Bill Hembree, GOP state representative, dies at 59
A newly-elected Katie Dempsey was about to be sworn in as a state representative, as the Georgia legislature prepared for its 2007 session.
She answered a survey from the house speaker, one of the questions being where she wanted to sit on the chamber’s floor.
“I asked to be seated next to someone who could teach me everything I needed to know because I didn’t know much.” Dempsey said. That someone turned out to be Bill Hembree, a veteran lawmaker from Douglas County who became a close friend.
“I learned so much from him” she said. “I learned to listen more than I speak and to be careful with my words.”
Those teachable moments reflected Hembree’s thirst for knowledge, which took root in high school and followed him into adulthood, an 18-year-stint in the Georgia legislature and a successful business.
Hembree, a former GOP state representative from Winston,died Jan.15 after an eight-year battle with cancer. He was 59.
He’s survived by wife, Beth Camp Hembree; sons Will, Thomas and Miles; and by siblings, Arubra Hembree Gardner, Vista Hembree Richardson and Phil and Johnny Hembree.
Faith and family were early underpinnings of his life. The education bug came later, said his family.
“He was not a good student in high school,” said his widow Beth Hembree, but that changed after he joined the school’s Distributive Education Club (DECA) and the faculty adviser took him under her wing, helping him snag a much-needed college scholarship.
“Had he not gotten that scholarship he would not have been able to go to college,” said Hembree.
As national DECA president, he met President Ronald Reagan twice — and their conversations kindled an interest in politics.
Said son Will, “It turned him into a lifelong Republican,” imbuing him with such stated traditional GOP values as beliefs in limited government and a vibrant free enterprise system. It was an old-school approach he hung on to.
Politics and education entwined after his election to the legislature in 1992. He utilized stints with the Higher Education and Rules Committees as a bully pulpit to pass laws on the HOPE scholarship program including expanding eligibility to technical college and homeschooled students. He fought attempts to divert some of the lottery funding elsewhere.
Hembree passed a law to help blind students get braille instruction. And he helped bring Georgia Highlands College to Douglas County.
His way of doing legislative business was aboveboard and principled and won him respect, said longtime friend, former state Rep. Jeff Lewis.
“He was never a grandstander. If he wanted something done, he would go to see people in the right position, who could carry a bill to the next level. He worked it that way which was a smart way to do it,” said Lewis.
Also respected was his penchant for thorough research and superior listening skills.
“And you could trust what he was saying,” said Lewis.
Similarly, service and trust were hallmarks of his insurance agency, which he started in 2000 and grew into three offices.
It was the recognition of Hembree as a pillar of the community that had constituents seeking him out.
“I remember people would call [the home] and ask about the craziest stuff,” said Will Hembree. “Social Security and [veteran’s benefits] questions. One time somebody called with a question about the public library.”
And he always answered graciously, unless it was after 7 p.m. and dinnertime. Family came first then.
Libraries indeed were another of his education-related passions. He helped bring a library to an underserved part of Douglas County.
He also helped the home folks’ pocketbooks by helping pass a break on school property taxes for the county’s seniors.
Friends say Hembree approached his battle with cancer with the same straight-on and researched approach.
“He was a fighter,” said his sister Vista Richardson.
“Emory told him in 2021 there was nothing more they could do, he sought out the Mayo Clinic and others and the MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston said ‘We can look at that. No promises though.’”
Two years of appearing cancer-free followed. Then the disease returned.
His legacy?
“I’ve always thought one person could make a difference in the world, “ said Hembree in a book he’d penned.
Visitation is set from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. Thursday at the Jones-Wynn Funeral Home Douglas Chapel with funeral services Friday at noon at First United Methodist Church of Douglasville, Prestly Mill Road.
