Adina de Zavala

Adina Emilia de Zavala was the oldest child of Augustine and Julia Tyrrell de Zavala. Augustine (1832-1894) was the oldest of the three children born to Lorenzo de Zavala and his second wife Emily West (1809-1882). Lorenzo was married twice, first to Maria Josefa Teresa Correa y Correa with whom he had three children: Maria Manuela, Lorenzo (Jr.) and William Henry and second to Miranda Emily West whom he married after Maria Josefa passed away, and with whom he had Augustine, Emilia and Ricardo. The family lived near the San Jacinto battleground and Lorenzo, the grandfather, died late in the year 1836 at the age of 48, after being caught out in a norther while in his boat.

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Mary Jane Harris Briscoe

Mary Jane Harris Briscoe (1819 – 1903) was the daughter of John Richardson Harris (1790 – 1829) and Jane Birdsall Harris (1791 – 1869). She was the sister of three other children, DeWitt Clinton Harris, Lewis Birdsall Harris and John Birdsall Harris. Her father John R. Harris is credited for being the founder of Harrisburg (now Houston), Texas.

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Oveta Culp Hobby

The name Oveta Culp Hobby is probably somewhat familiar to Texans, whether or not they may know who she actually was. She was born Oveta Hoover Culp on January 19, 1905 in Killeen, Bell County, Texas to Isaac William Culp (1870-1934) and the former Emma Elizabeth Hoover (1881-1959). Isaac was born in Coryell County to John Robinson Culp and the former Mary A. Dole. John Robinson Culp’s parents were Josiah C. Culp, Jr. (1819-1879) and Rachel Eaton. Less is probably known about Josiah than his son John Robinson Culp or grandson Isaac William Culp, but Josiah is believed to have come to Texas from the southeast prior to the Civil War and served for some period in the Confederate Army, possibly the entire time in the Frontier Brigade, in Texas having enlisted in Gatesville.

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Caro Crawford Brown

Thirteen women were inducted into the Texas Women’s Hall of Fame on September 18, 1986. They included astronaut Sally Ride, women’s basketball coach Jody Conradt, business executive Mary Kay Ash, former ambassador Anne Armstrong, rancher Mary Lavinia Griffith, educator and civic leader Ada Simond, educator Wilhelmina Delco, pathologist May Owen, attorney Hermine Dalkowitz Tobolowsky, publishing editor Margaret Cousins, civic volunteers Alicia R. Chacon and Frances E. Goff and journalist Caro Crawford Brown.

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Edna Gladney

Edna Browning Kahly was born on January 22, 1886 to Maurice (or Morris) and Minnie Nell Jones Kahly in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.  Nothing is easily found about her father, but by 1900, Minnie Nell, her mother, Edna and her sister were living with Minnie’s mother in Milwaukee.  Around 1903 Edna was sent to Texas to live with relatives in Fort Worth and about three years later in 1906, she married Samuel William Gladney.  Sam was born in 1877 in Commanche County to Thomas Lacy and Joyce Cathron Bowdon Gladney in 1882.  Tom was a rancher there in West Texas.  By 1900, Sam was 22 and living with the family in Gainesville, Cooke County, Texas.

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