Cal Partee Sr. (1910–1999)

William Calhoun “Cal” Partee Sr. was a prominent businessman from Stephens (Ouachita County) and Magnolia (Columbia County) who was involved in the southern Arkansas timber, oil, and banking industries. He became the first Arkansas owner to win the Kentucky Derby when his Pennsylvania-bred thoroughbred horse Lil E. Tee won the race in 1992.

Cal Partee was born on February 21, 1910, in Stephens to Ernest Calhoun Partee, who was a rural doctor, and Mary Jane Curry, who died shortly after his birth. He was a talented athlete at Stephens High School, where he played multiple sports including baseball and football. He earned a football scholarship to Henderson State Teachers College (now Henderson State University) in Arkadelphia (Clark County) but returned home shortly after beginning his college career when his father died in 1931.

Soon after returning to Stephens, he married Chrystelle E. Traylor, and they had two children, Elizabeth J. Partee and William C. Partee Jr.

As a child, Partee had shown signs of an entrepreneurial spirit by selling small jars of crude oil to tourists from the first oil well in Arkansas, the Hunter No. 1. As a young man, he formed a partnership with a friend to run mule teams hauling timber to his brother-in-law’s sawmill in Emerson (Columbia County). Soon after, they began their own sawmill also near Emerson; in 1935, Partee sold his half of the business. Shortly after that sale, he formed another partnership to open a new sawmill. He eventually became the sole owner of this mill after buying his partner’s share. He opened additional mills at Spotville (Columbia County) and McNeil (Columbia County), selling the McNeil mill in 1938.

Partee started the Partee Lumber Company, which bought and sold timberland and managed multiple sawmills, with the primary sawmill located one mile south of Magnolia on Highway 19. The sawmill had both a company store, run by Partee’s wife, and housing for mill workers. During this time, he also began investing in the oil and gas industries. He hit it big in 1947 and subsequently moved to Magnolia. He then acquired a flooring mill from the Long-bell Lumber Company.

By the 1950s, the Partee Lumber Company was one of the major businesses in Columbia County, employing an average of 100 employees. The Shreveport Journal of Louisiana reported on July 3, 1958, “The mill has a log-sawing capacity of 40,000 to 50,000 board feet per day and the planing mill has more than twice that capacity.” The Partee Flooring Mill was also a notable business in the county, producing hardwood flooring for use both in Arkansas and out of state. In 1958, the mill sold “two million board feet of oak and beech flooring for use in the new Air Force Academy buildings at Colorado Springs, Colorado,” with the beech flooring used specifically in the gymnasiums and auditoriums.

Partee served on the board of directors for First National Bank of Magnolia for forty-eight years. He also contributed to the additional economic growth in Columbia County through American Fuel Cell & Coated Fabrics Company; Alumax; and Unit Structures, Inc., three of the biggest companies in Magnolia.

Partee was known for picking effective mule teams during his logging days, a skill that carried over to picking thoroughbred horses. He was introduced to thoroughbred racing at Oaklawn Park in Hot Springs (Garland County) and had been encouraged by a former chairman of the Arkansas Racing Commission to buy a horse. He became an owner of thoroughbreds in 1954 and set a goal of winning both the Arkansas Derby and the Kentucky Derby. Over his racing career, he achieved that goal and more by winning the Arkansas Derby, Kentucky Derby, Illinois Derby, Jim Beam Stakes, Louisiana Derby, Haskell Invitational Handicap, American Derby, Arlington Classic Stakes, and others. He was known for never taking on a partner and never buying geldings, as he knew the important residuals a stallion could bring.

His most notable horses included JR’s Pet, At the Threshold, and Lil E. Tee. Lil E. Tee, a Pennsylvania-bred horse, was sired by At the Threshold, who was a favorite of both Partee and Lil E. Tee’s trainer Lynn Whiting. Partee had worked with Whiting since 1978. Lil E. Tee was not the first horse of Partee’s and Whiting’s to make it to the Kentucky Derby; jockey Eddie Maple raced At the Threshold in the 1984 Kentucky Derby, placing third.

At the 1992 Kentucky Derby, Lil E. Tee, a longshot of the race with 17–1 odds, faced Arazi, the favorite who would have been the first horse trained in Europe to win. Jockey Pat Day rode Lil E. Tee to victory, with Arazi finishing eighth.

Partee was inducted into the Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame and continued racing thoroughbred horses until his death on November 12, 1999. He is buried at Memorial Park Cemetery in Magnolia.

For additional information:
“Blaze Razes Arkansas Plant.” Times (Shreveport, Louisiana), July 3, 1954, p. 1.

Durso, Joseph. “Lil E. Tee Makes It Look E-z to Beat Arazi.” San Bernadino County Sun, May 3, 1992.

Eisenberg, John. The Longest Shot: Lil E. Tee and the Kentucky Derby. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1996.

King, Harry. “Winning Humble.” Commercial Appeal (Memphis, Tennessee), May 16, 1992, pp. 1A, 13A.

Nelson, Rex. “Remembering Magnolia’s Cal Partee and Lil E. Tee 20 Years after Kentucky Derby Victory.” Magnolia Reporter, June 4, 2012.

“Plain Dealing and Arkansas Men Buy Lumber Company.” Shreveport Journal, July 3, 1958, p. 3.

“Stephens Closes Baseball Season.” Camden News, May 16, 1930, p. 6.

“Stephens School Loses Letterman.” Camden News, May 16, 1930, p. 1.

Webb, Kane. “Partee Time in Magnolia: ‘Cal’ Partee Made His Money in Oil, Lumber and Banking.” Arkansas Business, June 1, 1992.

“William Calhoun (Cal) Partee, Sr.” Times (Shreveport, Louisiana), November 14, 1999, p. 34.

Shelby Linck
Little Rock, Arkansas

Perrin Partee
Magnolia, Arkansas