Texas Originals Curriculum

Meet the Originals Lesson Plan

Texas Originals, developed by Humanities Texas and Houston Public Media, is a radio series profiling individuals who have had a profound influence on Texas history and culture. This lesson uses those profiles to introduce students to important figures in Texas history and challenges them to answer questions and draw conclusions.

Teachers can use these lessons as a tool to introduce new units or as an ongoing warm up activity, selecting historical figures that support classroom goals. These lessons are designed for seventh-grade students currently studying Texas history in the classroom and should take between ten and fifteen minutes to complete. For a full list of Texas Originals, visit the Texas Originals radio program page.

• Meet the Originals Activity Overview (PDF)
• Meet the Originals Answer Key (PDF)

Andy Adams

Born in Indiana in 1859, writer Andy Adams lived the cowboy life on the Texas plains. He later rendered those experiences in fiction to set Americans straight about life in the West. Read or listen to the episode on Andy Adams.

• Student Handout (PDF)

Alonso Álvarez de Pineda

Spanish explorer Alonso Álvarez de Pineda was the first European to set eyes on the land that would become Texas. His 1519 expedition mapped the American Gulf Coast, creating the very first document of Texas history. Read or listen to the episode on Alonso Álvarez de Pineda.

• Student Handout (PDF)

Anne Armstrong

Once, when asked about her many achievements, the politician, diplomat, and rancher Anne Armstrong explained, “I was born with energy.” That energy spurred Armstrong to become a woman of many “firsts”: first female co-chair of the Republican National Committee, first female counselor to a U.S. president, and first woman to chair the President’s Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board. Read or listen to the episode on Anne Legendre Armstrong.

• Student Handout (PDF)

Mary Kay Ash

In 1963, Mary Kay Ash launched her cosmetics business in Dallas with nine independent beauty consultants. Today, 2.5 million women sell her products in thirty-five countries. Read or listen to the episode on Mary Kay Ash.

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Moses Austin

After receiving a land grant from the Spanish government, Moses Austin planned to establish the first American colony in Spanish Texas. However, he died before his colonial dream became a reality. His son, Stephen F. Austin, succeeded him as leader of the Texas colony. Read or listen to the episode on Moses Austin.

• Student Handout (PDF)

Stephen F. Austin

Stephen F. Austin wrote, "I have learned patience in the hard School of an Empresario." That was six years after Austin brought his first settlers to Texas. Colonizing Texas would become his life's work, but, without his patience and years of sacrifice, Texas as we know it today might not exist. Read or listen to the episode on Stephen F. Austin.

• Student Handout (PDF)

Tex Avery

Born in Taylor, Texas, in 1908, Frederick Bean "Tex" Avery helped create the modern art of cartooning. Avery’s characters departed sharply from the romantic realism of Walt Disney’s popular films. They spoke directly to the audience, offered sarcastic asides, and made irreverence an art form. The resulting gags defined Looney Toons, making a star of the character Porky Pig and leading to the 1940 creation of the world’s most famous rabbit: Bugs Bunny. Read or listen to the episode on Tex Avery.

• Student Handout (PDF)

Karle Wilson Baker

Karle Wilson Baker was Texas's most celebrated poet in the first half of the twentieth century. Born in Arkansas in 1878, she moved to Nacogdoches in her early twenties and soon fell under the spell of her adopted state, writing about the role of Texans in the American drama. Her collection of poems Dreamers on Horseback was nominated for the 1931 Pulitzer Prize. Read or listen to the episode on Karle Wilson Baker.

• Student Handout (PDF)

Betty Eve Ballinger

Betty Eve Ballinger was born in Galveston in 1854, nearly twenty years after the Texas Revolution. In 1891, she and her cousin, Hally Bryan Perry, formed a genealogical organization to preserve the memories of those who fought for the republic. The two recruited other women and the organization became known as the Daughters of the Republic of Texas. Read or listen to the episode on Betty Eve Ballinger.

• Student Handout (PDF)

Eugene C. Barker

Eugene C. Barker, in the words of his biographer, "did more than any other historian to show the influence that Texas exerted in shaping the destiny of the United States." As a scholar, Barker furthered the study of Texas and expanded the Texas State Historical Association. In 1925, he published the first biography of Stephen F. Austin. Through this and other works, Barker made narratives of the borderlands central to American history. Read or listen to the episode on Eugene C. Barker.

• Student Handout (PDF)

Etta Moten Barnett

Acclaimed singer and actress Etta Moten Barnett was born in Weimar, Texas, in 1901. By the age of ten, she was singing in the choir of her father’s church. Thirty-three years later, at the invitation of Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt, she became the first African American woman to sing at the White House. She was also deeply involved in civic affairs, women’s issues, and causes such as African independence. Read or listen to the episode on Etta Moten Barnett.

• Student Handout (PDF)

Amelia E. Barr

In 1888, the historical novel Remember the Alamo was published to popular and critical acclaim. Set during the Texas fight for independence, the book includes vivid portraits of Santa Anna, Sam Houston, and Davy Crockett. The novel’s unlikely author was Amelia Barr, a British writer who lived in Texas in the mid-nineteenth century. Read or listen to the episode on Amelia E. Barr.

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Roy Bedichek

According to J. Frank Dobie, the writer and naturalist Roy Bedichek "liked to cook outdoors, eat outdoors, sleep outdoors, look and listen outdoors, [and] be at one . . . with the first bob-whiting at dawn." Born in 1878 and raised in Waco, Bedichek is best known for his 1947 book Adventures with a Texas Naturalist, a classic of American nature writing. Read or listen to the episode on Roy Bedichek.

• Student Handout (PDF)

Plácido Benavides

Plácido Benavides is called the "Paul Revere of Texas" for his role in the Texas Revolution. Born in 1810 in Mexico, Benavides moved to Texas in 1828. By 1835, Benavides had joined the Texians in opposing Mexican dictator Santa Anna. He is best remembered for his ride to Goliad to spread the news of oncoming enemy assault. Read or listen to the episode on Plácido Benavides.

• Student Handout (PDF)

Nettie Lee Benson

Librarian and historian Nettie Lee Benson rose from a bookish South Texas childhood to assemble one of the world’s leading archives for research on Latin America. Now, scholars from around the world visit the library in Austin bearing her name. Read or listen to the episode on Nettie Lee Benson.

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John T. Biggers

John T. Biggers achieved recognition as an artist for his drawings and sculptures, but he is best known for his murals. These murals form a rich part of Houston’s visual and public landscape at Texas Southern University, the University of Houston, Tom Bass Park, and Christina V. Adair Park. Read or listen to the episode on John T. Biggers.

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Annie Webb Blanton

As a public official, suffragist, and educator, Annie Webb Blanton devoted her life to women's rights. She said, "Everything that helps to wear away age-old prejudices contributes towards the advancement of women and of humanity." In 1918, Blanton was elected State Superintendent for Public Instruction, becoming the first woman in Texas to hold a statewide elected office. Read or listen to the episode on Annie Webb Blanton.

• Student Handout (PDF)

Julius Bledsoe

Waco native Julius Bledsoe was among the first African Americans to appear on Broadway. The singer who first performed the song “Ol’ Man River” in the classic musical Show Boat was once described as “a singer who can pick the heart right out your body­­—if you don’t look out." Read or listen to the episode on Julius Bledsoe.

• Student Handout (PDF)

Mody Coggin Boatright

Folklorist and oral history pioneer Mody Boatright was no stranger to the tall tale. Raised in a West Texas ranching family in the early twentieth century, he was descended from pioneers, cattlemen, and merchants. He grew up immersed in stories of the Texas frontier. Read or listen to the episode on Mody Coggin Boatright.

• Student Handout (PDF)

Gail Borden Jr.

Inventor Gail Borden Jr. was undaunted by failure. In the 1840s, he built a wagon meant to travel on land and water but did neither successfully. His nutritional biscuits made from dehydrated meat and flour were unpalatable. Yet Borden kept at it. In the 1850s, he developed a way to condense milk—and this time, succeeded on a grand scale. Borden’s invention soon turned the localized dairy business into a national industry. Read or listen to the episode on Gail Borden Jr.

