Growing Up by Decades by Gaylon Finklea Hecker and Marianne Odom

A Simpler Time in Texas: 1906 to 1954

Not that long ago some of the most successful Texans ever to walk the Earth cut their teeth, played hard, sweated harder, dreamed big, learned to never give up and developed the courage to make their mark on the world. From 1906 to 1954, despite great economic upheavals, world wars, Mother Nature’s wrath and prejudice and inequalities hard to fathom today, Texas was a good place for a good start.

Life was simpler. Grass was greener. The sky bluer. Responsibilities clear and heavy. Relationships straightforward. Expectations high. Neighborhoods neighborly. The horizon limitless. A handshake was as good as gold. Your word was your bond. Mothers served a Sunday lunch as hearty as the laughs around the table. Relatives lived across town, not the continent. Grandparents and cousins were mentors and playmates. Bank accounts might be measly, but everybody got by somehow, and the kids rarely knew if they were poor. They were rich in other ways.

Freedom was a gift for youngsters who often roamed in packs in small towns where somebody’s mother was sure to send them home at supper time. Imaginations ran free with that independence. The youngsters did chores. They didn’t talk back. They said, “Yes, ma’am,” and “No, sir” naturally, respectfully and invariably. They went to church and memorized Bible verses. They pledged allegiance to their country at sporting events and Vacation Bible School and sang “Texas, Our Texas” with ardent vigor and from memory.

They visited San Antonio’s Alamo, quietly respecting the John-Wayne-sized heroes who sacrificed their lives for Texas’ liberty. They jumped the waves at Galveston. They contemplated an empty horizon on the Llano Estacado. They marveled as torrents of oil bubbled from the rich East Texas fields, overnight transforming mere men into mega-millionaires. In the Piney Woods, they looked up for stars veiled by the Big Thicket’s loblollies. They rode bulls at rodeos or admired the brave who did.

They co-existed with strangers lured by the promise of free land to the Republic of Texas that was multicultural from the get-go. Even if they couldn’t fully appreciate it yet, later students learned in school that Texas had been a melting pot since Spanish explorers, then Catholic missionaries and finally Anglo settlers, some bringing black slaves, joined Mexican citizens and indigenous Indian tribes to build a remarkable state.

Of course, they weren’t strangers to challenges. This was Texas, not Disneyland. Struggling families most often lived off the land. Migrants followed ever-ripening crops. Minorities worshiped in their own churches, lived on their side of town, attended their own schools and watched movies from segregated balconies.

Texans believed they could do anything if they just set their minds to it. Their futures were as expansive as the abundant natural resources and the sheer size of the state. The sky was the limit for oil, petrochemicals, cattle, ranching, medicine, space, technology, industry, farming, timber, development, imports/exports, fishing and tourism. Name it. Texas had it. Great things were expected.

You could drive all day and into the night, and still say, “The sun has riz, the sun has set, and here we is in Texas yet.”

Medium-sized towns were ripe for growth. In 1910 even Dallas had only a smidgen more than half a million folks, Houston had half that many and San Antonio boasted almost as many as the City on the Bayou. Gradually and predictably, though, by 1950 little towns like Spur and Hot Wells, Goose Creek and Refugio, Mission and Karnack, Perryville, Weatherford and Wharton lost their youth to the siren’s call of opportunity. By mid-century Dallas clocked more than a million residents with on-the-rise Houston not far behind.

Like the rest of the country, Texas and Texans changed exponentially in the second half of the 20th century. But the memories of the first half, especially those of cherished, simple childhoods, offer snapshots of an era that no longer exists or at or at best is getting darn hard to find.

This was 1836

When the Alamo fell as the Mexican army breached the mission walls and the bugler blew “Degüillo” to announce no quarter, defenders inside had withstood a 13-day siege they knew was a losing battle. They had left Tennessee, Kentucky, Alabama, New York, Pennsylvania, Ireland and England to join the Texians. Because of their courage, they cast their names into the history book for all time, for all cultures — Travis, Crockett, Bowie, Bonham, 189 bold men in all. The Alamo inspired hope. This was 1836.

Later that spring, to the outraged cries of “Remember the Alamo, Remember Goliad,” Gen. Sam Houston’s ragtag troops surprised Generalissimo Santa Anna’s better-trained, better-equipped, better-fed, better-clothed army while they were sleeping. In 18 bloody minutes, the hasty battle had begun and ended at San Jacinto.

With that victory, the dye was cast, sealing the destiny of every native Texan ever to be born. From that day forward, the people of the Republic of Texas would forever be synonymous with bravery, honor, tenacity, guts, grit and dedication to a worthy cause. In 1946 that fabled fortune spilled over into the creation of the state of Texas, the 28th to join the United States of America, and its shadow fell on generations to follow.

Ancestors in the Texas history book

When the paperwork dried on the Declaration of Independence for the Republic of Texas, signers included the ancestors of Liz Carpenter (1920, Salado, journalist/aide to President and First Lady Johnson) and Kay Bailey Hutchison (1943, Galveston, NATO ambassador), whose family lived across the street from the Old Stone Fort in Nacogdoches where the early leaders had walked. Hutchison later filled the Senate seat of Republic of Texas treasurer Thomas Rusk, who along with Sam Houston were the first two men Texas sent to the U.S. Senate. On her mom’s side, Heloise (1951, Waco, household hint columnist), was a collateral descendant of David Crockett.

