junior high and high school math teacher and has been since the beginning of 2024. Williams is currently being held in the Angelina County Jail for charges of bestiality and possession with intent to promote child pornography with bonds totaling $350,000. Wright said they were made aware of the arrest on Saturday and are currently working with attorneys and police to address the matter. âThe safety and security of our students at Wells ISD is our top priority,â Wright said.
Her partner Michael Scott McCary, 37 of Lufkin and also pictured, was arrested for possession of child pornography with a $250,000 bond.
According to the district, a retired math teacher will be coming in this week to help teach the students.
East Texas teacher accused of bestiality, possession of child porn
ANGELINA COUNTY â According to reports from our news partner, KETK, an East Texas teacher was arrested on Saturday after being accused of bestiality and possession with intent to promote child pornography.
According to Wells ISD Superintendent Friday Wright, Hillary Danielle Williams, 33 of Lufkin is currently employed as a junior high and high school math teacher and has been since the beginning of 2024. Williams is currently being held in the Angelina County Jail for charges of bestiality and possession with intent to promote child pornography with bonds totaling $350,000. Wright said they were made aware of the arrest on Saturday and are currently working with attorneys and police to address the matter. âThe safety and security of our students at Wells ISD is our top priority,â Wright said.
According to the district, a retired math teacher will be coming in this week to help teach the students.
Companies are coming to Texas to develop a new generation of nuclear reactors
The West Texas city of Abilene is better known for country music and rodeos than advanced nuclear physics. But thatâs where scientists are entering the final stretch of a race to boot up the next generation of American atomic energy.
Amid a flurry of nuclear startups around the country, Abilene-based Natura Resources is one of just two companies with permits from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission to construct a so-called âadvancedâ reactor. It will build its small, one megawatt molten salt reactor beneath a newly-completed laboratory at Abilene Christian University, in an underground trench 25 feet deep and 80 feet long, covered by a concrete lid and serviced by a 40-ton construction crane.
The other company, California-based Kairos Power, is building its 35 megawatt test reactor in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, the 80-year capital of American nuclear power science. Both target completion in 2027 and hope to usher in a new chapter of the energy age.
âA company and school no one has heard of has gotten to the forefront of advanced nuclear,â said Rusty Towell, a nuclear physicist at Abilene Christian University and lead developer of Naturaâs reactor. âThis is going to bless the world.â
The U.S. Department of Energy has been working for years to resuscitate the American nuclear sector, advancing the development of new reactors to meet the enormous incoming electrical demands of big new industrial facilities, from data centers and Bitcoin mines to chemical plants and desalination facilities.
Leaders in Texas, the nationâs largest energy producer and consumer, have declared intentions to court the growing nuclear sector and settle it in state. The project at Abilene Christian University is just one of several early advanced reactor deployments already planned here.
Dow Chemical plans to place small reactors made by X-energy at its Seadrift complex on the Gulf Coast. Last month, Natura announced plans to power oilfield infrastructure in the Permian Basin. And in February, Texas A&M University announced that four companies, including Natura and Kairos, would build small, 250 megawatt commercial-scale reactors at a massive new âproving groundsâ near its campus in College Station.
âWe need energy in Texas, we need a lot of it and we need it fast,â said state Sen. Charles Perry, chair of the Senate Committee on Water, Agriculture and Rural Affairs. âThe companies that are coming here are going to need a different type of energy long term.â
During this yearâs biennial legislative session, state lawmakers are hoping to make billions of dollars of public financing available for new nuclear projects, and to pass other bills in support of the sector.
âIf we do what weâre asked to do from industry groups out here, if we do what we think we should do and we know we should do, we could actually put a stake in the ground that Texas is the proving ground for these energies,â Perry said, speaking this month in the state Capitol at a nuclear power forum hosted by PowerHouse Texas, a nonprofit that promotes energy innovation.
But, he added, âTexas is going to have to decide: At what level of risk is it prudent for taxpayer dollars to be risked?â
The first new reactors might be commercially ready within five years, he said; most are 10 to 20 years away.
Dozens of proposed new reactor designs promise improved efficiency and safety over traditional models with less hazardous waste. While existing nuclear reactors use cooling systems filled with water, so-called âadvancedâ reactor designs use alternatives like molten salt or metal. It enables them, in theory, to operate at a higher temperature and lower pressure, increasing the energy output while decreasing the risks of leaks or explosions.