• Student Handout (PDF)

Chief Bowl

Cherokee leader Chief Bowl, also known as "Bowles" and "Duwali," was born in North Carolina around 1756 to a Scottish father and a Cherokee mother. In the early nineteenth century, Bowl led the first large Cherokee emigration west of the Mississippi River—to Missouri, then Arkansas, and finally to the Mexican province of Texas. There, in a settlement near Nacogdoches, Bowl headed an alliance of Cherokee villages. Read or listen to the episode on Chief Bowl.

• Student Handout (PDF)

Billy Lee Brammer

Though Billy Lee Brammer's novel The Gay Place is a work of fiction, it remains one of the most revealing accounts of Texas politics ever written. Published in 1961 to great acclaim, the novel paints a vivid picture of the compromises, strategy, and horse-trading that we call politics. Brammer based the characters on people and places he knew in 1950s Austin. Read or listen to the episode on Billy Lee Brammer.

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Mary Elizabeth Branch

In 1930, Austin's Tillotson College stood on the brink of collapse. The historically Black school, founded in 1881, had dwindled to just five dilapidated buildings and fewer than seventy students. It took the determination of Mary Elizabeth Branch to save the institution. She led efforts to clean up the grounds and raised funds to build new buildings. She expanded the library, hired new faculty, and gave scholarships to top students. Branch soon became the only African American female president of an institution accredited by the Southern Association of Schools and Colleges. Read or listen to the episode on Mary Elizabeth Branch.

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William Cowper Brann

As arrogant as he was brilliant, William Cowper Brann was among the most famous journalists in America in the late nineteenth century. His thousands of admirers called him a saint. His adversaries—and there were many—called him the Devil’s apostle. But Brann preferred to be known by the name of the weekly journal he published, the Iconoclast. Read or listen to the episode on William Cowper Brann.

• Student Handout (PDF)

J. Mason Brewer

Scholar and folklorist John Mason Brewer was born in Goliad in 1896. Over his fifty-year career, Brewer almost single-handedly preserved the African American folklore of his home state. His books serve as a timeless record of Texas storytelling, and powerful proof of what he called "folklore as a living force." Read or listen to the episode on J. Mason Brewer.

• Student Handout (PDF)

Caro Crawford Brown

In 1955, Caro Crawford Brown received the Pulitzer Prize for local reporting on a deadline, becoming the first female journalist in Texas to win that award. As the Pulitzer committee put it, Brown “dug into the facts behind the dramatic daily events . . . and obtained her stories in spite of the bitterest political opposition.” Read or listen to the episode on Caro Crawford Brown.

• Student Handout (PDF)

Buffalo Hump

Penateka Comanche war chief Po-cha-na-quar-hip—who was better known to history by the name Buffalo Hump—was born on the Edwards Plateau near the end of the eighteenth century. He gained notoriety among white settlers as a formidable warrior and a skilled negotiator. In 1844, he met with Sam Houston, then president of the Republic of Texas. After Texas joined the United States, Buffalo Hump signed a peace treaty with the federal government, thereafter confining most of his raiding to Mexico. Read or listen to the episode on Buffalo Hump.

• Student Handout (PDF)

Henry Allen Bullock

Henry Allen Bullock devoted his life to advancing African American education in Texas—and made history in the process. His history of African American education in the South earned him the Bancroft Prize. He testified for the inclusion of African American history in Texas history textbooks and served on the Texas advisory committee to the U.S. Civil Rights Commission. In 1969, he became the first African American appointed to the faculty of arts and sciences at The University of Texas at Austin. Read or listen to the episode on Henry Allen Bullock.

• Student Handout (PDF)

Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca

Spanish explorer Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca first set foot on land that would become Texas in 1528, when his crude raft ran aground near Galveston Island. Cabeza de Vaca then embarked upon what one scholar described as "the most remarkable [journey] in the record of American exploration." Read or listen to the episode on Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca.

• Student Handout (PDF)

Liz Carpenter

“Give me wide open spaces, a Model T, and a typewriter,” Liz Carpenter once told her mother, “and I’ll see you in the hall of fame.” That confidence carried Carpenter from Salado, Texas, all the way to the White House. She blazed a trail for women in media and helped build a new image of women in politics. Read or listen to the episode on Liz Carpenter.

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Amon G. Carter

People come from around the world to view the American art in Fort Worth's Amon Carter Museum. Carter didn't live to see his grand museum, but he didn't build it for himself. He built it for his fellow citizens, especially those in his beloved city of Fort Worth. Read or listen to the episode on Amon G. Carter.

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Carlos E. Castañeda

Historian Carlos E. Castañeda changed how we think of the Southwest. Raised in Brownsville, Castañeda earned his doctorate from The University of Texas at Austin in 1932, serving there as professor and librarian for the rest of his life. Through exhaustive and groundbreaking research, he told the story of the Texas-Mexico borderlands as one of shared culture and heritage, rather than conflict and division. Read or listen to the episode on Carlos E. Castañeda.

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Jane McManus Storm Cazneau

Writer and promoter Jane Cazneau helped shape Texas and American history in the mid-nineteenth century. Working as a journalist in the 1840s and 50s, she campaigned tirelessly for Texas independence. Her columns in periodicals such as the New York Sun helped sway public opinion in support of Texas statehood—and America's "manifest destiny" more generally. Read or listen to the episode on Jane McManus Storm Cazneau.

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John Saunders Chase Jr.

In 1950, John Saunders Chase became the first African American to enroll in The University of Texas’s master’s program in architecture. He soon became the first licensed African American architect in Texas. In a distinguished career spanning more than five decades, Chase designed buildings throughout southeast and central Texas, including many Black churches, homes, and businesses. As Chase gained success, he took on larger public projects that included multiple buildings on the Texas Southern University campus and, in collaboration with other architects, Houston’s George R. Brown Convention Center and the 1988 Astrodome renovation. Read or listen to the episode on John Saunders Chase Jr.

• Student Handout (PDF)

Sarah Horton Cockrell

Sarah Horton Cockrell played a pivotal role in Dallas's early economic development. In 1872, she raised funds to open the first iron bridge over the Trinity River, thereby connecting Dallas to major roads south and west. By the time of her death in 1892, she owned almost a fourth of the city's downtown. She is now remembered as "Dallas's first capitalist." Read or listen to the episode on Sarah Horton Cockrell.

• Student Handout (PDF)

Henry Cohen

Rabbi Henry Cohen once said, “Other men play golf for recreation. My hobby is helping people.” Cohen is perhaps best known for his role in the Galveston Movement, which brought Jewish immigrants into the Port of Galveston to settle throughout Texas and the Midwest. Cohen met immigrants at the dock and provided advice and assistance, sometimes purchasing clothing and supplies for them with his own money. Read or listen to the episode on Henry Cohen.

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Bessie Coleman

Born to a sharecropping family in northeast Texas in 1892, Bessie Coleman became the world's first female African American aviator. Her daredevil feats in air shows captivated crowds and earned her the nickname "Brave Bessie." An advocate for equal rights, Coleman encouraged young African Americans to fly, and she refused to participate in air shows that disallowed Black attendance. Read or listen to the episode on Bessie Coleman.

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Francisco Vázquez de Coronado

Francisco Vázquez de Coronado led the first Spanish expedition into the Great Plains. He and his companions were the first Europeans to see massive herds of American bison, Palo Duro Canyon, and the land that is now the Texas Panhandle. As one historian put it, his expedition was "one of the most remarkable … recorded in the annals of American history." Read or listen to the episode on Francisco Vázquez de Coronado.

• Student Handout (PDF)

Juanita Craft

Civil rights activist Juanita Craft dedicated her life to fighting against racial discrimination. In the 1930s, she joined the Dallas chapter of the NAACP and ultimately traversed the state, helping to organize and revive local chapters. Craft also became a mentor to Dallas’s Black youth. She led them in anti-segregation protests at restaurants, stores, and the State Fair, always preaching the importance of communication and respect for others. Read or listen to the episode on Juanita Craft.

• Student Handout (PDF)

Walter Cronkite

Newscaster Walter Cronkite—once known as "the most trusted man in America"—launched his career in Texas. Cronkite earned national recognition during World War II, covering the fighting in Europe for the United Press. After the war, he moved to television, ultimately becoming the anchorman for the CBS Evening News in 1962. Cronkite retired in 1981 but remained a vocal advocate of journalism’s role in preserving democracy. Read or listen to the episode on Walter Cronkite.

