Clauis Alden “C.A.” Stubbs, whose banjo strumming and organizational skills made him a local folk hero and feared anti-taxation crusader, is remembered by many as a champion of the oppressed, having twice backed efforts in the 1990s to defeat the proposed Applewhite reservoir.

“He fought for the common man,” said his sister, Theda Yager of Austin. “You never wanted to enter a debate with him unless you had your facts all lined up.”

Stubbs, 94, died Friday at Morningside Ministries at the Manor, where he lived in recent years…

Stubbs and his group helped defeat a water-fluoridation referendum in the 1980s [in San Antonio], but lost efforts to impose a city spending cap and failed to stop a sales-tax increase to fund construction of the Alamodome. In the early ’90s, the group succeeded in securing City Council term limits and the defeat of the Applewhite project, which proposed construction of a surface reservoir for water storage on the South Side.

Although fluoride would later pass in 2000, and council terms limits would be eased, from two to four two-year terms, Applewhite was never built…

The late San Antonio Express-News columnist Carlos Guerra once wrote that Stubbs, typically appearing publicly in a string bow tie, tinted horn-rimmed glasses and a Stetson, was “proof that one person can make a huge difference, and that our world still has a place for integrity and tenacity.”…

*Original article online at http://www.expressnews.com/news/local/article/Stubbs-was-folk-hero-to-many-12454546.php