Before it can be built, each design is extensively reviewed by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in a yearslong process to ensure they meet safety requirements.
âWe understand how much work weâre facing and getting that done means finding every appropriate efficiency in our reviews,â said Scott Burnell, public affairs officer for the NRC.
The commission is also reviewing a permit application by Washington-based TerraPower, founded by Bill Gates in 2006, to build a full commercial nuclear power plant in Wyoming. It expects to receive a construction permit application for the X-energy reactor at Dow in Texas this year, Burnell said.
After construction, the companies will require a separate permit to operate their projects. None have sought an operating license for an advanced nuclear reactor, but Natura plans to file its application this year.
For Towell, an Abilene native and the son of two ACU faculty members, this moment was a decade in the making. In 2015 he founded the NEXT Lab at ACU for advanced nuclear testing, got a $3 million donation from a wealthy West Texas oilman in 2017, entered into partnership with the Energy Department in 2019 and formed the company Natura in 2020. Construction finished in 2023 on NEXTâs shimmering new facility. And in 2024, the NRC issued a permit to build the first advanced reactor at an American university.
Towell, a former instructor at the U.S. Naval Nuclear Power School, said these new projects represent the first major advancement in American nuclear power technology in 70 years. While layers and layers of safety systems have been added, the basic reactor design has remained unchanged.
It uses a cooling system of circulating water to avoid overheating, melting down and releasing its radioactive contents into the atmosphere. The system operates at extremely high pressure to keep the water in liquid state far above its boiling point. If circulation stops due to power loss or malfunction, a buildup of pressure can cause an explosion, as it did at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in Japan in 2011.
In contrast, new âadvancedâ reactor designs use alternatives to water for cooling, like liquid metal or special gases.
Naturaâs design, like many others, uses molten salt. Itâs not table salt but fluoride salt, a corrosive, crystalline substance that melts around 750 degrees Fahrenheit and remains liquid until 2,600 degrees under regular pressure.
As a result, the reactor can operate at extremely high temperatures without high pressure. If the system ruptures, it wonât jettison a plume of steam, but instead leak a molten sludge that hardens in place.
âIt doesnât poof into the air and drift around the world,â Towell said. âIt drips down to a catch pan and freezes to a solid.â
Rather than solid fuel rods, Naturaâs design also uses a liquid uranium fuel that is dissolved into the molten coolant. According to Towell, a former research fellow at Los Alamos National Laboratory, that decreases the amount of radioactive waste produced by the reactor and makes it easier to recycle.
The Kairos reactor design uses molten salt coolant with hundreds of thousands of uranium fuel âpebbles,â while the X-energy design uses fuel pebbles with a gas coolant.
Critically, many new reactor designs are also small and modular. Instead of massive, custom construction projects, they are meant to be built in factories with assembly line efficiency and then shipped out on truck trailers and installed on site. That will allow large industrial facilities or data centers to operate their own power sources independent from public electrical grids.
Natura president Doug Robison, a retired oil company executive who worked 13 years as an ExxonMobil landman, said small reactors could run oilfield infrastructure in the Permian Basin, from pumpjacks to compressor stations.
âBy powering the oil and gas industry, which uses a tremendous amount of power for their operations, weâre helping alleviate the grid pressure,â he said.
He also wants to power new treatment plants for the enormous quantities of wastewater produced each day in the Permian Basin. In January, Natura announced a partnership with the state-funded Texas Produced Water Consortium at Texas Tech University aimed at using small reactors to purify oilfield wastewater, most of which is currently pumped underground for disposal.
The new reactor projects fit into plans by state leaders to establish Texas as a global leader of advanced nuclear reactor technology. In 2023, Gov. Greg Abbott directed the stateâs Public Utility Commission to study the question and produce a report.
âTexas is well-positioned to lead the country in the development of ANRs,â said the 78-page report, issued late last year. âTexas can lead by cutting red tape and establishing incentives to accelerate advanced nuclear deployment, overcome regulator hurdles and attract investment.â
The report made several recommendations, and state lawmakers this year have already filed bills to enact several of them, including the creation of a Texas Advanced Nuclear Authority and a nuclear permitting officer. Most significantly, the report also recommended two new public funds to support nuclear energy deployment, including one modeled after the Texas Energy Fund, which was created in 2023 and made $5 billion in financing available for new gas power plants.