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Norris Wright Cuney

African American leader Norris Wright Cuney forged a remarkable career in post-Civil War Texas. Born into slavery in 1846, he nonetheless studied law and became a civic and political force in the years following Reconstruction. Read or listen to the episode on Norris Wright Cuney.

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Minnie Fisher Cunningham

Working as a pharmacist in Huntsville in 1901, young Minnie Fisher Cunningham discovered that her untrained male colleagues made twice her salary. That unfairness, she later explained, "made a suffragette out of me." But for Cunningham, the right to vote was only a first step. She went on to help found the National League of Women Voters, and in 1928, was the first Texas woman to run for the United States Senate. Read or listen to the episode on Minnie Fisher Cunningham.

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Edmund J. Davis

Governor Edmund Davis played a critical role in reconstructing Texas after the Civil War. He championed the constitutional rights of formerly enslaved Texans, established the state’s Republican Party, and instituted a centralized system of public education. Read or listen to the episode on Edmund J. Davis.

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Mollie Evelyn Moore Davis

Born in 1844, Mollie Evelyn Moore Davis was one of the most important Texas writers of the nineteenth century. Her short fiction appeared in such magazines as Harper's and The Atlantic. She also wrote children's stories, plays, and novels. Read or listen to the episode on Mollie Evelyn Moore Davis.

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Martín De León

Empresario Martín De León founded the city of Victoria and played a key role in settling the Texas Coastal Bend. Read or listen to the episode on Martín De León.

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Dominique and John de Menil

Houston is the home of world-class art. That's due in part to the generosity of Dominique and John de Menil, a French couple who left their Nazi-occupied homeland in 1941, ultimately settling in Houston. Their museum there, the Menil Collection, is celebrated for its modern and contemporary masterpieces and holds one of the world’s foremost collections of Surrealist art. Read or listen to the episode on Dominique and John de Menil.

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Adina De Zavala

Adina De Zavala once described herself as a "student and jealous lover of Texas history.” A charter member of the Texas State Historical Association and a leader in the Daughters of the Republic of Texas, she barricaded herself in the Alamo for three days in 1908 to protest plans for its destruction. Read or listen to the episode on Adina De Zavala.

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Green and Sarah DeWitt

Among the most important Anglo settlements in Spanish Texas was DeWitt's Colony, founded in 1825 by Green DeWitt and James Kerr along the Guadalupe River. DeWitt and his wife Sarah moved their family to the colony in 1826. Several years later, Sarah became responsible for one of the enduring symbols of the Texas Revolution. Read or listen to the episode on Green and Sarah DeWitt.

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Susanna Dickinson

On a cold March dawn in 1836, Mexican officers escorted a shaken young woman and her infant daughter past the heaps of dead in the Alamo courtyard to Mexican General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna. The woman, Susanna Dickinson, was the wife of Alamo defender Almaron Dickinson. She and her baby were hiding in the Alamo's chapel when Mexican troops bayoneted her husband and took the mission. After the Alamo fell on March 6, 1836, Santa Anna sent Susanna and her daughter to Gonzales to warn Texians about the strength of the Mexican army, prompting the Runaway Scrape as settlers fled eastward ahead of Santa Anna's advancing troops. Read or listen to the episode on Susanna Dickinson.

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James Frank Dobie

Called the "Storyteller of the Southwest," James Frank Dobie was born in 1888 on a ranch in Live Oak County. Throughout his life, he lived astride two worlds: the old-time Texas of his family's cattle ranch and the state's modern centers of scholarly learning. The focus of Dobie's career was to record and publicize the disappearing folklore of the Southwest. Dobie became secretary of the Texas Folklore Society, a position he held for twenty-one years. Read or listen to the episode on James Frank Dobie.

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Clara Driscoll

Clara Driscoll collaborated with the San Antonio chapter of the Daughters of the Republic of Texas under the leadership of Adina de Zavala to protect the Alamo from hotel developers. For her generosity, Driscoll is known as the “Savior of the Alamo.” Read or listen to the episode on Clara Driscoll.

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William J. Durham

William J. Durham was born to a family of sharecroppers near Sulphur Springs in 1896. When his father took young Willie to see a trial at the local courthouse, an attorney so impressed the boy that he decided he would someday be a lawyer. He ultimately became Texas’s leading civil rights attorney for more than three decades, working on a number of cases with Thurgood Marshall. Read or listen to the episode on William J. Durham.

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José de Escandón

José de Escandón was one of the most renowned colonizers in Spanish North America. In the mid-eighteenth century, he pioneered the colony of Nuevo Santander, which reached from Corpus Christi Bay to Tampico, Mexico, nearly five hundred miles to the south. Read or listen to the episode on José de Escandón.

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James Fannin

When the Texas Revolution erupted in 1835, James Fannin's ambition put him at the center of the action, leading the largest contingent of Texas rebels in the Mexican Army's path. Mexican forces overtook him at in Goliad, ultimately executing Fannin and more than three hundred of his men. His defeat inspired the victory that secured Texas independence. Read or listen to the episode on James Fannin.

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James L. Farmer Jr.

Civil rights leader James Farmer was born in Marshall, Texas, in 1920. He spent his childhood in Austin but returned to Marshall to attend Wiley College, where he joined the team of "great debaters" coached by legendary teacher Melvin Tolson. Though Farmer had intended to become a Methodist minister, Tolson’s influence—and segregation within the church—led him to activism. Read or listen to the episode on James L. Farmer Jr.

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Edna Ferber

In the 1920s and ‘30s, Edna Ferber was one of the most widely read writers in America. She won the Pulitzer Prize for her 1924 novel So Big. Another of her novels, Show Boat, became a popular musical and a hit film. But perhaps no other work of Ferber’s is remembered as well—at least in Texas—as Giant. Read or listen to the episode on Edna Ferber.

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Miriam “Ma” Ferguson

Miriam Amanda Wallace wasn’t considering a career in politics when she enrolled at Baylor Female College in the 1890s. In 1899, she married James Ferguson and planned to settle down and raise a family. However, Miriam would make history, becoming the first woman governor of Texas. Read or listen to the episode on Miriam “Ma” Ferguson.

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Horton Foote

The quiet cotton farming community of Wharton, Texas, is the touchstone for the career of playwright and screenwriter Horton Foote. Foote went on to win Academy Awards for his adaptation of To Kill a Mockingbird and for his original screenplay for the film Tender Mercies. In 1995, Foote received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Read or listen to the episode on Horton Foote.

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O’Neil Ford

A champion of historic preservation, architect O'Neil Ford decried architectural flamboyance and cliché. During his long career, Ford and his associates designed many notable homes, public buildings, and businesses in Texas and elsewhere. These include the Little Chapel in the Woods at Texas Women’s University in Denton, the Tower of the Americas and Trinity University in San Antonio, and several buildings on the Texas Instruments campus in Richardson. Read or listen to the episode on O’Neil Ford.

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Thomas Freeman

Debate coach Thomas Freeman’s motto was "what we do, we do well; what we don’t do well, we don’t do at all." Freeman mentored well, nurturing generations of Texas Southern University students and some of America’s most notable leaders. In 1956, Freeman’s debate team defeated Harvard in competition, bringing Texas Southern national acclaim. Among Freeman’s debaters was future congresswoman Barbara Jordan, whose measured, authoritative style owed much to Freeman. Read or listen to the episode on Thomas Freeman.

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Matthew Gaines

As one of Texas’s first Black legislators, Matthew Gaines fought to secure constitutional rights and establish a system of public education for free Black Texans during Reconstruction. He was an advocate of free, integrated public education and pushed the legislature to accept the federal land grant that made possible the creation of Texas A&M University. Read or listen to the episode on Matthew Gaines.

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Bernardo de Gálvez

Galveston takes its name from the Spanish official Bernardo de Gálvez. Gálvez never set foot on the island, but his actions along the Gulf Coast shaped the history of not only Texas but the entire United States. Read or listen to the episode on Bernardo de Gálvez.

