Early Life
Wright was born in Fort Worth. Because his father was a traveling salesman, Wright and his two sisters were reared in numerous communities in Texas and Oklahoma. He mostly attended Fort Worth and Dallas public schools, eventually graduating from Oak Cliff High School, then studied at Weatherford College in his mother's hometown of Weatherford, the seat of Parker County west of Fort Worth and then at the University of Texas at Austin, but he never received a bachelor's degree. In December 1941, Wright enlisted in the United States Army Air Forces, and after training was commissioned as an Air Corps 2nd Lt. in 1942. He trained as a bombardier and earned a Distinguished Flying Cross flying combat in B-24 Liberators with the 530th Bomb Squadron, 380th Bomb Group (Heavy) in the South Pacific during World War II. His retelling of his wartime exploits is contained in his 2005 book The Flying Circus: Pacific War—1943—As Seen through A Bombsight.
After the war, he made his home in Weatherford, where he joined partners in forming a Trade Show exhibition and marketing firm. As a Democrat, he won his first election without opposition in 1946 to the Texas House of Representatives, where he served from 1947 to 1949. He was defeated in his bid for reelection in 1948, after a rival claimed that Wright was weak in opposing both communism and interracial marriage. He was the mayor of Weatherford from 1950 to 1954. In 1953, he served as president of the League of Texas Municipalities.
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