Carl A. Parker used to rib Jack Rains, former secretary of state, businessman and attorney about the latter’s presence in the Museum of the Gulf Coast.

“I told him he had gotten more publicity in the museum than I had,” Parker recollected this week. Parker’s statue hovers high in a prominent spot on the second floor, but Rains was enshrined in the museum among “notable people” while Parker was not.

Parker’s statue was displayed because he was one of several people who endured “celebrity roasts” back in the 1990s to raise money for the museum. And the museum board had elected Parker into the museum, but had never held his induction.

That changes Saturday, when Parker’s induction will be held from 5-7. The public is invited.

“He fits the criteria,” said museum director Tom Neal. “He had state, national and international standing.”

Parker was born in 1934 on 15th Street in Port Arthur and left home to live elsewhere twice: the first time when he attended law school at the University of Texas — he graduated in 1958 — and the second when he served four years in the U.S. Navy.

For more than three decades, he served in the legislature: from 1962 to 1977 in the House of Representatives and from 1977 to 1995 in the Senate. He was elected speaker pro tem and president pro tem of the Senate, the only lawmaker to hold both positions.

His accolades abound: He was chosen as Outstanding Senator by Lawmen’s Magazine and named among the Ten Best Legislators by Texas Monthly. He was chosen as one of two Americans at the International Education Roundtable at Oxford University. He’s been awarded the Arthur Stilwell Award for contributions to the city of Port Arthur and chosen for the Blackstone Award, the highest honor bestowed by the Jefferson County Bar Association.

But what Parker remembered this week centered on friendships and relationships in Austin, more than 400 bills passed in the Legislature and business and professional accomplishments. He owns The Parker Law Firm in Port Arthur.

The wait for induction was worth it. “Everyone likes to be remembered,” he said.

What he accomplished will long be remembered. He wrote legislation to create the Port of Port Arthur. He wrote legislation to create Lamar State College Port Arthur, Lamar State College at Orange and passed a bill elevating the status of Lamar University.

He sponsored legislation conveying title of Pleasure Island from the state to the city of Port Arthur, co-authored the Equal Legal Rights for Women and even wrote legislation to protect alligators.

The son of a Port Arthur mayor, he was elected to the legislature before he was 30 and, while there, became friends with some of the state’s most colorful characters, including columnist Molly Ivins.

“She covered the legislature the same year I went to the House,” Parker said. “She torpedoed me every now and then but then she came to my defense a lot.”

One regret he holds is missing out in a close race for House speaker. Billy Clayton of West Texas won a tight race, Parker recalls, and may have promised several lawmakers that they would cast the deciding vote in his favor: seemingly a political plum.

“I think he had six No. 76’s,” he said of the vote.

Parker remained in Port Arthur after retiring from the Senate and handled a variety of legal cases, some as small as misdemeanors and as large as capital murder. He represented foreign countries and even the city of Port Arthur, where he handled, among other things, arbitration cases. He said he never lost an arbitration case.

Another regret, he said, was the missed baseball games and recitals for his children. That was a cost of doing the people’s business.

The future? There will be time spent with his wife, Dr. Beverly Stiegler Parker and their three children.

“I look forward to watching my grandchildren be successful,” he said. “I’m going to look forward to being comfortable and seeing my friends on a regular basis.

“And I still have hopes for Port Arthur’s greatness.”