The actress Irene Ryan was born Jesse Irene Noblitt on October 17, 1902 to James Merritt and Catherine J. McSharry Noblitt while her family was living in El Paso, Texas. James was stationed at Fort Bliss and the family did not remain in Texas long, but El Paso has always claimed Irene. The Noblitts lived off the base on Franklin Street near downtown. Irene recounted that she was born at home. James was a sergeant in the United States Army and soon after she was born, they moved to California. Irene began entertaining when she was a teenager and recalled winning a talent contest when she was eleven years old. When she was nineteen, she married actor Tim Ryan. The couple appeared as Ryan and Noblette in vaudeville until that venue declined. After this, the couple appeared on radio as Tim and Irene. Ryan was a character actor who appeared in many films over the years, including From Here to Eternity (1953). The couple was married for about 16 years, and had no children. Husband Tim Ryan died in 1956 of a heart attack.
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Law Officers Killed By The Barrow Gang: Murphy and Wheeler (Victims 7 and 8)
The seventh and eighth law officers to be killed by the Barrow Gang were Texas Highway Patrol motorcycle officers H. D. Murphy (22) and Edward Wheeler (26). At about 3:00 PM on April 1, 1934, they were driving down a lane with another officer, Polk Ivy. Ivy was in the lead and Murphy and Wheeler were trailing some distance behind. The three patrolmen were heading to a rural location to do some target shooting when the incident occurred.
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Pyote Army Air Field, the “Enola Gay” and “The Swoose”
(Image credit: aircraftboneyards.com)
The origin of the name of Pyote, Texas is unknown, but possibly derived either from a mispronunciation of the word “coyote” by foreign railroad workers or it was a variation of the word peyote, the name of a local cactus plant. Pyote is located roughly about halfway between Pecos and Monahans in Ward County, Texas. It has had two notable “boomlets” in its history, the first after oil was discovered in the area around 1920 and a second during World War II.
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Pearl Harbor Survivor Stories – December 24, 1941
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On Christmas Eve, December 24, 1941, the Abilene Reporter News carried a short article under the headline “Pearl Harbor Survivors Tell Stories of Courage.” It was a United Press article out of Pearl Harbor, Hawaii a few days earlier.
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Law Officers Killed by the Barrow Gang: Major Crowson (Victim Number 6)
The headline of the Corsicana Daily Sun, January 16, 1934, read “Noted Texas Desperado Shoots Down Guards On Eastham Prison Farm,” referring to Clyde Barrow. Though Clyde was directly involved in the prison break, the headline overstated Barrow’s role in the death of one guard and the serious injury of another. Guard Major Crowson (Major was his given name) was said to have been shot point blank in the abdomen by convict Joe Palmer. Another guard by the name of Olin Bozeman was shot in the hip, apparently by convict Raymond Hamilton although in early accounts, various other prisoners were said to have shot the guards. Bozeman recovered from his wounds, but Crowson succumbed to his gunshot wound some eleven days later, after identifying Palmer as the one who shot him.
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Texas History Notebook 