âWhen I talk to folks, it always gets back to the funding,â said Thomas Gleeson, chair of the Public Utility Commission, during the PowerHouse forum. âAll of those issues are somewhat ancillary to: How are we going to fund this?â
Gleeson said developers will expect the state to put up at least $100 million per project through public-private partnerships in order to help reduce financial risk.
âGiven the load growth in this state that weâre projecting, if you want clean air and you want a reliable grid, you have to be in favor of nuclear,â he said.
Critics of the plan oppose the use of public money on private projects and worry about safety.
âWe donât use tax dollars to fund a bunch of experimental and pie-in-the-sky designs that should be the responsibility of private industry,â said John Umphress, a retired Austin Energy program specialist who is evaluating the nuclear efforts on contract for the consumer advocacy group Public Citizen. âNobody has really penciled out the cost because thereâs still a lot of proof of concept thatâs going to have to be pursued before these things get built.â
Umphress raised concerns over materials in development to withstand the astronomical temperatures and extremely corrosive qualities of molten salt coolants.
He also noted that the U.S. still lacks a permanent repository for nuclear waste following decades of unsuccessful efforts. Most waste today is stored on site in specialized interim facilities at nuclear power plants, which wouldnât be possible if small reactors were deployed to individual industrial projects.
âThatâs the big issue that we still havenât solved, but it’s not stopping some of these developers from pushing forward with their designs,â he said. âTheyâre hoping the federal government will take ownership of the waste and be responsible for its storage and disposal.â
During the PowerHouse forum, officials expressed hope that the private sector would develop a solution after new reactor projects create demand for waste disposal.
Those reactor projects are still many years away. So far, the NRC has only authorized advanced reactor construction for university research. Next it will issue permits for larger commercial reactors before they can be deployed.
Perhaps the largest early deployment of commercial advanced reactors is set to take place at Texas A&M University. In February, the school announced that four companies had committed to install their commercial reactor designs at a new 2,400-acre âEnergy Proving Groundâ near its College Station campus.
The site is an old Army air base, currently home to vehicle crash test facilities and an advanced warfare development complex.
The university will build infrastructure there and help streamline permitting for the reactor projects, said Joe Elabd, vice chancellor for research at the Texas A&M System. The university is requesting $200 million in state appropriations to help develop the site, he said.
âWeâre providing a little bit more of a plug-and-play site for these companies, as opposed to them going to a true greenfield and having to do everything for themselves,â he said.
Reactors on the site will be connected to Texasâ electrical girdle, Elabd said.
A&M began seeking proposals from companies to build at the site last August, and a panel of university experts selected the four finalists, which include Natura and Kairos.
A Kairos spokesperson, Christopher Ortiz, said the company is building a manufacturing facility in Albuquerque, New Mexico, which will produce the reactors deployed to Texas A&M. He said the company is currently working to identify sites for future commercial reactors, evaluating factors like workforce availability, existing infrastructure and community support.
âThe Texas A&M site presents a unique opportunity to site multiple commercial power plants in one location, which makes it particularly attractive,â he said.
The site will also include Terrestrial Energy, a Canadian company. And it will include Aalo Atomics, a 2-year-old investor-funded startup that is currently building a 40,000-square-foot reactor factory in Austin, which it plans to unveil in April.
More than modular reactors, Aalo plans to produce entire modular power plants, called Aalo Pods, including several reactors, a turbine and a generator, which are designed to be installed at data centers.
âItâs made in the factory, shipped to the site and assembled like LEGOs,â said Aalo CEO Matt Loszak.
He estimated five to 10 years for deployment at the A&M site but said that depended on continued financial support from investors. Aalo is developing its reactor design at the Department of Energyâs Idaho National Laboratory, a 70-year-old national nuclear research center.
But Loszak, a former software engineer from Canada, decided to locate his factory in Texas, he said, to be close to massive incoming energy demands and to take advantage of the stateâs business-friendly approach to regulation.
âPoliticians here are really pro-nuclear, they want to see nuclear get built, and thatâs not the case in other places across the country,â he said. âFrom a regulatory and permitting perspective, itâs a great place to build stuff.â
Original article published by The Texas Tribune. To read the originally published article, click here.
