Tag: biography

Robert McAlpin “Three Legged Willie” Williamson

Robert McAlpin Williamson was born September 9, 1804 in Georgia to Judge William Peter Ballantine and Rebecca Ann McAlpin Williamson.  His mother Rebecca died when he was a baby.  He was well educated.  His legal career began in Georgia and he was admitted to the Georgia bar.  A family legend says that he left Georgia after a duel over the virtue of a woman.  His opponent was killed, but the woman did not want to have a relationship with him.  Williamson then moved to Texas in the mid 1820s and he settled in San Felipe de Austin where he is said to have become acquainted with William B. Travis.  After moving to Texas and settling in San Felipe, he served as city attorney and also as mayor.

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Ray Price

Ray-Price_cmhof

(Image credit: Country Music Hall of Fame)

Born outside Perryville, Texas on January 12, 1926, Ray Price became one of the best known country singers of his era.  His parents were Walter Clifton and Clara Mae Bradley Price.  There were no other known children born to this union.  His parents divorced when he was only three years old, with his father remaining on the Wood County farm and his mother moving to Dallas and remarrying Dominic Cimini.  Ray spent time with both families at various times, mostly in Dallas where he graduated from Dallas Adamson.  Until World War II, Price attended North Texas Agricultural College (NTAC), formerly known as Arlington College and now known as University of Texas at Arlington.  He lied about his age and at 17, one year early, Ray enlisted in the United States Marine Corps in 1944, serving served in the Pacific until 1946.

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The Legacy of John Avery Lomax and Alan James Lomax

We first became acquainted with the name John Avery Lomax, Sr. when we found a 1942 recording of “Goodbye Old Paint,” which song is attributed to singing cowboy Charley Willis.  The following is a brief overview of the many achievements of John Avery Lomax and son Alan James Lomax.

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Liz Carpenter

Mary Elizabeth Sutherland Carpenter was born in Salado, Bell County, Texas on September 1, 1920 to Thomas Shelton and Mary Elizabeth Robertson Sutherland.  Her father was a state highway inspector and her mother was a homemaker.  Liz was the middle child of five children.  According to traditional genealogical sources, her mother, Mary Elizabeth Robertson was the daughter of Maclin Robertson who was in turn the son of Sterling Clack and Sarah Maclin Robertson.  Sterling Clack Robertson was born in 1785 in Tennessee and came to Texas as empresario of his own colony, settling in what would become Bell County near the current town of Salado.  Robertson was also a signer of the Texas Declaration of Independence.  On Liz’s father’s side, her Texas roots went back just as far.  Her father was Thomas Shelton Sutherland III.  His father was Thomas Shelton Sutherland II and his father was George Sutherland, born in Alabama and by profession a cowboy and rancher, who is noted as having served in the Texas Army and fought in the Battle of San Jacinto.

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