Texas Country Reporter turns fifty in October 2022. Each week until then, we’ll share
classic episodes from the show’s history and behind-the-scenes reflections from
TCR’s creator and host, Bob Phillips.
My friend Roxanne Ward could drink beer till the cows come home, cursed like a pirate, smoked like a chimney, and rarely wore shoes. She had a heart of gold and would give you the shirt off her back if you needed it. But you better think about how much you might need that shirt, because there was no telling where it had been.
Roxanne liked to hang out with pigs. All kinds of pigs. Big ones, little ones, and in-between ones. In fact, folks around Bainer Switch, the place Roxanne called home, referred to her as the Pig Lady. She liked that and said it was a lot better than being called the Hog Lady, because the difference between a pig and a hog is 160 pounds. Google it and you’ll see that the experts aren’t quite that clear, but I’ll go with Roxanne’s logic on this because when it came to pig trivia, she knew her stuff.
Roxanne was the world-champion hog caller two years in a row, topped the hog-calling contest circuit around Texas, and was featured on national television. She was a bit of a ham, so she loved being the “champene” hog caller. But her big heart told her that she shouldn’t hog the spotlight, and she eventually quit entering contests so that someone else would have a chance to earn the distinguished title.
Roxanne died years ago, but this classic episode of TCR from 1998 catches her at the top of her game.