Bullard implements water conservation with new restrictions
BULLARD, Texas (KETK) â According to our news partner KETK, the City of Bullard has announced a Stage 2 water conservation notice for all water customers, effective Sunday until further notice. Due to mechanical issues with a water well, water production across the system is expected to be impacted, city officials said.
The following restrictions will apply to all customers on City of Bullard utilities: Residents with even-numbered addresses are permitted to water outside only on Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday, residents with odd-numbered addresses are permitted to water outside only on Monday, Wednesday and Saturday, outdoor watering will be allowed only between the hours of 9 p.m. and 6 a.m., outdoor watering will not be allowed between 6 a.m. through 9 p.m., outdoor water use of any kind is prohibited on Friday.
Bullard officials said those caught violating these regulations will receive a written warning for the first offense. All offenses after that at the same location will be issued a citation.
Man arrested following police pursuit in Van Zandt County
VAN ZANDT COUNTY â According to our news partner, KETK, a Montgomery man is behind bars following a Friday morning pursuit that ended on I-20 in Van Zandt County where authorities recovered suspected meth and hydrocodone.
The Van Zandt County Sheriffâs Office said deputies responded to a call on Friday to a suspicious vehicle along VZCR 2142. Upon arrival, deputies found a man asleep in the driverâs seat of a running car. Despite repeatedly identifying themselves and attempting to communicate with the driver, the man reportedly fled the scene. Deputies pursued the vehicle and were assisted by DPS troopers, the Canton and Van Police Departments that helped bring the pursuit to a close.
Authorities stopped the driver, later identified as Steven M. Templeton, on the south service road of I-20 near the 533-mile marker exit. Officials reportedly found suspected meth and hydrocodone. Templeton has since been charged with aggravated assault against a public servant, evading arrest or detention with a vehicle, a previous warrant and two counts of manufacture or delivery of a controlled substance.
He is being held at the Van Zandt County Jail on a $125,000 bond.
East Texas church wins mineral royalties battle
DE BERRY â After nearly 80 years without any payments, an East Texas church is finally receiving compensation for minerals being extracted from their land.
âMan, that was a long journey. That was a real long journey,â Deacon at Zion Hill Holiness Church of God, Anthony Price Sr. said.
Church historian and relative, Johnathan Matthews, said for 78 years, an unknown amount of money in mineral royalties have not been paid to Zion Hill Holiness Church of God. He said the money could have helped the church and family for generations. Continue reading East Texas church wins mineral royalties battle
East Texans explore local industries
LONGVIEW â People of all ages got the opportunity to meet the people behind the industries that power East Texas on Saturday in Longview, according to our news partner KETK.
As part of Career and Technical Education Month, businesses like HOLT CAT opened their doors to East Texans, giving children and adults the chance to see what they do everyday. This was a part of the Big Techs East Texas Industry Tours and Job Fair. Guests got a close up look at cutting edge local manufactures creating things like fighter jets to the worldâs largest front-end loader. Though HOLT CAT service manager said there is always one thing that brings the crowds.
âThe tractors is definitely the biggest highlight, the kids love them,â Jake Giebel, service manager, said. âItâs the kids allow us to kind of reengage with our childhood because theyâre so excited to see us, so excited to see the tractors and get in play, and that just kind of reinvigorates what we do day in and day out.â
Other groups in attendance included East Texas Regional Airport, Genpak, INVISTA, Kilgore College Manufacturing and Industrial Technology and LeTourneau University Engineering.
In Focus: 02/23/25 and 03/02/25 – Johnette McDaniel – President of the Salvation Army Women’s Auxillary
Airdate: 02/23/25 and 03/02/25
Guests: Johnette McDaniel, President of the Salvation Army Women’s Auxillary
Backlash leads Republican attorneys general to declare support for a landmark disability rights law
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) â Republican state attorneys general are declaring their continued support for a landmark federal law protecting disabled people’s rights, after parents expressed fears of losing services for their disabled children because of a GOP lawsuit opposing transgender rights.
The attorneys general of 17 states, led by Texas, told a federal judge this week that a lawsuit they filed in September targets only a rule imposed last year by then-President Joe Biden’s administration declaring that transgender Americans are protected by a 1973 law barring discrimination against disabled people. The state officials said they are not attacking â and have never attacked â the law itself, which requires institutions receiving federal funds to make accommodations for disabled people.
