Price Daniel Jr., center, shown with East Texas Timber magnate Buddy Temple, left, and John Hannah in 1972.Vickie Daniel was found not guilty in the shooting that killed her husband.

Marion Price Daniel III followed his father’s footsteps into politics … appearing on ballots in Liberty County as Price Daniel Jr.

Price Daniel Sr. won election as Governor and U.S. Senator.

Price Daniel Jr. insisted on order in every detail of his life.

So the first step he took in May 1976 that took him down a deadly path seems out of character.

He didn’t usually leave his law office during the work day — except to cross the street to the courthouse. So there were likely some raised eyebrows when he walked out the door on a May afternoon in 1976, climbed into his LTD. and drove to the Dairy Queen on Texas 146.

It was a girl that drew him there. A blonde 28-year-old high school dropout drove a red LeMans Sports Coupe. She was separated from her husband — and had been for many months. It’s hard to scrape up attorney fees on a Dairy Queen paycheck. Her name was Vicki Moore.

He ordered a black coffee and studied her — immediately deciding she didn’t meet his expectations.

She could lose a few pounds.

Her face had that hollow look that many poor white women have from East Texas to Appalachia.

But when she smiled, it was stunning.

Until she married, Vicki had following the tenets of Pentecostal church she was raised in — no cosmetics, no pants, no jewelry and she kept her hair long.

After the death of Franklin, an older brother who helped raise her, Vickie dyed her hair and discovered that blondes do have more fun.

When her daughter came home begging to get her ears pierced, Vickie agreed with the daughter’s request to get hers done too.

Her husband Larry Moore was a heavy equipment operator. He believed that Vicki woke up in a new world every day. He knew she had a mind of her own.

When she asked Larry for a divorce she hadn’t yet found what she was looking for — a way to express herself and be appreciated.

Daniel met Vicki Moore at Dairy Queen in Liberty — likely the only job the pretty mother of two could find a job — as her marriage was imploding.

Daniel was everything her first husband wasn’t.

Larry was over six feet tall — a big, rustic man with hands roughened by labor.

Price was slender and short with perfectly coiffed dark hair, glittering blue eyes.

But she wasn’t smitten when they first met.

Her suitor at the time was a home boy with a business degree who was kind to her children, Kimberly 7 and Jonathon, 5.

He was handsome with dark eyes, perfect teeth and brown hair.

Meanwhile, Price’s 35th birthday was approaching … It’s time to live up to his ambitions.

Price Daniel Sr. had served three terms as Texas governor, after years of service as a state rep, Speaker of the House, U.S. Senator and Texas attorney General.

By the spring of 1976 was as an associate justice on the Texas Supreme Court.

Price Jr. had made a start on living up to his father’s legacy

He won three consecutive terms in the House seat his father once held.

Jr was known for not engaging in the arm-twisting that most ambitious legislators do. He didn’t compromise just to land on the winning side of an issue.

That launched him forward when the Sharpstown scandal broke in 1973. More than half of the legislature was turned out by voters, propelling Daniel into the Speaker’s office.

While he held the gavel, the open meetings act was enacted as well as other transparency measures that have come to be known as Sunshine laws.

Daniel had vowed to step down after one term. When June 1973 arrived, he was popular. His star was rising.

In 1974, Daniel returned to preside over the Constitutional Convention in Austin. The Con Con was charged with creating a new charter for state government. Unlike its federal counterpart, the Texas constitution is a hot mess.

Delegates argued for months and when time ran out they were three votes short.

That’s when