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Héctor P. García

Physician and pioneering activist Héctor P. García was once described as "a man who in the space of one week delivers twenty babies, twenty speeches, and twenty thousand votes." A proud member of the Greatest Generation, García sought the inclusion of Mexican Americans into mainstream America. In 1984, García became  the first Mexican American ever to receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian award. Read or listen to the episode on Héctor P. García.

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John Nance Garner

In 1932, when John Nance Garner became the nation's thirty-second vice president, Texans were just beginning to exert influence and leadership at the national level. Garner, however, was hardly a newcomer. The Uvalde native had served fifteen consecutive terms in the U.S. House of Representatives and was Speaker of the House when Franklin D. Roosevelt chose him as his running mate. Read or listen to the episode on John Nance Garner.

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Henry B. González

Born in 1916, Henry B. González was the first Mexican American to represent Texas in Congress. An expert on the nation's banking system, he oversaw the 1989 savings and loan bailout in the aftermath of the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. González was reelected eighteen times and became the longest-serving Hispanic member of Congress. Read or listen to the episode on Henry B. González.

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Jovita González

Born in 1904 on her grandparents' ranch in Roma, Texas, pioneering folklorist and educator Jovita González felt a deep commitment to the people and culture of South Texas. She traveled throughout Cameron, Starr, and Zapata counties, interviewing residents of the borderlands. González captured the voices of ordinary Mexican Americans seeking to preserve their cultural traditions during a period of tumultuous change. Read or listen to the episode on Jovita González.

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Charles Goodnight

A legendary rancher and trailblazer, Charles Goodnight became known as the "father of the Texas Panhandle." In the 1860s, Goodnight and partner Oliver Loving established the Goodnight-Loving cattle trail, which curled northwest from Texas into New Mexico and Colorado. The following decade, Goodnight and partner John Adair built the JA Ranch—the first ranch in the Panhandle. Read or listen to the episode on Charles Goodnight.

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John Graves

Writer John Graves was born in Fort Worth in 1920 and grew up hunting and fishing on the Trinity River. In 1957, Graves was still relatively unknown as a writer when he took a three-week canoe trip down the Brazos River, whose waters were threatened by a plan to construct flood-control dams along its length. Graves chronicled his journey in the book Goodbye to a River, which gracefully commingles history, nature, folklore, and philosophic reflection. Read or listen to the episode on John Graves.

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John Howard Griffin

In 1961, author John Howard Griffin published an account of a six-week journey through the American South. He called the book an “obscure work,” likely to interest only sociologists. But the book—Black Like Me—became a modern classic. Read or listen to the episode on John Howard Griffin.

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Laura Vernon Hamner

Known as "Miss Amarillo," Laura V. Hamner devoted much of her life to recording and sharing the history of the Texas Panhandle. She became known for "prowling" the region, interviewing ranchers, cowboys, and pioneers—and once boldly facing gunfire to meet with a former outlaw. Hamner’s books are now regarded as invaluable sources of Texas ranching history. Read or listen to the episode on Laura Vernon Hamner.

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Sarah Ann Lillie Hardinge

Born in New England in 1824, Sarah Ann Hardinge was an unlikely chronicler of Texas history. A woman with no formal art education, she nonetheless produced an important visual record of the state in the 1850s. Read or listen to the episode on Sarah Ann Lillie Hardinge.

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Rosa María Hinojosa de Ballí

In 1790, the woman now known as the first "cattle queen" of Texas—Rosa María Hinojosa de Ballí—inherited fifty-five thousand acres in what is now South Texas. Doña Rosa possessed a strong will, exceptional foresight, and shrewd business skills. When she died, in 1803, she had amassed more than a million acres of ranch land in the lower Rio Grande Valley. Read or listen to the episode on Rosa María Hinojosa de Ballí.

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Oveta Culp Hobby

As a girl, Oveta Culp Hobby was fascinated by the world of government. As a woman, she took a leading role in that world. Her truly inspiring record of civic service includes organizing the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps during World War II and serving as the first head of the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare. Read or listen to the episode on Oveta Culp Hobby.

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Ima Hogg

Known as the "First Lady of Texas," Ima Hogg was born in Mineola in 1882, the only daughter of Texas governor "Big Jim" Hogg. Miss Ima's philanthropic work reflects the breadth of her interests, but perhaps her most tangible legacy is found in the historic buildings she bequeathed to the state, each of them furnished with authentic American furniture. Read or listen to the episode on Ima Hogg.

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James Stephen Hogg

In 1890, James Stephen Hogg became the state's first native-born governor. Six-foot-two and nearly three hundred pounds, "Big Jim," as he was known, vigorously fought for the interests of the common citizen. At the forefront of the Progressive reform movement in Texas, Hogg opposed abuses by insurance companies, railroad monopolies, and land corporations. Read or listen to the episode on James Stephen Hogg.

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Mary Austin Holley

Writer Mary Austin Holley introduced English-speaking readers of the 1830s and '40s to Texas, which she called a land of "surpassing beauty . . . a splendid country." Sadly, she died of yellow fever in 1846 and never settled in the place that had captured her heart, but her work provides invaluable accounts of life in early Texas. Read or listen to the episode on Mary Austin Holley.

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Dorothy Hood

The abstract paintings of Dorothy Hood are now recognized as masterpieces of twentieth-century American art. Their energy, scale, and ambition also reflect the spirit of Texas—Hood’s birthplace and home during the most productive period of her career. After spending years in Mexico developing her distinctive style, she returned to Houston in the early sixties and produced some of her most spectacular work. Read or listen to the episode on Dorothy Hood.

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Lillian Horace

Fort Worth’s Lillian Horace was a prominent educator in her day. It is only now that we recognize her as Texas’s first Black woman novelist. Her first novel, 1916’s Five Generations Hence, was a utopian account of Black Americans escaping the Jim Crow South through migration to Africa. The book was ahead of its time, predicting both Marcus Garvey’s popular emigration movement and the Afrofuturism of Black science fiction. Read or listen to the episode on Lillian Horace.

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Sam Houston

Former congressman and governor of Tennessee Sam Houston arrived in Texas in 1832. A champion of Texas independence, he led the army that defeated Mexican General Santa Anna at San Jacinto—an achievement that secured his place in Texas history and helped him become the first president of the Republic of Texas. Sam Houston’s next challenge was convincing Texans to join the United States. It took almost a decade, but annexation occurred in 1845. Read or listen to the episode on Sam Houston.

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Sarah T. Hughes

Lawyer and federal judge Sarah Tilghman Hughes is best known for administering the oath of office to Lyndon Johnson aboard Air Force One after John F. Kennedy's assassination. Over the course of her remarkable career, she championed equal rights and encouraged women to get involved in politics, illustrating her lifelong belief that "women can indeed be a force in history." Read or listen to the episode on Sarah T. Hughes.

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Jovita Idár

Born in Laredo in 1885, journalist and activist Jovita Idár abandoned a teaching career to write for her father's weekly newspaper, La Crónica. Idár denounced the dismal social, educational, and economic conditions of Texas Mexicans. As an educated Tejana, she felt duty-bound to promote civil rights—including women's rights—and education. "Educate a woman," Idár often said, "and you educate a family." Read or listen to the episode on Jovita Idár.

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Luis Jiménez

Luis Jiménez’s monumental sculptures changed the course of American art in the second half of the twentieth century. His brightly hued figures of mustangs, Aztec warriors, and working-class immigrants challenged not only artistic fashion but also popular notions of the Southwest and its history. Read or listen to the episode on Luis Jiménez.

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Arthur John “Jack” Johnson

Jack Johnson was born in Galveston in 1878. He went on to become the greatest boxer in the world and one of America's most famous celebrities. Johnson won the World Colored Heavyweight Championship in 1903 but could not claim the overall title because white fighters refused to face him in the ring. That changed in 1908 when Johnson beat Tommy Burns to become the first African American World Heavyweight Champion. Read or listen to the episode on Arthur John “Jack” Johnson.

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Jesse H. Jones

During the Great Depression and World War II, one of the most powerful men in the United States was a tall, silver-haired Texan named Jesse Holman Jones. Born in 1874, Jones made his fortune in real estate and banking. He helped get the Houston Ship Channel built and brought the 1928 Democratic National Convention to the city. Jones later served as FDR's secretary of commerce and was granted discretionary powers so broad that many called him "the fourth branch of government." Read or listen to the episode on Jesse H. Jones.

