Native Texans GAYLON FINKLEA HECKER and MARIANNE ODOM believe determination is a typically Texas trait. The almost 50 remarkable interviewees in GROWING UP IN THE LONE STAR STATE: NOTABLE TEXANS REMEMBER THEIR CHILDHOODS attribute their drive to succeed to childhoods on Texas soil. The authors, too, credit their similar East Texas roots for arming them with a strong work ethic and a never-give-up attitude that steered this project from parlor talk to publication. They began collecting oral histories of famous Texans in 1981 when they shared a tiny office in the features department at the San Antonio Express-News. They collaborated on “The Businesses That Built San Antonio,” a coffee table book of first-person accounts of business leaders, to commemorate the Texas Sesquicentennial in 1986. Although the childhood recollections project remained close to their hearts, their 28 interviews languished in file cabinets in the 1990s-2000s as the authors pursued other careers. An unexpected twist of fate in 2013 rejuvenated their efforts and led to an additional 18 interviews. The result is a more encompassing view of Texas in the early 20th century as its brightest stars reflect the diversity of its people, resources, geography, opportunities and lifestyles. Persistence pays off —especially in Texas.

FINKLEA HECKER was a reporter for the San Antonio Light and San Antonio Express-News, associate editor of SA: The Magazine, editor of Seniors San Antonio Style and contributor to Newsweek. She also served as editor of the Jewish Journal in San Antonio and The Jewish Outlook in Austin and worked in corporate communications. She is the author of four recent books concerning Texas history: “The Daughters: A Dozen Decades of DRT,” “Dusting Off A Legend: The St. Anthony Hotel,” “Enhancing Quality of Life for 75 Years: Bandera Electric Cooperative,” and “Bonjour, Y’All: A Squirrel’s Nutty Tale of the Texas French Legation,” written especially for children. She is a journalism graduate of The University of Texas at Austin. An only child, she was raised in Hull-Daisetta, the Mayberry of Southeast Texas, by her father, a lifelong ExxonMobil employee and drilling superintendent, and stay-at-home mom. She fondly remembers wearing her fringed Annie Oakley outfit, Davy Crockett T-shirt and cowboy boots to her aunt’s small-town rodeo.

ODOM covered fashion in New York, Paris, California and around Texas for the San Antonio Express-News and won accolades for revealing profiles of designers and celebrities. She was a reporter for the Tyler Courier-Times Telegraph, contributing editor for Edible San Antonio and contributor to the San Antonio Light, Seniors San Antonio Style and professional journals. The long-time educator taught journalism at Tyler Junior College and San Antonio College where she directs the Journalism-Photography Program and advises student publications. She has a master’s degree from Texas A&M University-Commerce and a bachelor’s from the University of North Texas. Born and reared in Tyler, otherwise known as the Rose Capital of the World, she was the younger child of the police chief and an elementary teacher. She recalls the value of a cowboy hat, pointy boots and flannel-lined jeans when taming the Wild West in her backyard, but she preferred the civility of the frilly dresses her mother sewed.