Pease River

Texas History

Texas History |
January 9, 2014

Two Texans

Former state demographer Steve H. Murdock troves his data to illustrate the average Texan in two every different years—1950 and 2050.

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News & Politics |
November 19, 2013

Bipolar Order

Contrary to what the national media would have you believe, Texas is not politically monochromatic. It is, and always has been, a state with two minds.

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Texas History |
October 23, 2013

Robert L. Wood’s Letter to Jackie Kennedy

November 22, 1963Mrs. John F. KennedyWHITE HOUSEWashington, D.C.My dear Mrs. Kennedy:I have never before written to a Congressman, President or any type of Statesman. In fact, in my thirty some years of living I have never DONE MUCH OF ANYTHING, except vote, toward being an American or making this Country

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Texas History |
October 23, 2013

Monroe Young’s Letter to Jackie Kennedy

December 1, 1963in 1962 September 23,Some mean man killed my dady too-Here in Dallas-my dady was a soldrerSanda Clause diden get my letteri hope he will get my letteri wont a bicycle—When you write him- tell him my name.Monroe Young Jr. III1838 Nomas StreetDallas, Tex.Read another letter to the first

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Texas History |
October 23, 2013

Eileen Mitchell’s Letter to Jackie Kennedy

1:10 pm Nov. 22, 1963From a student of North Texas State UniversityThe radio sat in the window of the second floor dorm window blaring out the sad news that our President had been shot! People walking around in twos and threes stopped their happy chattering and stood silently on the

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Texas History |
October 23, 2013

Henry Gonzales’s Letter to Jackie Kennedy

P.O. Box 9652El Paso, Texas 79986Dec. 8, 1963Mrs. J.F. KennedyWashington, D.C.Dear Mrs. Kennedy:I am but a humble postman and I realize the many letters you have received, which is but deserving to you, throughout this wide world. We at our house have continued to mourn the great loss to all

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Texas History |
October 23, 2013

Claudine Skeat’s Letter to Jackie Kennedy

Mrs. John F. KennedyWhite HouseWashington, D.C. Dear Mrs. Kennedy,You and President Kenney were in my office a week ago yesterday.I am secretary to General Bedwell at Brooks Air Force Base, and I will forever be haunted by how handsome and healthy and happy you two looked – and how gracious you

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News & Politics |
October 23, 2013

Suzan Lane’s Letter to Jackie Kennedy

Dec. 6, 1963Houston, TexasDear Mrs. Kennedy,I am ten years old. When I saw them moving President Kennedy’s rocking chairs out of the White House, a great sadness entered my heart.You made such a beautiful collection of treasures from other Presidents of the United States. Do you think you could find

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Texas History |
October 23, 2013

Marcy Wentworth’s Letter to Jackie Kennedy

5509 Dalwood DriveAustin, Texas 78723November 25, 1963Dear Mrs. Kennedy,There are no words in any language to express truly our grief and the sympathy we wish to extend to you and your family on the death of your husband, the President – our President. We Texans pride ourselves in our state,

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Texas History |
October 15, 2013

The Assassination at 50

In November 1973, Texas Monthly, which was still in its first year of existence, marked the tenth anniversary of the assassination of John F. Kennedy with a profile of Lee Harvey Oswald’s mother, Marguerite; the cover, however, went to Tom Landry. Two years later, in November 1975, the

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Texas History |
August 20, 2013

The Genesis of the Barbecue Joint

Sifting through old Texas newspapers, I found the first mention of commercial smoked meat from the Brenham Weekly Banner, which announced that a Bastrop butcher "keeps on hand at his stall a ready stock of barbecued meats and cooked sausages."

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Texas History |
January 23, 2013

The Walking Deadline

For decades, the state’s big urban newspapers helped bind together the inhabitants of our major cities. Now those papers are threatened by a rapidly evolving (some might say collapsing) business model. Is there hope for daily journalism in Texas?

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Texas History |
January 21, 2013

People We’ll Miss

Big Tex will be back. Sadly, we cannot the say same of Larry Hagman, Darrell Royal, Amarillo Slim, Leslie, and the many other Texans we lost in 2012. 

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Texas History |
January 21, 2013

The Children of Texas

I was never certain how to explain the importance of the state to my three daughters. Now that I have two grandsons—named Mason and Travis, no less—I’ve realized something that I should have known all along. 

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Texas History |
January 21, 2013

When the Sky Ran Dry

Bad as the current drought is, it has yet to match the most arid spell in Texas history. Nearly two dozen survivors of the fifties drought remember the time it never rained.

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Texas History |
January 21, 2013

The Most Trusted Freshman in America

Long before Walter Cronkite was the voice of the news, he was just a kid from Houston at the University of Texas, chasing girls, acting in school plays, and drinking cheap beer. Yet Douglas Brinkley, whose new biography of Cronkite will be released this month, argues that it was in

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Texas History |
January 21, 2013

The Paper Chase

Houston attorney Bill Kroger and state Supreme Court chief justice Wallace Jefferson are on a mission to rescue thousands of crumbling, fading, and fascinating legal documents from district and county clerks’ offices all over the state. Can they save Texas history before it’s too late?

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