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Margo Jones

Texan Margo Jones revolutionized American theater. At a time when few professional drama companies existed outside New York, Jones fought for regional productions and new voices. Her enthusiasm earned her the nickname the “Texas Tornado” and led Tennessee Williams to describe her as a combination of Joan of Arc, Gene Autry, and nitroglycerine. Read or listen to the episode on Margo Jones.

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Scott Joplin

In the early 1880s, a young African American boy in Texarkana named Scott Joplin was trained in the fundamentals of classical music and opera by his German-born teacher. By his early twenties, he left home to become an itinerant musician. While living in St. Louis, Joplin encountered a kind of music that juxtaposed a steady, bouncing bass with a syncopated treble: "ragged time," or "ragtime." The music was played in saloons and brothels, and in Joplin's hands, it became high art. Read or listen to the episode on Scott Joplin.

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Barbara Jordan

In 1966, Barbara Jordan began her historic political career when she became the first African American woman elected to the Texas Senate. Six years later, she won election to the U.S. House of Representatives, becoming the first African American woman from a southern state to serve in the body. Jordan mastered the art of political compromise, but never wavered in her commitment to the Constitution. Read or listen to the episode on Barbara Jordan.

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Donald Clarence Judd

Born in 1928, the artist Donald Judd was nurtured in the cultural hotbed of New York City. But the austere, high desert of West Texas became his artistic home. On a road trip in the early seventies, Judd passed through Marfa and was captivated by the area's broad spaces and shifting sunlight. He soon settled there and bought local properties and ranchland, including a decommissioned Army base. Judd developed the site as the Chinati Foundation, a showcase for his own artworks and those of others. Read or listen to the episode on Donald Clarence Judd.

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Enid Justin

When ninety-six-year-old Enid Justin died in 1990, she had been making boots in tiny Nocona, Texas, for over eighty years. As a female entrepreneur in small-town Texas in the 1920s, Miss Enid was a trailblazer. She served as her company's founder, president, and chief saleswoman. Over the next fifty-six years, she built Nocona Boots into one of the top five boot companies in America. Read or listen to the episode on Enid Justin.

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Elmer Kelton

Author of more than forty Westerns, the writer Elmer Kelton depicted the South Texas Plains with both romance and realism. These were qualities that Kelton knew well, having spent his entire life in the region. In 1995, Kelton was voted the “greatest western writer of all time” by the Western Writers of America. His 1973 novel The Time It Never Rained is now remembered as his finest work and a lasting contribution to Texas literary history. Read or listen to the episode on Elmer Kelton.

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Henrietta Chamberlain King

Henrietta Chamberlain King helped build one of the nation’s largest ranches and established institutions now central to life in South Texas. When she and her husband settled on land southwest of Corpus Christi, King proved equal to the challenges of running a ranch. Following her husband's death in 1885, Henrietta assumed ownership of the King Ranch, now a half-million-acre spread. Over the next four decades, King donated land for the towns of Kingsville and Raymondville. Read or listen to the episode on Henrietta Chamberlain King.

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Larry L. King

Journalist, playwright, and raconteur Larry L. King spent most of his life in Washington, DC, but the vivid language and distinctive characters of his home state of Texas never ceased to inspire him. During his career, he published fourteen books and seven plays, as well as articles for magazines such as Texas Monthly and Harper's. Texas, he once said, "provided me with the stuff of a career," and his work endures as a vibrant chronicle of the state's politics, culture, and personalities. Read or listen to the episode on Larry L. King.

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René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle

The efforts of French explorer René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, shaped North American history—opening the Mississippi Basin for European interests, providing France with a claim to Texas, and spurring the Spanish to establish their own claim to the Gulf region. In 1682, La Salle descended the lower Mississippi by canoe, claiming all the lands in the river’s watershed for France. He named the region Louisiana for his king. Read or listen to the episode on René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle.

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Mirabeau B. Lamar

Poet, politician, and historian, Mirabeau B. Lamar is claimed by Texas, although he was a Georgia native and lived there for three decades. In 1838, Lamar became the second President of the Republic of Texas, inheriting a nation beset by problems that included a bankrupt treasury. Undaunted, Lamar promoted his vision of Texas as a prosperous, sprawling empire. Read or listen to the episode on Mirabeau B. Lamar.

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Tom Lea

El Paso native Tom Lea is most remembered for his paintings inspired by West Texas subjects—the diverse cultures, the austere desert mountains, and what he once described as “the wonderful, ever-changing light on the structure of the world.” Lea studied at the Art Institute of Chicago and during World War II, he traveled with the 1st Marine Division as a reporter for Life magazine. He also illustrated books for friends, including fellow Texan J. Frank Dobie. In Lea’s paintings, viewers see the light, space, and stillness of his beloved Franklin Mountains, as well as the energy, motion, and even violence of life. Read or listen to the episode on Tom Lea.

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Russell Lee

One of the most acclaimed American photographers of the twentieth century, Russell Lee developed his distinctive style while documenting the effects of the Great Depression on rural communities for the Farm Security Administration. Lee's iconic images of ordinary Americans in extraordinary circumstances helped inspire the form now known as documentary photography. Read or listen to the episode on Russell Lee.

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Mickey Leland

Raised in Houston, Mickey Leland was committed to providing jobs for historically underrepresented groups and health care for the poor. After winning Barbara Jordan's seat in the U.S. Congress in 1978, he fought tirelessly to end global starvation, helping to create the House Select Committee on World Hunger. Read or listen to the episode on Mickey Leland.

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Alan Lomax

Alan Lomax believed every culture has a “right . . . to equal time on the air and equal time in the classroom.” As director of the Library of Congress Archive of American Folk Song and as a radio and television host, Lomax introduced folksong to popular audiences and promoted it among students and scholars. Read or listen to the episode on Alan Lomax.

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John Avery Lomax

Born in 1867, folklorist John Lomax spent his life collecting songs "around chuck wagons, up hollers and down in river bottoms, on levee and railroad, in the saloons, churches, and penitentiaries of the South and Southwest." Although early scholars generally viewed folk music as an unchanging tradition, Lomax demonstrated its creative process. He highlighted how centuries-old songs became new American stories as singers added extra verses, different melodies, and new plot twists. Read or listen to the episode on John Avery Lomax.

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Antonio Margil de Jesús

Born in Valencia, Spain, in 1657, Margil joined the Franciscan order as a teenager and in 1683 ventured to Mexico to spread the Catholic faith among the New World’s native peoples. Eventually he made his way to Texas, where he founded multiple mission settlements including Mission San José, called the "Queen" of the missions and the best-preserved Texas mission complex today. Read or listen to the episode on Antonio Margil de Jesús.

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Damián Massanet

In 1683, Franciscan priest Damián Massanet left Barcelona to serve as a missionary in the New World. Massanet spent several years building missions in Mexico. Then, in 1690, he accompanied General Alonso De León, governor of the state of Coahuila, to establish a Spanish presence in Texas. Massanet's Tejas mission lasted for only three years, but it marked the first step in Spain's efforts to bring the lands of Texas under the Spanish flag. Read or listen to the episode on Damián Massanet.

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Mary Ann Adams Maverick

Mary Maverick's diaries paint a vivid picture of life on the Texas frontier. Living in San Antonio, she witnessed the bloody Council House Fight of 1840, a turning point in relations between Texians and the Comanche. She wrote about notable figures of Texas history, including Jack Hays, Juan Seguín, and Mirabeau Lamar. Mary also faced the challenges of raising a family alone while her husband was away. Three years before her death in 1898, she compiled and edited her memoirs with the aid of her son, leaving us with a remarkable account of life in early Texas. Read or listen to the episode on Mary Ann Adams Maverick.

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Jane Y. McCallum

Over the course of her life, Jane Y. McCallum compiled a remarkable record of public service. She was a leader in Texas women's fight for suffrage. She helped the Texas League of Women Voters fight for education, health care, and child labor laws. She served as executive secretary of the Women's Joint Legislative Council. She also served as Texas Secretary of State under two different governors. Read or listen to the episode on Jane Y. McCallum.

