First Class All the Way
RIP Robert Strauss.
RIP Robert Strauss.
Tejanos at the Alamo.
In this installment, the missus of a sheep farmer visits Waco—as a mister.
A rare relic of slavery in Texas—and one woman’s freedom.
In this installment, the King Ranch receives a mighty substantial shipment of barbed wire.
An El Paso man pled guilty to the most heinous offense against Texas history imaginable: Peeing on the Alamo. Does this make him the next Ozzy Osbourne?
No ideas but in things.
The story behind an unusual trophy of the Texas Revolution.
In this installment, Dallas feasts for six months on something called the "boss turtle."
Former state demographer Steve H. Murdock troves his data to illustrate the average Texan in two every different years—1950 and 2050.
Is Charlotte Allen Houston's true founder?
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.
They're a labor of love. But they're worth it.
A pie that never lasts long enough to be stored in the refrigerator.
A recipe for "Pig Pie," a blue-black cobbler I preferred to any cake on my birthday.
I pore over my old cookbooks not for the recipes but for the stories they conjure.
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
Dear Mrs. Kennedy,I am a Catholic also, I go to Saint Georges School. I can remember Nov. 21, the day before you came. We go to mass every day, then we go to lunch. This day was different, after mass our pastor told us to sit down. I wondered to
January 18, 19644201 LullwoodAustin TexasDear Mrs. Kennedy,I know that you hate the whole state of Texas. I do to. I wish I lived in Washington, D.C. where maybe I could maybe see you standing on your porch. I am determined to move there as soon as I can. I would
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
Nov. 22 1963Dear Mrs. Kennedy,I was at school when I heard about the President. I cried for two or three minuts. My mother also cried, and so did my teacher Mrs. Mansir. I was very sad for President Kennedy. He was my friend even though he didn’t know me. Some
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
906 ParkviewDallas, TexasDec. 1 – 1963Mrs Jacqueline KennedyFirst Lady in our hearts.I live in Dallas, a city bowed in sorrow, and shame. I am 76 years old and live on a social security checkI must pour out my heart to you if my feeble hands will hold out to scribble
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
MRS JOHN F KENNEDYWASHDCMAY I ADD MY SYMPATHY TO THAT OF PEOPLE ALL OVER THE WORLD.MY PERSONAL LOSS IN THIS GREAT TRAGEDY PREPARES ME TO SYMPATHIZE MORE DEEPLY WITH YOU.MRS. J D TIPPIT DALLAS TEX(34).Read another letter to the first lady here.
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
Dear Mrs. Kennedy:I know the grief you bear. I bear that same grief. I am a Dallasite. I saw you yesterday. I hope to see you again. I saw Mr. Kennedy yesterday. I’ll never see him again. I’m very disturbed because I saw him a mere 2 minutes
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
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,
After President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, scores of Americans wrote letters to the first lady to express their grief. The most heartbreaking were those with a Texas return address.
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
After President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, scores of Americans wrote letters to the first lady to express their grief. The most heartbreaking were those with a Texas return address.
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."
Collecting for the Olden Year Musical Museum.
At the Fort Griffin Fandangle, Texas’s oldest outdoor musical, an all-amateur local cast reenacts its own bloody history.
When the local vernacular dies, what goes with it?
The city held a special place in Lyndon Baines Johnson’s heart, and a number of the places significant in his life there are still around.
“I get to see things other people don’t get to see.”
For the first time since it was penned by commander William Barret Travis 177 years ago.
The Texas actor pays tribute to a fellow Hill Country native.
Leadership is lacking in Texas. O Houston, where art thou?
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?
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.
Most guitars don’t have names. This one has a voice and a personality, and bears a striking resemblance to his owner.
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.
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.
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
The senior editor on following the paper trail of Texas history, learning about Jack Johnson sparring with “Chrysanthemum Joe” Choynski, and researching his own family roots.
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?
The senior editor on attending a Civil War reenactment, preserving history, and standing inside the Globe of Death.