The states’ lawsuit attracted little attention until about a month ago, when disability rights advocates first publicly highlighted parts they saw as potentially wiping out decades’ worth of legal protections for disabled people. The alarmed parents included John and Tayler Cantrell of Topeka, whose 4-year-old son, Cooper, has a medical condition that left half his brain dead at birth, and they see the anti-discrimination law as crucial for him and other children to thrive.
âIt levels the playing field, giving every child, no matter their challenges, a fighting chance,â John Cantrell said during a news conference this week called by Democratic legislators.
The states are challenging a U.S. Department of Health and Human Services rule imposed in May. It says that under federal anti-discrimination laws, a disability can include gender dysphoria, which is the distress people feel when their gender identity doesn’t match the gender assigned at birth. The states fear losing federal funds for not recognizing transgender residents’ gender identities.
One count in the lawsuit is titled, âSection 504 is Unconstitutional,â referring to the key section of the 1973 anti-discrimination law, and another line asks a judge to bar HHS from “enforcing Section 504.â But the attorneys general said those words apply only to the specific rule.
âI think a lot of people who are not used to reading legal complaints took that to mean something else,â said Jeff LeMaster, a spokesperson for Attorney General Tim Griffin in Arkansas, one of the states involved.
In their filing, the attorneys general also said their lawsuit is on hold while President Donald Trump’s administration reviews the HHS rule. Trump has issued executive orders targeting transgender rights, and his administration could repeal the HHS rule.
Iowa’s Republican attorney general, Brenna Bird, argued that the Biden administration pursued the rule at the expense of disabled children.
âI am suing to make certain kids, and Americans with disabilities, have the support they need to succeed,â Bird said in a statement.
But Kansas state Rep. Alexis Simmons, a Topeka Democrat, said Republican officials’ zeal for targeting transgender people led them to also attack disabled Americans.
âIt was our duty to amplify the voices of our constituents,â she said. âFor them to be heard and action taken is exactly what we wanted.â
Babysitterâs husband reportedly bribes victim with $5
SMITH COUNTY â An arrest warrant sheds new details on an East Texas man accused of sexually assaulting a child his wife was babysitting.
According to our news partner KETK, Smith County deputies responded to a medical center on Feb. 13 after a child had reported being sexually assaulted. Officers spoke with the mother who said her daughter confessed to her the previous day she had a secret, but the mother did not think much of it. The next day, Feb. 13, the child reiterated she had the secret that pertained to Brandon Darrell Couey, her babysitterâs husband.
During a forensic interview, the child described deviant sexual activity performed on her by Couey and gave detailed information by using male and female anatomy drawings. Continue reading Babysitterâs husband reportedly bribes victim with $5
Search ends after body of missing East Texas man found
FRANKLIN COUNTY â On Sunday, the Franklin County Sheriffâs Office said they recovered the body of a man reported missing on Feb. 13. According to our news partner KETK, Larry Murl Smith, 51, was last seen on Feb. 6 near his residence on the 6000 block of FM 115, near Lake Cypress Springs. His body was recovered 16 days later. Multiple locations and areas of interest were searched in the past week until his body was found on Texas Highway 37 at the Franklin/Red River County line on the Sulfur River. Authorities indicated that there are persons of interest who are already in custody for unrelated charges.
The sheriffâs office confirmed that multiple warrants for capital murder are expected. The sheriffâs office received assistance from the Mt. Vernon Police Department, Cass County Sheriffâs Office, Choctaw County Sheriffâs Office, Franklin County Water District Police, Parks and Wildlife K9, DPS aircraft division, Texas Highway Patrol and Texas Rangers.
Jerry âIce Manâ Butler, soul singer whose hits included âOnly the Strong Survive,â dies at 85
NEW YORK (AP) â Jerry Butler, a premier soul singer of the 1960s and after whose rich, intimate baritone graced such hits as âFor Your Precious Love,â âOnly the Strong Surviveâ and âMake It Easy On Yourself,â has died at age 85.
Butlerâs niece, Yolanda Goff, told The Associated Press that Butler died Thursday of Parkinsonâs disease at his home in Chicago. A longtime Chicago resident, Butler was a former Cook County board commissioner who would still perform on weekends and identify himself as Jerry âIce Manâ Butler, a show business nickname given for his understated style.