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Larry McMurtry

Author Larry McMurtry’s unsentimental writing subverted the mythology of the American West. In 1961, his first novel, Horseman, Pass By, earned critical acclaim for its unsparing depiction of life on a Texas cattle ranch, but it was Lonesome Dove that cemented McMurtry's reputation as chronicler of an unromanticized West. McMurtry’s books depicted small-town drama, larger-than-life characters, and landscapes that seemed to swallow readers whole, immersing them in the myth and reality of Texas.   Read or listen to the episode on Larry McMurtry.

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Marion Koogler McNay

Once described as the "Gertrude Stein of San Antonio," Marion Koogler McNay created the first museum of modern art in Texas. Over the course of her life, she collected European and American art, and especially loved the art of the American Southwest. McNay bequeathed her expansive residence, acreage, and more than seven hundred works of art to San Antonio in 1950. Today, the McNay Art Museum is one of the state's cultural treasures, boasting a remarkable collection including works by Pablo Picasso, Marc Chagall, Georgia O'Keefe, and other European and American masters. Read or listen to the episode on Marion Koogler McNay.

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Lydia Mendoza

San Antonio musician Lydia Mendoza was a pioneer of Música Tejana, a rich hybrid of conjunto, rancheras, and other styles that captured the passions and heartaches of border life. Nicknamed the "Lark of the Border," she recorded hundreds of songs and opened doors for other Texan singers. Mendoza was inducted into the Tejano Music Hall of Fame and awarded the National Medal of the Arts. Read or listen to the episode on Lydia Mendoza.

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Alice Dickerson Montemayor

Laredo native Alice Dickerson Montemayor was a feminist, activist, wife, mother, and artist. In 1936, she joined the League of United Latin American Citizens, eventually serving as second national vice president general. Writing in the organization’s newsletter, she condemned sexism, even within LULAC, and encouraged women to vote and work outside the home. Read or listen to the episode on Alice Dickerson Montemayor.

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Willie Morris

Writer and editor Willie Morris was born in Mississippi and made his name in New York, but he left an indelible mark on Texas journalism. As a student at The University of Texas, he served as editor-in-chief of the Daily Texan and later became editor of the Texas Observer, a journal known for its commitment to progressive causes. Morris's masterful memoir North Toward Home, published in 1967, recalls his time in Texas and paints a compelling picture of the state during the Eisenhower and Kennedy years. Read or listen to the episode on Willie Morris.

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Audie Murphy

Audie Murphy was one of the most decorated American combat soldiers of World War II, earning a Medal of Honor for single-handedly fighting off six Panzer tanks and 250 German infantry for over an hour. Returning home a national hero, he was convinced by film legend James Cagney to take up acting and became one of the most popular movie stars of the 1950s. Murphy also wrote a best-selling memoir about his wartime experiences and played himself in the movie adaptation. Read or listen to the episode on Audie Murphy.

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José Antonio Navarro

Tejano leader José Antonio Navarro lived under five the six flags of Texas. Born in 1795 to a prominent family in San Antonio, Navarro grew up along with his city. In the 1820s, he championed Stephen F. Austin's colonization efforts. When trouble arose between the Texans and Mexico's government, Navarro was one of two Tejanos to sign the Texas Declaration of Independence in 1836. Read or listen to the episode on José Antonio Navarro.

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Elisabet Ney

In the south foyer of the Texas State Capitol stand two life-sized statues: one of Sam Houston, the other of Stephen F. Austin, their marble likenesses shaped by the hands of Elisabet Ney. Born in Prussia, New achieved fame as an artist in Europe before settling with her husband in Hempstead, Texas. In the early 1890s, Elisabet Ney, almost sixty years old, received the commission for the now-famous Capitol statues. After her death, her friends founded the Texas Fine Arts Association in her memory—the first organization dedicated to promoting art throughout the state. Read or listen to the episode on Elisabet Ney.

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Josefina Niggli

Born in 1910 to Anglo parents in Monterrey, Mexico, Josefina Niggli wrote plays, poems, and short stories that often highlighted tensions within Mexican society and between the cultures of Mexico and the United States. At a time when American media often stereotyped Mexicans as villains and louts, Niggli provided an authentic and nuanced view of life across the border. Her bicultural perspective is now recognized as a critical precursor to the Mexican American writers who followed her. Read or listen to the episode on Josefina Niggli.

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Chester William Nimitz

Born in Fredericksburg in 1885, Chester Nimitz graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1905 and then served in several command and staff positions, including the new Atlantic submarine fleet. In the aftermath of Pearl Harbor, Navy Secretary Frank Knox turned to Nimitz to restore confidence in the Pacific Fleet. Admiral Nimitz rolled across the Pacific, hopping from island to island, including Guadalcanal, Iwo Jima, and Okinawa. Once bombing attacks began on the Japanese homeland in 1945, a U.S. victory was inevitable. Read or listen to the episode on Chester William Nimitz.

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Frederick Law Olmsted

Connecticut-born Frederick Law Olmsted is best known for his design of New York's Central Park. But his book A Journey through Texas remains one of the most thorough and engaging nineteenth-century travel accounts of the Lone Star State. With his brother, Olmsted traveled two thousand miles on horseback through the East Texas swamps, the coastal plains, and cities such as Austin and Houston. He recorded local slang, the prices of various commodities, and what he called the "bewildering beauty" of the landscape. Read or listen to the episode on Frederick Law Olmsted.

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Américo Paredes

Scholar and writer Américo Paredes was born in Brownsville in 1915. Even as a youth, he saw that a distinct culture had emerged in the Rio Grande Valley—not just Mexican or American, but a blend of the two. Paredes made the border the focus of his career. He studied and celebrated the distinctive stories and humor of the lower Rio Grande, at the same time fighting to correct prejudice against Mexicans and Mexican Americans. Read or listen to the episode on Américo Paredes.

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Cynthia Ann Parker

Cynthia Ann Parker is the most famous Indian captive in American history. Captured when she was six years old, Parker spent twenty-four years with the Comanche, eventually marrying the warrior Peta Nocona, with whom she had two sons and a daughter. In 1860, Texas Rangers and federal soldiers abducted Parker in an attack on a Comanche encampment in north Texas. Sadly, she struggled to readjust. A number of times she tried to escape and return to the Comanche and her children, including her son Quanah—who became the most important Comanche leader of his day. Read or listen to the episode on Cynthia Ann Parker.

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Quanah Parker

Born about 1845, Comanche leader Quanah Parker lived two vastly different lives: the first as a warrior among the Plains Indians of Texas, and the second as a pragmatic leader who sought a place for his people in a rapidly changing America. In 1860, after Parker's father was killed by Texas Rangers, young Quanah moved west, where he joined the Quahada Comanche. Parker proved an able leader, fighting with the Quahada against the spread of white settlement. Read or listen to the episode on Quanah Parker.

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Alonso S. Perales

A South Texas lawyer with a keen sense of justice, Alonso Perales created one of the nation’s largest and most enduring Mexican American civil rights organizations. In 1929 in Corpus Christi, Perales and his colleagues founded the League of United Latin American Citizens, or LULAC, an influential civil rights organization. He also served as a diplomat in Latin America and the West Indies, most notably as U.S. consul to Nicaragua from 1937 to 1960. Read or listen to the episode on Alonso S. Perales.

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Selena Quintanilla Pérez

Selena Quintanilla Pérez is one of the most recognizable Texans in modern history. The Grammy-winning singer’s cumbia rhythms and magnetic stage presence brought Tejano music to unprecedented levels of success. Read or listen to the episode on Selena Quintanilla Pérez.

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George Sessions Perry

Author George Sessions Perry captured Texas cotton culture like no other writer. Born in 1910 in Rockdale, Texas, he spent much of his career rendering a fictional version of his beloved hometown. Perry’s most acclaimed work was 1941’s Hold Autumn in Your Hand, a vivid depiction of Depression-era cotton farming. The novel recounts a year in the life of a Milam County tenant farmer and reflects Perry’s appreciation for rural life, as well as his criticism of the exploitative conditions of sharecropping. Read or listen to the episode on George Sessions Perry.

