Bivins served as a Republican member of the Texas State Senate from 1989 to 2004 from Senate District 31, based about Amarillo. He was first elected in 1988, when the incumbent Democraticstate senator, Bill Sarpalius, was elected to the United States House of Representatives. Thereafter, Bivins did not face an opponent in a general election. Bivins chaired the Senate Finance Committee, the Education Committee, the Nominations Committee and the Agricultural Subcommittee of the Natural Resources Committee. In addition, he co-chaired the Interim Committee on Public School Finance during the 78th session and in 1999 served on the Electric Utility Restructuring Oversight Committee. He worked for tort reform in Texas. Bivins supported measures to increase accountability and spending in public education, to stop social promotions, and to increase financial aid for college students. In 2008, his contributions were recognized by West Texas A&M University in Canyon through the Teel Bivins Chair in Political Science. In 1999 and 2001, Bivins was recognized as one of the most influential lawmakers by the Dallas Morning News. In 1997 and 2001, Bivins was included among the "Ten Best Legislators" by Texas Monthly magazine. A Dallas blogger described Bivins, along with colleagues David Sibley of Waco and Bill Ratliff of Mt. Pleasant as having formed a particularly effective "triumvirate" in the management of the Senate during the 1990s. Bivins was also one of the most successful fundraisers during the 2000 and 2004 presidential campaigns for George W. Bush.
Family background
Bivins was the son of Lee Truscott Bivins and Betty Teel Bivins, later Betty Lovell. Betty and Lee founded the St. Andrew's Episcopal School in 1951 in Amarillo, Texas. Lee inherited the XL Ranch north of the Canadian River. Lee drowned near Lima, Peru, while surfing in the Pacific Ocean. Teel Bivins attended high school at Colorado Academy. Bivins graduated from Tulane University in New Orleans and went to law school at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. In 1976, Bivins and his brother Tom formed a partnership, Bivins Brothers. In 1978, Bivins, along with his two brothers, Mark and Tom, Dale Smith, and Jay O'Brien, formed a partnership, Corsino Cattle Company, still in existence. He was also involved in petroleum and natural gas exploration. Teel Bivins had extensive ranch holdings in the Texas Panhandle. In 1990, he introduced a Senate resolution honoring the memory of Tom Blasingame, the oldest cowboy in the history of the American West. Blasingame taught Bivins, as a youth, how to handle livestock. Teel Bivins' paternal grandfather was Miles Geta Bivins. Besides managing the LX Ranch, he further developed the Bivins addition in Amarillo. Miles' brother, Julian "Jude" Lee Bivins donated the property which became Cal Farley's Boys Ranch. Teel Bivins' paternal great-grandfather was Lee Bivins. Lee Bivins was an early pioneer to the Texas Panhandle, moving first to Claude in 1890, where he established the first grain elevator, developed the Bivins addition, and started his cattleman's career with the purchase of the 12,000 acre Mulberry Ranch. Lee then moved to Amarillo in 1900, where he continued as a dealer in land and cattle, eventually acquired 500,000 acres, and leased another 500,000 acres for his 60,000 plus head of cattle. After 1918, oil and gas wells were producing from his ranch lands. Lee Bivins served as the mayor of Amarillo from 1925 until his death in office in 1929. His widow, Mary Elizabeth Gilbert Bivins, established the Mary E. Bivins Foundation in 1949. Bivins's first wife, Cornelia "Ninia" Ritchie, grew up on the JA Ranch southeast of Amarillo. Clarence Hailey Long, the original inspiration of the Marlboro Man advertising campaign, was a foreman at the JA, when he was featured in 1949 in Life Magazine photographs about the American West. Long married Cornelia's nanny, Ellen Theresa Rogers. In 2005, Bivins' son, Andrew Montgomery Bivins, joined the management team of the JA as the fifth generation heir. Andrew is the grandson of Montgomery Harrison Wadsworth Ritchie, Cornelia's father, who managed the JA from 1935 until his retirement in 1993. Bivins was an avid outdoorsman, a skier and fisherman, who also annually visited the 4UR Ranch in Creede, Colorado. Bivins' second wife Nancy Terrill Bivins, mother of Katherine and William, passed away in 2003. Bivins's third wife, from whom he was also divorced, is Tricia Hamilton Bivins, who subsequently in 2009 married Lieutenant GovernorDavid Dewhurst. In October 2009, Teel died after a years-long battle with progressive supranuclear palsy. His remaining months were spent in the home his grandfather built at 2311 West Sixteenth Ave. After a private interment, a public memorial service was held on October 29, 2009 at St. Andrew's Episcopal Church in Amarillo. Bivins was survived by his brothers, Mark Bivins and Tom Bivins, both of Amarillo, and their wives; his children, Andrew Bivins and wife, Wendy Ryan Bivins of Clarendon; Katherine Teel Bivins of Amarillo; William Terrill Bivins of Amarillo and Carolyn Hamilton Bivins of Houston, and his grandson, Nolan Montgomery Bivins. A third brother, Levi Bivins, preceded him in death. In Teel Bivins' own words, "The history of my father, my grandfather, and my great-grandfather is the history of giving, of being generous, of being smart, of good planning...I hope that the Bivins legacy will be of a family that cared about their community and gave a lot back to their community."
