About

David Beebe’s first introduction to Presidio County was as a middle school student on a camping trip to Big Bend. He often recalls in conversation his initial marvel at the breadth and beauty of the landscape. The experience left an indelible mark on him that, many years later, would change the course of his life.

After graduating from Lamar High School in Houston, Beebe attended the University of Texas at Austin, where he obtained a degree in History in 1993. During this time, Beebe was regularly playing rock and roll in multiple bands and writing original music. Beebe’s post-college years were primarily spent on tour as lead singer of Banana Blender Surprise. The band released three full length original records and toured for several years before members disbanded.

In the late 1990’s, Beebe stopped touring and settled into being the general manager of Houston’s most popular rock club, The Satellite Lounge. Several years later, he partnered with some friends to build and launch The Continental Club in Houston. During the first decade of the 2000’s, Beebe supported himself as a professional musician. He joined the Allen Oldies Band as drummer and founded The El Orbits, a “mellow lounge trio” specializing in swing music and pop standards. By the height of the group’s popularity in 2002, The El Orbits were playing over 300 shows per year.

In 2006, Beebe felt the overwhelming pull to move out to West Texas, the region that had so captured his heart two decades before. He landed in Marfa, a town of people he loved and a place where, he sensed, the future was bright. He and some business partners bought the former funeral home (now known as the Sentinel) and set about building a small-town food and music venue loosely based on the Continental Clubs. “Padre’s” was the place to be back then, and locals recall it fondly to this day.

Almost immediately upon moving to Marfa, Beebe began to get involved with the local community. He was first elected to Marfa City Council in 2008 by a margin of 2 votes. During his six years on City Council, he served as a board member of the former Southwest Texas Municipal Gas Corp. At that time, it could no longer pass its audit process. As a partially owned independent subsidiary of the City, the company’s adverse audits negatively affected the City’s audit. Beebe worked aggressively to get the City of Marfa the absolute best terms upon the dissolution of the company. Once an agreement was reached, the City was able to achieve a “clean” audit for the first time in years. 

As a member of the 2008-2009 Council, Beebe worked with fellow council members to retire the short term debt that had hamstrung the City of Marfa’s ability to negotiate new contracts and payment terms with vendors. It required Council taking the bold move of temporarily cutting City services in order to achieve solvency. 

As Councilman, Beebe authored and shepherded through a singular piece of restrictive legislation in the form of an updated sign ordinance prohibiting scrolling LED outdoor signs. There was no controversy in this update, and the ordinance was greatly supported by the McDonald Observatory and local citizens.

During his time on City Council, Beebe consistently facilitated communication between City of Marfa and Presidio County regarding interlocal agreements, which always seemed to be a source of friction and controversy. He began attending County meetings in order to better understand and relay concerns of the County to fellow Council members. In these efforts, Beebe was able to establish more trust between the entities than had existed before.

In 2014, after six years on Marfa City Council, Beebe was elected to serve as Presidio County Justice of the Peace, a position he held until he was recently compelled to resign in order to run for this position. Immediately upon assuming the job of JP, Beebe started a blog chronicling his notes from Commissioners Court meetings and sharing public documents including County Audits and Budgets. In this attempt to enhance transparency about the state of County goings-on, Beebe caught resistance from nearly every level of County government at that time, and even from offices outside the County. Until the advent of Covid, he created videos of public meetings and posted them on the platform, Vimeo. With the onset of the pandemic, public meetings moved online, and Beebe discontinued this effort.

Judge Beebe takes considerable pride in learning Spanish while JP. By the end of his term, he was able to hear cases in both Marfa and Presidio precincts, in English as well as in Spanish. He can now perform most hearings at the jail in Spanish without assistance, an effort that was entirely out of reach at the start of his first term.

For the last three years, Beebe has served as a Board member of the West Texas Justices of the Peace and Constables Association, of which he is a lifetime Member. He was honored to be a guest instructor for new judges at the Texas Justice Court Training Center in Austin in 2016.  

In 2019, Judge Beebe was named Marfa Municipal Court judge after the retirement of the former Judge. He served for just over two years in that capacity as well.

When Judge Beebe is not engrossed with his various leadership roles, he continues to indulge his life-long passion for music. Since 2008, Beebe has hosted “The Night Train Express” every Tuesday night on Marfa Public Radio.  The show showcases Southern soul and R&B classics. Beebe also performs Texan/Mexican border music as often as he can with his dear friend and musical partner, Primo Carrasco. Known as Primo y Beebe, they plan to release their second album in the Spring of 2022.

Judge Beebe resides with his wife, Hilary, in Marfa. Daily life underscores their tremendous gratitude to have the ability to live in beautiful Presidio County and they plan to stay for many years to come.