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Katherine Anne Porter

Critics call Texas-born writer Katherine Anne Porter a "poet of the story." As an adult, she lived for several years in Mexico, and later at points throughout the U.S. and Europe. But her most accomplished stories spring from her childhood in central Texas—what she once called her "native land of the heart." Her carefully crafted short fiction earned her the highest acclaim, including the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award. Read or listen to the episode on Katherine Anne Porter.

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William Sydney Porter (O. Henry)

William Sydney Porter—better known by his pen name, O. Henry—was born in North Carolina and died in New York. But his sixteen years in Texas, from 1882 to 1898, made a lasting mark on his life and work. Later in life, when he began writing fiction under an assumed name, it was his early stories about Texas that helped launch his career. Porter portrays the Lone Star state as a vast place with its own laws, describing in rich detail the ranches, prairies, and settlements of South and Central Texas. Read or listen to the episode on William Sydney Porter.

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Irma Rangel

Irma Rangel was the first Mexican American woman elected to the Texas House of Representatives. Convinced that Mexican American women needed greater representation in government, she ran for a seat in the Texas House in 1976 serving a region in deep South Texas. She won that election and held the office for the rest of her life. In 1993, she became the first woman to lead the Mexican American Legislative Caucus. Read or listen to the episode on Irma Rangel.

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Harry Huntt Ransom

Born in Galveston in 1908, Harry Huntt Ransom came to The University of Texas at Austin in 1935 as an English instructor, later serving as dean, provost, president, and chancellor. Ransom founded the Humanities Research Center in 1957, renamed the Harry Ransom Center after his death in 1976. Today, the Ransom Center is one of the world's finest collections of twentieth-century writing, with materials from such luminaries as James Joyce, Samuel Beckett, and George Bernard Shaw. Read or listen to the episode on Harry Huntt Ransom.

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Robert Rauschenberg

Port Arthur native Robert Rauschenberg was in his twenties before he saw paintings in a museum. Within two decades, he would become one of the most influential artists of the twentieth century. Curious, open-minded, and unafraid of failure, Rauschenberg experimented with diverse materials, scavenging found objects to create multilayered assemblages he called Combines. Rauschenberg was also a pioneer in printmaking, photography, choreography, and set design. Read or listen to the episode on Robert Rauschenberg.

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Sam Rayburn

As a young man, Sam Rayburn audaciously declared that he would study law, enter politics, and one day serve in the United States Congress. He went on to spend forty-nine years in the U.S. House of Representatives, including a record seventeen years as House Speaker. A master of the political process, Rayburn was widely respected for his integrity and fairness. He also served as a mentor to many congressmen, including Lyndon Johnson. Read or listen to the episode on Sam Rayburn.

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Frank Reaugh

A master of color, shading, and detail, Texas painter Frank Reaugh recorded what he called "the broad opalescent prairies" as he saw them more than a century ago. His most famous works feature the Texas longhorn in its natural habitat, the Texas plains. Known as the "dean of Texas artists," Reaugh was also a popular art instructor. He founded the Dallas School of Fine Arts and often led students on sketching trips throughout his beloved Southwest. Read or listen to the episode on Frank Reaugh.

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Julia Scott Reed

Pioneering Black journalist Julia Scott Reed was born in Dallas in 1917. In 1967, Reed became the first African American employed full-time at the Dallas Morning News. Her column "The Open Line" gave a much-needed voice to Dallas’s Black community. At a time of widespread racial tension, Reed’s writing helped promote dialogue between the city’s white and Black communities. Read or listen to the episode on Julia Scott Reed.

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Tomás Rivera

Tomás Rivera's career as a writer and educator was shaped by the struggles of his family, who spent much of their lives as farm laborers following the annual harvests from Texas to the Midwest. Rivera's landmark 1971 novel . . . y no se lo tragó la tierra—or, in English translation, . . . And the Earth Did Not Devour Him—portrays the terrible conditions faced by Mexican American farm workers. Later in life, as a university administrator, Rivera committed himself to supporting first-generation college students such as himself. Read or listen to the episode on Tomás Rivera.

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Cleto Rodríguez

San Marcos native Cleto Rodríguez was born in 1923. By the age of nine, he had lost both his parents and was raised in San Antonio by relatives. Rodríguez began his military career in 1944 when he joined the Army. For his heroism in World War II, he received the nation's highest military honor, the Medal of Honor. Rodríguez was the fifth Mexican American ever to earn this honor—and one of fourteen Texans who earned it during World War II. Read or listen to the episode on Cleto Rodríguez.

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James Earl Rudder

James Earl Rudder graduated from Texas A&M University in 1932 and was commissioned a second lieutenant in the Army Reserves. He was called to active duty in 1941 and trained U.S. Army Rangers for one of D-Day's most dangerous operations: taking Pointe du Hoc. After the war, Rudder continued to take on tough challenges. As president of Texas A&M, he supported optional membership in the Corps of Cadets and helped open the university to women, despite great opposition. Read or listen to the episode on James Earl Rudder.

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José Francisco Ruiz

Colonel José Francisco Ruiz was one of two native Texan signatories of the Texas Declaration of Independence. A former Mexican Army officer and an expert on native Texas tribes, he fought against Spain during the Mexican War of Independence. Then, in the 1830s, Ruiz risked everything again to liberate Texas. After Santa Anna’s defeat, Ruiz became San Antonio's senator in the first Texas Congress. He died in 1840, having guided Texas from colonial possession to independent republic. Read or listen to the episode on José Francisco Ruiz.

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Winifred Sanford

In the 1920s, writer Winifred Sanford's stories of the Texas oil boom captured the anxieties of a state on the verge of modernization. Sanford published her first short story in 1925. She hit her stride with "Windfall," a 1928 story about a woman experiencing the discovery of oil on her family farm. In her fiction, Sanford measured what Texans gained and lost in such moments—in contrast to the frontier nostalgia that then dominated the state's literature. Read or listen to the episode on Winifred Sanford.

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Dorothy Scarborough

Born in 1878 near Tyler, Dorothy Scarborough was a respected writer, teacher, and folklorist, most often remembered today for her controversial 1925 novel The Wind. As a folklorist, Scarborough took inspiration from America's regional cultures and, in doing so, preserved the creative expressions of ordinary people from times past. Read or listen to the episode on Dorothy Scarborough.

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Emmett J. Scott

Born in 1873, Emmett J. Scott was the founder of the Houston Freeman, the city’s first Black newspaper. In 1897, he invited Booker T. Washington to visit Houston. Scott so impressed the famed educator that Washington hired him as his private secretary at the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama. Working under Washington, Scott soon directed a far-flung network of Black organizations and newspapers, wielding national political influence. Read or listen to the episode on Emmett J. Scott.

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Zachary Scott

According to one of his fans, actor and Texas native Zachary Scott had an air of sophistication that made him look like he had "been born in a dinner jacket." Best known for portraying scoundrels, playboys, and villains, Scott was one of Texas's most recognizable faces during Hollywood's golden age. Today, a thriving community theatre named for Zachary Scott stands in downtown Austin, cultivating Texas's next generation of dramatic talent. Read or listen to the episode on Zachary Scott.

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Erasmo Seguín

Erasmo Seguín lived through one of the most tumultuous periods of Texas history. Born in 1782, Seguín entered public office in 1807 as postmaster of San Antonio, a position he held nearly continuously until 1835. During those years, Seguín established himself as a leading player in the political scene  and was the only delegate from Texas at the Mexican congress that drafted the Constitution of 1824, where he fought for the interests of San Antonio and the Anglo settlers in the area. Read or listen to the episode on Erasmo Seguín.

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Juan Seguín

Texas revolutionary Juan Seguín was a politician, a soldier, a businessman, even a suspected traitor. Yet, he was also a hero and an honored veteran. The contradictions of Seguín's life illustrate how complicated loyalty was during the struggle for Texas independence—especially for Tejano citizens of the Republic. Read or listen to the episode on Juan Seguín.

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Adela Sloss-Vento

Born in 1901 in Karnes City, Texas, and raised in the Rio Grande Valley, Adela Sloss-Vento was a pioneer of Mexican American civil rights. She advocated for justice as a writer, publishing articles and essays in both Spanish- and English-language newspapers across the state. She also joined Alonso S. Perales of the League of United Latin American Citizens—or LULAC—in the struggle for equality. Read or listen to the episode on Adela Sloss-Vento.

