He was one of the earliest Republicans elected to the Alabama House of Representatives and State Senate, back when Alabama Republicans were a powerless minority in Montgomery.
He was nominated for the U.S. Senate and carried the GOP banner against Democrat Sen. Howell Heflin, falling short but getting out a message.
He was appointed by President George W. Bush as U.S. Ambassador to the Czech Republic.
Bill Cabaniss of Mountain Brook died on Sunday at age 86.
Bill was unusual in a number of positive ways. One way was that, at age 86 and in declining health, he looked forward to yet another chapter in the abundant life with which he was blessed. How many 86-year-old widowers have a fiancé? Bill Cabaniss had a loving one, Linda Parker Johnson. We will not see that next chapter, but we will continue to see the legacy left by Bill Cabaniss.
Another Bill Cabaniss idiosyncrasy was that he was tight with a dollar. He was just the kind of government official that we need more of. He would have done well in the Elon Musk Department of Government Efficiency. He wore his shoes until they had holes. He would not install air conditioning in his Mountain Brook home until the early 2000s.
One thing that tickled Bill was the characterization of him by his U.S. Senate opponent Howell Heflin, a stem-winding story-teller. Heflin called Bill Cabaniss "one of them silk-stocking boys. A part of the Grey Poupon crowd. He's a Mercedes-driving, polo-playing, Jacuzzi-soaking, Gucci-wearing, Perrier-sipping, debutante-dancing, ritzy-rich Republican." Apparently, Heflin never looked at Bill’s worn-out shoes.
A U.S. Army Airborne Ranger, Cabaniss successfully ran for the Alabama House of Representatives as a Republican in 1978, and in 1982, he was elected to a seat in the Alabama State Senate, where he served until 1990.
During the two weeks following the 2002 gubernatorial election in which Gov. Don Siegelman refused to concede his defeat to Congressman Bob Riley, Riley appointed Bill Cabaniss as the head of his transition team. In this role, Cabaniss largely recruited and assembled the members of Riley’s first term cabinet.
Some folks called him “senator,” others called him “ambassador,” but most called him “Bill.”
He was born in Birmingham in 1938. He graduated from Vanderbilt University in 1960.
In 1962, he married Catherine Hood Caldwell of Birmingham, and they embarked on an abundant life together beginning in Zweibrucken, Germany. Having trained in Vanderbilt's ROTC program, Bill was commissioned a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army and served as an Airborne Ranger for three years of active duty in Germany.
In 1964, Bill and Catherine returned to Birmingham to start their family. Bill eventually acquired a small metal grinding company that he built into Precision Grinding, Inc., a successful steel plate processing and metal machining business.
And then his life took an unexpected turn. Concerned about Alabama's relationship to business, he entered politics and won a seat in the Alabama House of Representatives in 1978, serving there four years. In 1982 he won a seat in the Alabama State Senate where he served from 1982 to 1990.
Bill was the campaign chair for State Sen. Steve Windom running for lt. governor in 1998. They won, and Windom became the first GOP lt. governor since Reconstruction.
During this time, he helped build Alabama Republicans into the later majority party for the first time since Reconstruction. When he ran for the U.S. Senate, President George H. W. Bush came to Birmingham to campaign for him.
Bill was inducted into the Alabama Academy of Honor in 2004 and the Alabama Business Hall of Fame in 2006.
Danny Cooper wrote:
Bill loved tennis, golf (especially with long-time friends) and supporting Catherine, a talented artist, in her artistic endeavors. He was very proud of her always and she enriched his life immeasurably.
There will be a graveside service at Elmwood Cemetery at 2:00 pm Wednesday, February 5th. A Memorial Service will be held at 3:00 pm that day at Saint Luke's Episcopal Church, 3736 Montrose Road, followed by a visitation and celebration of Bill's Life at the Mountain Brook Country Club, 19 Beechwood Road. ...Bill was one of four Republicans I helped win Alabama State Senate seats in 1978 as Executive Director of the Alabama Republican Party. I knew Bill in his public capacities and privately. In the in my 54 years of political activity, I did not meet or know anyone else who was consistently as pure and honorable in words and deeds.
An example of true public service and statesmanship has passed from us. His many instances of Christian discipline and discipleship will remain with us.
The service will be available at 3:00 p.m. on Wednesday here.
Jim ‘Zig’ Zeigler writes about Alabama’s people, places, events, groups and prominent deaths. He is a former Alabama Public Service Commissioner and State Auditor. You can reach him for comments at ZeiglerElderCare@yahoo.com.
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