2001 – Page 3 of 9

Search Engines

Executive editor Skip Hollandsworth, who wrote about Candy Barr, and others tell the story behind this month's special issue.

Texas Tidbits

Sometimes, when the weather is just right, a Texas summer day can be full of more plots and twists than a good novel.

Texas History 101

Will La Llorana, a native of the Rio Grande Valley, ever find her lost children? According to legend, probably not.

Happy Trails

Glen Rose and Granbury are fast becoming the weekend getaway spots. Find out why.

Psst!

Liz Smith, the grande dame of dish, talks about Texas, her book Natural Blonde, religion, and her pal Ann Richards.

Real World

For some hardworking bands, reality bites. But not for the Dallas group Flickerstick.

Cheers to Salman Rushdie

Novelist Salman Rushdie, whose new book, Fury, will be published by Random House in September, kicks off the twenty-first annual Margarett Root Brown Houston Reading Series on September 10 at the Alley Theatre.

Urban Knight

Things are picking up in Dallas' Oak Cliff—thanks to a little help from Magic Johnson and Starbucks.

Books That Cook

Ready for a blast from the past? This spiral bound cookbook goes back to the Dallas Cowboys team of 1979

Where Are They Now?

Of all the letters we receive each month, the ones that always grab our attention are from readers who’ve come upon an old Texas Monthly story and want to know what has happened to the principal characters since it was published. Sometime last year we’d gotten so many of these

Creamy Peach, Prune, or Poppy Seed Kolaches

Airy breads with sweet or savory fillings, kolaches are the Czechs’ best-known contribution to Texas cooking. We show how to make them with three different fillings.

Rosemary-Peach Chicken

Fresh rosemary gives this recipe for baked chicken a wonderfully pungent aroma.

Around the State

The Ex-Mayors

If you counted up the combined years of total public service of the following former mayors, you’d discover that it covers more time than the longest of Texas droughts. Here’s why some of our well-known “local” politicians are stumping nowadays. Steve Bartlett (Dallas, 1991-1995) is the president of Financial Services

Dirty Thirty

Idealistic? Yes. Reform-Minded? Absolutely. Bipartisan? That Too. During the 1971 session, the state representatives who came to be known as the Dirty Thirty were everything you’ve learned not to expect in politics. The group—which eventually numbered 35 members—put aside party loyalty (Democrats (D) are marked in blue,

My Three Sons

Prudence Mackintosh's sons.

Nancy Lieberman-Cline

Is there anything Nancy Lieberman-Cline can’t accomplish? The most storied female basketball player in the world won a gold medal at the Pan-American Games in 1975, a silver at the Montreal Olympics in 1976, led Old Dominion University to two national championships in 1979 and 1980, became the first

Johnny “Lam” Jones

Evan Smith on Johnny “Lam” Jones.

Ken Hall

When Cedric Benson wrapped up his high school career this year, the star of Midland Lee’s football team had rushed for 8,423 yards, earning the title of the best running back in Texas. But even those eye-popping stats put him far behind the state’s most prolific rusher of all

Ronnie Dugger

If the remedy to what happened in last year’s presidential election is to impeach the five Supreme Court justices who voted to stop the recounts,” says Ronnie Dugger, “then it would follow logically that you would impeach George W. Bush on the grounds that he is in receipt of stolen

Senator A. R. “Babe” Schwartz

During the sixties and seventies the best entertainment the Capitol had to offer was the oratory of Galveston senator A. R. “Babe” Schwartz. “A bill written by liars, cheats, and thieves for the benefit of liars, cheats, and thieves” was his denunciation of an anti-consumer bill. Once he and Barbara

Tanya Tucker

“I think everybody knows I’m still here,” Tanya Tucker says when asked if she would describe her career these days as a comeback. But while most folks have heard of Tucker, they may not know that she is one of country music’s all-time best-selling female vocalists. (They also may

The Ex-Speakers of the House

During each legislative session, the Speaker of the House hosts a dinner for his predecessors. This year the nine living former Speakers, Democrats all, made their way to Pete Laney’s Capitol apartment on the night of April 25, and in addition to dining on mixed grill, garlic mashed potatoes, and

Texas Chain Saw Massacre

With its psychosexual overtones and perverse violence, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre was so sidesplittingly over-the-top when it was released that the horror film genre hasn’t been the same since. Filmed in Austin, the pioneering 1974 flick brought tasteless gore into mainstream theaters—and made it nearly impossible for most

Robert Strauss

Evan Smith on Robert Strauss.

Vanilla Ice

Vanilla Ice (Rob Van Winkle) was just another white kid from the Dallas suburbs in 1990, when his “Ice Ice Baby” became the first rap single to hit number one on Billboard’s pop singles chart. Back in his heyday, the peroxided crossover sensation could boast of multi-platinum record sales

Ben Barnes

The former golden boy of Texas politics is still running hard.

