Buddy Holly was born Charles Hardin Holley to Lawrence Odell and Ella Pauline Drake Holley on September 7, 1939 in Lubbock, Texas. He began to perform in the country music genre in Lubbock at high school dances. He had won a singing contest at age five but got his first guitar when he was fourteen. Buddy and a former junior high school friend named Bob Montgomery formed a duo they called Buddy and Bob and played anywhere they could get a foothold. They also were the opening act when other artists would tour the area and two different times, they opened for Elvis Presley in 1955 and one time the same year for Bill Haley and the Comets (“Rock Around the Clock”). Buddy and some high school friends then formed a group they called Buddy Holly and the Crickets and were known around Lubbock for playing dances and also spots on local radio. The Crickets were Jerry Allison on drums, Joe Mauldin and Nicky Sullivan on guitars. Buddy did the lead singing.
Governor Beauford H. Jester
(Image credit: lrl.texas.gov, the Legislative Reference Library)
Governor Beauford Halbert Jester was born in Corsicana, Texas on January 12, 1893. His parents were George Taylor and Francis Paine Gordon Jester. His father George Jester had served as Lieutenant Governor of Texas under Governor Charles Allen Culberson. Beauford was also descended from the Hampton McKinney family, thought to be the earliest settlers in Corsicana in the 1840s, as his great grandfather was Hampton McKinney and his grandmother was Diadema McKinney, the daughter of Hampton McKinney. Beauford graduated from Corsicana High School in 1911 and University of Texas in Austin in 1916. He had attended Harvard Law School for around two years but enlisted in the United States Army when the U. S. entered World War I in 1917. He was only a month or so from being eligible to graduate when he enlisted.
Walter Cronkite, Jr., World War II Correspondent
Walter Leland Cronkite, Jr. is not a name that most people would associate with the State of Texas, but he had Texas roots. Walter, Jr. was born November 4, 1916 to Dr. Walter L. and Helen Lena Fritsche Cronkite in Missouri. The surname Cronkite is thought to be derived from a similar sounding Dutch name. However, traditional genealogical sources show that this particular Cronkite family had resided in the United States as far back as the middle 1600s with similar spelling, though for a time it was spelled “Cronkhite,” with an h after the k. Dr. Cronkite was a dentist like his own father had been. The family moved to Houston, Texas when Walter, Jr. was ten years old when Dr. Cronkite had accepted an offer to teach at a local dental school.
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Fort Fisher
Fort Fisher, as it was known, was set up for a short time on the west bank of the Brazos river near the settlements that would give rise to Waco. It was established by the Texas Rangers to provide security for settlers in 1837 and to the best of our knowledge, it was also abandoned the same year. The outpost was named for William S. Fisher, Secretary of War of the Republic of Texas at the time. Fisher was a long time member of the Texas Army. He would later become a participant in the ill fated Mier Expedition after which he would be captured and imprisoned in Mexico. Fisher passed away around two years after being released from his confinement in Mexico.
Continue reading Fort FisherRufus Higginbotham, Co-founder of Higginbotham Brothers
The Higginbotham family founded a chain of what became hardware stores a decade and a half after the Civil War. When the business matured, they had locations in many towns across Texas. Hardware stores and lumber yards with Higginbotham in the name were common in Texas.
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