Carroll Shelby, Woodrow Wilson High School’s auto racing legend – The late Carroll Hall Shelby was born January 11, 1923 in Leesburg, Texas to Warren Hall and Eloise Lawrence Shelby. His father was a rural mail carrier. The family moved to Dallas early on and Carroll graduated in 1940 from Dallas Woodrow Wilson High School, where he spent some of his time tearing around town in his Willys car. He also found time to attend some dirt track races outside town, and grew interested in the sport.
Category: biography
TMI Episcopal, or Texas Military Institute
Originally known as West Texas Military Academy and formerly known as Texas Military Institute, TMI Episcopal was founded in 1893 by James Steptoe Johnston, a bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of West Texas. TMI offers classes for students in grades 6-12 and an optional JROTC program for students in grades 8-12. Its website states that it is “the oldest Episcopal Church-sponsored, college-preparatory school in the Southwest.”
Tex Ritter
Woodward Maurice “Tex” Ritter was born on January 12, 1905 to James Everett and Elizabeth Matthews Ritter of Murvaul, Texas, in Panola County about 10 miles south of Carthage. He was the youngest of about nine children. His first name is sometimes spelled “Woodard” but in one account it is related that he was named for Dr. S. A. Woodward, the doctor who delivered him. Tex was the grandson of Benjamin Franklin Ritter, who had been brought to Texas as a baby in the early to mid 1830s from Tennessee.
William Henry Huddle, artist
This coming weekend will mark the anniversary of San Jacinto Day. In our mind’s eye, we can envision what that may have looked like, especially after visiting the San Jacinto Monument. Some will also think of Henry Huddle. His name may not be too familiar to many Texans, but most likely just about everyone might recognize at least one of his works. San Jacinto Day is drawing near, and the painting called “The Surrender of Santa Anna” (pictured below) commemorates the famous battle.
Richard A. “Smoot” Schmid
A paragraph in a 1939 issue of a newspaper in Decatur (Illinois, not Texas) began “No. 1 Name of the year, so far, is that of Sheriff Smoot Schmid of Dallas, Texas.”
(Image source: unknown)
Texas History Notebook 