Butler, a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and a three-time Grammy Award nominee, was a voice for two major soul music hubs: Chicago and Philadelphia. Along with childhood friend Curtis Mayfield, he helped found the Chicago-based Impressions and sang lead on the breakthrough hit âFor Your Precious Love,â a deeply emotional, gospel-influenced ballad that made Butler a star before the age of 20. A decade later, in the late â60s, he joined the Philadelphia-based production team of Kenneth Gamble and Leon Huff, who worked with him on âOnly the Strong Survive,â âHey Western Union Manâ and other hits. His albums âIce on Iceâ and âThe Ice Man Comethâ are regarded as early models for the danceable, string-powered productions that became the classic âSound of Philadelphia.â
Butler also was an inspired songwriter who collaborated with Otis Redding on âIâve Been Loving You Too Long,â a signature ballad for Redding; and with Gamble and Huff on âOnly the Strong Survive,â later covered by Elvis Presley among others. His other credits included âFor Your Precious Love,â âNever Give You Upâ (with Gamble and Huff) and âHe Will Break Your Heart,â which Butler helped write after he began thinking about the boyfriends of the groupies he met on the road.
âYou go into a town; youâre only going to be there for one night; you want some company; you find a girl; you blow her mind,â Butler told Rolling Stone in 1969. âNow you know that girl hasnât been sitting in town waiting for you to come in. She probably has another fellow and the other fellowâs probably in love with her; theyâre probably planning to go through the whole thing, right? But you never take that into consideration on that particular night.â
The son Mississippi sharecroppers, Butler and his family moved moved north to Chicago when he was 3, part of the eraâs âGreat Migrationâ of Black people out of the South. He loved all kinds of music as a child and was a good enough singer that a friend suggested he come to a local place of worship, the Traveling Souls Spiritualist Church, presided over by the Rev. A.B. Mayfield. Her grandson, Curtis Mayfield, soon became a longtime collaborator. (Mayfield died in 1999.)
In 1958, Mayfield and Butler along with Sam Gooden and brothers Arthur and Richard Brooks recorded âFor Your Precious Loveâ for Vee-Jay Records. The group called itself the Impressions, but Vee-Jay, anxious to promote an individual star, advertised the song as by Jerry Butler and the Impressions, leading to estrangement between Butler and the other performers and to an unexpected solo career.
âFame didnât change me as much as it changed the people around me,â Butler wrote in his memoir âOnly the Strong Survive,â published in 2000.
One of his early solo performances was a 1961 cover of âMoon River,â the theme to âBreakfast at Tiffanyâs.â Butler was the first performer to hit the charts with what became a pop standard, but âMoon Riverâ would be associated with Andy Williams after the singer was chosen to perform it at the Academy Awards, a snub Butler long resented. His other solo hits, some recorded with Mayfield, included âHe Will Break Your Heartâ, âFind Another Girlâ and âIâm A-Telling You.â
By 1967, his formal style seemed out of fashion, but Butler was impressed by the new music coming out of Philadelphia and received permission from his record label (Mercury) to work with Gamble and Huff. The chemistry, Butler recalled, was so âfierceâ they wrote hits such as âOnly the Strong Surviveâ in less than an hour.
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âThings just seem to fall into place,â Butler told Ebony magazine in 1969. âWe lock ourselves in a room, create stories about lovers, compose the music, then write the lyrics to match the music.â
By the 1980s, Butlerâs career had faded and he was becoming increasingly interested in politics. Encouraged by the 1983 election of Harold Washington, Chicagoâs first Black mayor, he ran successfully for the Cook County Board in 1985 and was re-elected repeatedly, even after supporting a controversial sales tax increase in 2009. He retired from the board in 2018.
Butler was married for 60 years to Annette Smith, who died in 2019, and with her had twin sons. Many of his generational peers had struggled financially and he worked to help them, while also supporting various family members. He chaired the Rhythm & Blues Foundation, which offers a wide range of assistance to musicians, and pushed the industry to provide medical and retirement benefits. Butler considered himself lucky, even if he did pass on the chance to own a part of Gamble and Huffâs Philadelphia International recording company.
âYou know, I have lived well. My wife probably would say I couldâve lived better,â Butler told the Chicago Reader in 2011. âDid I make 40, 50 million dollars? No. Did I keep one or two? Yes. The old guys on the street used to say, âItâs not how much you make. Itâs how much you keep.ââ