people named Tex – TEXAS HISTORY NOTEBOOK

Captain Forrest R. “Tex” Biard

Captain Forrest R. Biard was born December 21, 1912 to Robert Jackson “Jack” Biard and Forest Lynn Elkins Biard in Bonham, Texas. Jack was a long time employee in the flour mill business, including Burrus Mills, a familiar name in Texas, where he worked as an auditor. The family moved around with Jack’s job, including some time in Midland, Texas. They eventually settled in Dallas where Forrest was a 1930 graduate of North Dallas High School. He then secured an appointment to the United States Naval Academy where he graduated 11th in his class of 1934.

Gordon “Tex” Beneke

Gordon Lee Beneke was born February 12, 1914 in Fort Worth, Tarrant County, Texas to Frank Snyder Beneke (1890-1966) and Dixie L. Delmage Beneke (1895-1988). Dixie’s parents were Edgar and Ella Delmage. Her parents had been born in France and Germany, respectively, and in the 1900 census, Edgar’s profession was listed as cigar maker and their small family was living in Huntsville, Walker County, Texas. Sometimes very interesting comes out in the census reports. In the 1910 census, Edgar Delmage’s birthplace was shown to be “Atlantic Ocean” as though he were born at sea, perhaps when his family was en route to the United States. Frank’s family tree indicates that his family had been in the United States a bit longer. His own grandfather Beneke had been born in Germany (Prussia). Frank’s profession was listed as pressman, which is to say that he worked in the printing department around the time that Tex was born. He eventually ran the press for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

Joe Tex

The singer by this name was born on August 8, 1935 (some sources give the year to be 1933) as Joseph Arrington, Jr. in Rogers, Bell County, Texas and went to school in McNair, just outside Baytown. His parents were Joseph Arrington and Cherrie Warren Arrington. He was a high school athlete and played in the band. As a youth, he won a talent contest and was invited to perform in New York City’s Apollo Theater. Early on, he adopted the stage name of Joe Tex.

Tex Schramm

Texas Earnest Schramm, Jr. was born in 1920 in San Gabriel, California. His father was named Texas Ernst Schramm and his mother was Elsa J. Steinwender Schramm. Tex’s father later adopted the spelling Earnest for his middle name, but at birth his father had shared the middle name Ernst with four of his siblings. Tex’s grandfather, Edgar Ernst Schramm had come to the United States from Germany and his grandmother, the former “Tony” Benner, was born in New Braunfels. The Benners had been long time Texas residents, as Tex’s grandmother Benner’s family had had arrived in the 1800s. His Schramm grandparents had resided in San Antonio for many years. Tex’s father had moved the family to California where Tex spent his early years, attending high school there. Tex attended University of Texas in Austin, graduating in 1947 with a degree in journalism, after serving in the United States Army Air Corps in World War II.

Tex Avery

Frederick Bean Avery was born in 1908 to George Walton Avery and Mary Augusta Bean Avery when the family was living in Taylor, Williamson County, Texas. His parents were both from the South with his father having been born in Alabama and his mother in Mississippi. His father George operated a lumber yard. Shortly afterward, his family moved to Dallas and by 1920, they were living on East Brooklyn Avenue, near the present location of the Dallas Zoo (Oak Cliff). The census said that his father was in the oil lease business. At some point they moved further north, as Frederick graduated from North Dallas High School in 1926. By 1935, he was on his own with his mother passing away in 1931 and his father passing away in 1935.