Laura Canales

The first queen of tejano music, Laura Canales broke the gender barrier in the seventies and eighties and paved the way for Selena Quintanilla, the superstar who put tejano on the map. But by the early nineties, when Selena’s career had begun to take off, Canales had vanished from

Craig Washington

“I’m a proud member of the Texas Farm Bureau,” says Craig Washington, the former Democratic state representative, state senator, and U.S. congressman from Houston. The 59-year-old now spends much of his time on his farm near Bastrop, where he has lived since he left Congress in January 1995. “On the

Jessica McClure

On October 14, 1987, an eighteen-month-old toddler named Jessica McClure fell 22 feet into an abandoned Midland water well that was only eight inches in diameter. For the next three days, rescuers frantically dug a tunnel to reach her while the little girl sang nursery rhymes to herself, called

Beavis and Butt-Head

“If Beavis and Butt-head were around today, they’d probably be right back on the couch where I left them. That’s where they’ll always be in my mind.” So says Austinite Mike Judge, who created the animated teen duo back in MTV’s halcyon pre-Jackass era and still gets asked about

Bob Krueger

Even his neighbors in New Braunfels haven’t heard much from Bob Krueger since he left Africa more than a year ago. Oh, they know that his wife, Kathleen, led a failed effort to ban beer on the Comal River, and they hear him occasionally on the half-hour Sunday morning religious

Charles “Tex” Watson

While serving a life sentence for participating in the slaughter of seven people, including pregnant actress Sharon Tate, California inmate Charles “Tex” Watson has married, fathered four children, and founded a prison-cell ministry. Watson enjoyed repeated conjugal visits (now forbidden to the state’s lifers) with his wife, Kristin, at

Sam the Sham

At last, it all makes sense: Domingo “Sam” Samudio, who topped the charts with “Wooly Bully” in 1965 as the leader of Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs, studied voice at Arlington State College (now the University of Texas at Arlington) and is an opera fan! Why didn’t he

The “Sugarland Express” Gang

In 1974, one year before Steven Spielberg became a household name with the release of Jaws, the director made his feature film debut with The Sugarland Express. The plot centered on the May 1969 kidnapping of a Department of Public Safety trooper named Kenneth Crone. Fugitives Robert and Ila

Fess Parker

Falling for Davy Crockett (um, Fess Parker).

Georgette Mosbacher

In 1985 Georgette Mosbacher appeared on the radar screen of Texas high society like some dazzling UFO. But the flame-haired beauty and cosmetics entrepreneur—who was then the new wife of Houston oilman Robert Mosbacher—didn’t remain unidentified for long. Together the couple pursued their respective careers and their mutual avocation,

The Cops Who Stopped Charles Whitman

At the top of the University of Texas Tower 35 years ago, Austin policemen Houston McCoy and Ramiro “Ray” Martinez risked all to end the killing spree of ex-Marine Charles Whitman. The press initially credited Martinez with taking Whitman down, but after the coroner’s report was issued, it seemed

Joel Gregory

From the pulpit to the chile patch, the career path of Joel Gregory has been a singular one. Between 1990 and 1992 he was one of the best-known Baptist preachers in Texas. Possessed of an incisive intellect and a deeply resonant voice that could arouse a sleepy Sunday morning

Tio Kleberg

If there was ever a person with a reason to hold a grudge, that person is Stephen J. “Tio” Kleberg. Three years ago the man who was the living, breathing embodiment of the King Ranch found his world upended. He had clashed with other descendants of Richard King, the

Dawn

In the June 1991 issue, in an article called “Voices From the Dark,” I told the story of Dawn, my mother-in-law. It was an account of her brief career as a singer in Hollywood in the late forties, how schizophrenia had brought that career to a tragic end, and how

Jim Wright

The longtime U.S. Speaker of the House from Fort Worth who personified the Democratic party for decades, Jim Wright has traded the public spotlight for the private life—sort of. He’s mostly stayed out of politics since he resigned in 1989 following allegations that he had used his influence to sell

The Ex-Governors

Polling the ex-governors.

Susan Powter

No one can say exactly when it happened. But at some point after Jan Jarboe Russell’s November 1993 cover story, “The Skinny on Susan Powter,” appeared, the insanity stopped. The workout madwoman with the grating voice and the blond buzz cut could no longer be heard blaring out of millions

Bobby Frank Cherry

A year ago last April, I explored the curious past of an East Texas man named Bobby Frank Cherry in a story titled “The Sins of the Father.” Though the FBI had long suspected that Cherry had played a role in the infamous 1963 bombing of a church in

The Dallas Cowboys’ Ex-Quarterbacks

As the Dallas Cowboys head into the 2001 season, it’s anyone’s guess as to whether the quarterback of the future will be Tony Banks, Quincy Carter, Anthony Wright, or none of the above. What we do know is where some of the quarterbacks of the past are huddling up these

Jay J. Armes

Back in January 1976 when Gary Cartwright wrote “Is Jay J. Armes for Real?” Armes was best known to the average Joe or Jane as “the dude with the hand-hooks who can do karate.” He bragged that he was a private investigator who employed more than two thousand agents, that

Billy “White Shoes” Johnson

In 1988, when former Houston Oiler Billy “White Shoes” Johnson ended his fourteen-year NFL career, he was the league’s all-time leading punt returner and one of only seven men to have returned four kicks for touchdowns in a single season. But despite all the juking and jetting that earned

Doris Angleton

It was the great Houston murder mystery of the nineties. Who shot 46-year-old Doris Angleton, the beautiful, ebullient River Oaks mother of two young daughters and the wife of Robert Angleton, Houston’s top bookmaker? When Doris was found in her home in 1997—she had been shot thirteen times—their friends speculated

Kathy Whitworth

Half a century ago, in an era before graphite clubs, corporate sponsorships, and network TV coverage, Kathy Whitworth was a pioneer in women’s golf. Born in the West Texas town of Monahans and raised in Jal, New Mexico, she gravitated to the sport as a child, turned pro at