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Cyrus R. Smith

In 1934, when Cyrus Rowlett Smith became president of American Airlines, the fledgling company was getting by delivering air mail, and postal revenues were capped by government regulations. Smith knew that to increase earnings he had to think bigger. He persuaded aircraft designer Donald Douglas to expand his DC-2 model to accommodate twenty-one passengers—enough to make passenger-only travel profitable—changing the aviation industry forever. Read or listen to the episode on Cyrus R. Smith.

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Lucille Bishop Smith

Born in 1892 in Crockett, Texas, Lucille Smith demonstrated early prowess as a chef when Booker T. Washington praised her dishes during a school visit. In 1937, Smith created the first college department in commercial foods and technology at Prairie View A&M University. She published her first cookbook shortly thereafter, and, in the 1940s, developed Lucille’s All-Purpose Hot Roll Mix. The first of its kind, it established Smith’s national reputation, leading to a lucrative deal with American Airlines and friendships with Eleanor Roosevelt, Lyndon Johnson, and boxer Joe Louis. She is often called Texas's first African American businesswoman. Read or listen to the episode on Lucille Bishop Smith.

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Belle Starr

"Belle Starr was the most desperate woman that ever figured on the borders," declared an 1889 news report that she'd been shot dead by an assassin. Confirmed details of her life are few. She kept company with notorious criminals, married three times to three different outlaws, and even spent time in prison for stealing horses. After her death at age forty, her legend grew. Instead of being remembered as a desperate criminal, she became a romantic symbol of the disappearing American West, known as "Belle Starr, the Bandit Queen." Read or listen to the episode on Belle Starr.

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Heman Sweatt

When Heman Sweatt, a Black postal employee, applied to The University of Texas School of Law in 1946, officials rejected him because of his race. But Sweatt was not deterred—he had already volunteered to serve as the NAACP’s plaintiff in a suit to desegregate the law school. The Supreme Court’s unanimous decision in Sweatt v. Painter opened UT’s law school to African Americans and established an important precedent for Brown v. Board of Education. Read or listen to the episode on Heman Sweatt.

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Allie Victoria Tennant

Born in the late 1890s, sculptor Allie Victoria Tennant grew up in Dallas. After studying art in New York and Europe, she returned to her hometown and joined a community of artists inspired by the history and culture of the Southwest. In a career that lasted through the 1960s, Tennant gained national recognition for her work while advancing Texas artistic culture. Her legacy includes not only her own expressive works but also institutions that continue to support Texas art and artists. Read or listen to the episode on Allie Victoria Tennant.

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Melvin B. Tolson

Poet and educator Melvin B. Tolson began teaching at the historically black Wiley College in Marshall, Texas, in 1924. His students included James Farmer, founder of the Congress of Racial Equality, and Heman Sweatt, who challenged the segregated University of Texas Law School. A dedicated mentor, Tolson coached Wiley's debate team through an impressive ten-year winning streak. The team is portrayed in the 2007 film The Great Debaters, with Tolson played by Denzel Washington. Read or listen to the episode on Melvin B. Tolson.

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John Goodwin Tower

Texas became a two-party state in 1961, when conservative Republican John Tower was elected to the U.S. Senate. He was the first Republican senator from Texas since Reconstruction. During four senate terms, Tower was a master at moving legislation through Congress and a political mentor to many Texas Republicans, including future President George H. W. Bush. Read or listen to the episode on John Goodwin Tower.

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William Barret Travis

William Barret Travis was only twenty-six years old when he died defending the Alamo. He came from Alabama just five years before, in 1831, leaving behind a failed career and marriage. In February 1836, newly commissioned Lt. Colonel Travis assumed joint command of the Alamo with James Bowie. As Mexican forces gathered, Travis sent dispatches to fellow Texians pleading for reinforcements. Little help came, but outrage over the slaughter of Travis and other Alamo defenders inspired a rush of Texian volunteers who ultimately defeated Mexican General Santa Anna at San Jacinto. Read or listen to the episode on William Barret Travis.

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King Vidor

Born in Galveston in 1894, filmmaker King Vidor grew up with the movies. Over the course of his career, he directed both silent and sound films and worked with many of Hollywood's top stars, from Charlie Chaplin to Audrey Hepburn. Often drawn to social themes, Vidor hoped his films would "help humanity to free itself from the shackles of fear and suffering that have so long bound it with iron chains." Read or listen to the episode on King Vidor.

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Walter Prescott Webb

Born in 1888, Walter Prescott Webb remains one of Texas's most significant and influential scholars. Webb taught at The University of Texas throughout his career. He served as director of the Texas State Historical Association and spearheaded the creation of The Handbook of Texas, the definitive encyclopedia of the state's history. In 1950, a survey of historians identified his 1931 study The Great Plains as the single most important work in U.S. history written since the turn of the century. Read or listen to the episode on Walter Prescott Webb.

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Lulu B. White

Teacher and civil rights activist Lulu Belle White was born in 1900 in the East Texas town of Elmo. White became director of statewide NAACP branches and, later, a national field worker. With fellow activist Juanita Craft, White traveled throughout Texas and beyond, organizing new NAACP chapters, rejuvenating old ones, raising funds, and investigating miscarriages of justice. Shortly before her death, in 1957, the national NAACP established the Lulu White Freedom Fund in her honor. Read or listen to the episode on Lulu B. White.

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Bob Wills

Known as the "King of Western Swing," Bob Wills was born near Kosse, Texas, in 1905. He grew up hearing the blues sung in cotton fields and country tunes played on his father’s fiddle. Wills spent his lifetime adapting new musical forms rooted in both traditions and popularized Western Swing. At his death in 1975, he was acknowledged as a pioneer of a uniquely American musical genre—one that fused conventional string band sounds with the brass of big band, the swing of jazz, and elements of polka, bluegrass, and folk. Read or listen to the episode on Bob Wills.

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Ruth Winegarten

Born in Dallas in 1929, Ruthe Winegarten was a pioneer in documenting Texas women’s history. In the 1970s and '80s, she served as research director and curator of the Texas Women’s History Project, a sweeping initiative designed to increase public awareness of women’s contributions to Texas history. Over the next several years, Winegarten gathered oral histories of thousands of Texan women, publishing twenty works documenting the previously unheard experiences of Black women and Tejanas in the state. Her tireless research ensured that Texan women’s voices were heard, recorded, and valued. Read or listen to the episode on Ruth Winegarten.

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Bill Wittliff

The acclaimed screenwriter, publisher, and photographer Bill Wittliff was born in 1940 in the small south Texas town of Taft. Wittliff studied journalism at The University of Texas at Austin and later founded and ran the Encino Press, which published distinctive books chronicling Texas and the Southwest. His 1989 television adaptation of Larry McMurtry’s Lonesome Dove earned him the Writers Guild of America Award. His legacy lives on in Texas State University's Wittliff Collections, which collects and preserves the literature, photography, and music of the greater Southwest, promoting the region’s spirit of place in the wider world. Read or listen to the episode on Bill Wittliff.

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Babe Didrikson Zaharias

Mildred Didrikson Zaharias, nicknamed "Babe" for her childhood prowess on the baseball diamond, dominated women's sports from the 1930s through the '50s. The 1932 Los Angeles Olympics made Babe Didrikson a celebrity. Already a world record-holder in multiple events, she won gold medals in the javelin and hurdles and silver in the high jump. She took up golf at the age of twenty-four and quickly became the top women’s player. In 1950, Babe and her husband, wrestler George Zaharias, helped found the Ladies' Professional Golf Association. Read or listen to the episode on Babe Didrikson Zaharias.

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Lorenzo de Zavala

Born in Yucatan in 1788, Lorenzo de Zavala dedicated much of his life to creating a Federalist Mexico, with a strong constitution to guard citizens' rights. But when his former ally Santa Anna established a centralized regime in 1834 and quickly moved to suppress the Federalists, Zavala did the only thing he could to weaken the leader’s iron grip: he helped bring about the Texas Revolution. He signed the Texas Declaration of Independence, helped write the Texas constitution, and served as the Republic's first vice president. Read or listen to the episode on Lorenzo de Zavala.

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