biography – Page 38 – Texas History Notebook

Allie Victoria Tennant

Allie Victoria Tennant was born around 1890 according to the 1900 Federal census. Her father was Thomas Richard Tennant and her mother was the former Allie Victoria (or Virginia) Brown. The family was living in St. Louis, Missouri in 1900 and her father was the general manager of a coal company. Allie was the only daughter among five siblings. By the time the 1910 Federal census was taken, the family was living in Dallas and her age was listed as 11. This probably gave rise to a different year of birth being used for her, 1898, though her death certificate used June 28, 1898 as her date of birth. Her father’s profession by then was listed as being an accountant for a manufacturing company. By 1920 her father had passed away the year before, and she was living with her mother and three of her brothers in Dallas.

James Brown, Actor

James E. Brown was born in Desdemona, Texas to Floyd Estle Brown and Cordie Mae Bowen Brown on March 22, 1920. In 1920, the Brown family was living in Desdemona during Eastland County’s early oil boom. They had previously lived in Waco but had followed the oil business to Eastland County for a short time before returning to Waco when James was just three months old. James was the second of four siblings and though he was the only sibling not to be born there, he considered Waco to be his home town. He graduated from Waco High School in 1936 where he helped the school tennis team win a championship that year. Brown attended Schreiner Institute in Kerrville for one year before enrolling at Baylor University on a tennis scholarship. Along the way, he played football briefly until injuries (broken eardrum and cracked kneecap) led him to concentrate on tennis. Brown’s family remained in Waco and for a number of years lived in Brook Oaks and North Waco, in the general vicinity of Cameron Park. At the time of his father F. E. Brown’s death, the elder Brown was said to have lived in Waco for fifty years. He and Cordie Mae had divorced at one point, but they are both buried at Oakwood Cemetery.

Temple Lea Houston

Temple Lea Houston was born August 12, 1860 to Sam and Margaret Lea Houston. He was the youngest son of the couple and was the first child born in the Governor’s Mansion in what is now downtown Austin. Temple did not have the benefit of living with his parents for many years since Sam died in 1863 and Margaret died in 1867. He was raised by an older sister, Nancy Elizabeth “Nannie” Houston Morrow in Georgetown. Though she was only 13 years older than Temple, Nannie and her husband took in a number of the younger Houston children. Houston left home at the age of 13, working on a cattle drive, clerking on a riverboat and taking other jobs until with the help of a former associate of Sam Houston, he was hired as a page in the United States Senate. After a few years, Temple returned to Texas and enrolled at Texas A&M before transferring to Baylor at Independence, Texas, where his family had formerly lived, graduating in 1880. He apprenticed at law, passed the Texas Bar and within a year or two was practicing law in Brazoria.

John James Audubon Meets Sam Houston

The famous naturalist John Audubon came to Texas in 1837. Portions of his journal were excerpted in the Galveston Daily News on November 27, 1875, citing the San Marcos Free Press.

Carolyn Sue Jones

Actress Carolyn Jones was born in Amarillo, Potter County, Texas on April 28, 1930 to Chloe Jeanette Southern and Julius Alfred Jones. Her parents separated during the early days of the Depression and her mother and younger sibling lived with her mother’s birth mother and her husband. Carolyn’s mother had been born in Texas and adopted by a family named the Southerns. The last name of Carolyn’s birth mother and her husband was Baker. As a child Carolyn is said to have suffered from asthma but did well in theater and speech in high school. Her love for films led her to go to California and be accepted into acting school, and she graduated in 1950. Some sources give her date of birth to be 1933 leading to the possible conclusion that she was underage when she left Texas for California to begin acting school. However, various newspaper accounts state that she graduated from Amarillo High School in 1947.