Guich Koock’s (1944, Austin, humorist) family had been in Texas before the revolution, and the town of Barksdale is named for them. Patrick Flores (1929, Ganado, archbishop) liked to say his family were Texans at least 150 years before his birth. Rex Tillerson’s (1952, Wichita Falls, U.S. secretary of state) folks came to Collin County around 1846 right as Texas joined the Union. Sarah McClendon’s (1910, Tyler, newspaper journalist) grandfather started a law practice with J. Pinckney Henderson, Texas’ first governor elected in 1845. Lauro F. Cavazos (1927, King Ranch, secretary of the U.S. Department of Education) grew up proudly knowing that on his mother’s side they had descended from the Angel of Goliad.

Famous Texans make the scene

In the decade 1900 to 1910, big things were happening in Texas. The “Great Hurricane,” still considered the worst ever, destroyed much of Galveston, along with 6,000 of its people. Near Beaumont, Captain A.F. Lucas, a mining engineer, found oil at Spindletop, catapulting Texas into the new petroleum age with its first oil boom. Paying a poll tax became a requirement for voting. And Clara Driscoll earned the title “Savior of the Alamo” by purchasing the Alamo’s Long Barracks and giving it to the Daughters of the Republic of Texas, which had custodianship for 106 years of what young Driscoll called “the grandest monument in the history of the world.”

Big things were happening in America in that decade, too. In 1903 brothers Wilbur and Orville Wright made the first controlled, sustained flight in their heavier-than-air aircraft. In 1908 Ford sold the Model T, affectionately named Tin Lizzie, for $850, making it the first affordable car. General Motors started competing for America’s automobile business, too. Americans and Texans were on the move.

1906 — In the tiny former slave colony of St. Mary in rural Bastrop County, Richard Overton came into the world mid-decade. His birth year coincided with the creation of Kellogg’s Toasted Corn Flakes and the San Francisco earthquake. While the importance of his arrival may fall somewhere in between cereal and devastation, 112 years later his longevity was historic. In 2018 he was alive still, having survived his tour of the South Pacific in World War II, daily cigar smoking, whiskey drinking and eating gallons of butter pecan Blue Bell ice cream. Overton was the oldest living man in the United States and the oldest World War II veteran.

1910 — When Sarah McClendon was born, Lt. Benjamin D. Foulois made the first military air flight in a Wright brothers’ plane at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio. Also the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, known as the NAACP, was organized, novelist Mark Twain died, and “comet pills” were sold as an antidote for the poisonous gas thought to constitute the tail of Halley’s Comet, as it came close to Earth.

1911 — Ice cream production began by the Brenham Creamery Co. in an abandoned cotton gin. In 1930 the owners renamed it Blue Bell after a Texas wildflower.

1912 — When Lady Bird Johnson (Karnack, First Lady and beautification campaigner) was born, the world listened in horror as radio news reported the sinking of the Titanic after hitting an iceberg on its maiden voyage. But on a brighter note, the Japanese gifted 2,000 tiny cherry trees to America as a token of friendship. They were planted in Washington, D.C.

1913 — Mary Martin (Weatherford, actress best known as Peter Pan) was born the same year the buffalo nickel with an Indian head flip side debuted along with the Erector Set. As World War I was in its early stages, a German torpedo boat sunk the ocean liner Lusitania, and New York’s Woolworth Building was the world’s tallest at a soaring 55 stories.

1914 — President Wilson pledged America’s neutrality as war spread in Europe, and the Panama Canal opened to commerce, the greatest engineering feat in history to that point. The Houston Ship Channel also opened and began to attract refineries after the end of World War I.

1917 — World War I had called Americans to help fight evil and to save democracy as they sang “We won’t be back till it’s over over there.” H.G. Wells famously termed it the “war to end war.” The majority of Texas’ soldiers served in the American Expeditionary Forces, mostly the 36th and 90th Infantry divisions. When Uncle Sam pointed his finger in the iconic “I Want You for U.S. Army,” poster, Texans answered his call with almost 200,000 soldiers. Many trained for ground and air battle at places like Camp MacArthur in Waco, Camp Bowie in Fort Worth and San Antonio’s Kelly and Brooks fields. By war’s end, more than 5,000 Texas doughboys and flyboys had died for their country’s honor.

1918 — With the Great War over, Mary Kay Ash (cosmetics entrepreneur) was born in Hot Wells.  That year Texas women voted for the first time, two years ahead of women in the rest of America, who had to wait until 1920 for their suffrage. Women in Texas had earned the right to vote in 1917 thanks to the hard work of many suffragettes, who persuaded the all-male Legislature to give them the right to pay poll taxes and vote in the 1918 primary. Records show that in the 17 days after the bill’s passage, 386,000 Texas women, about 20 percent, had registered to vote.  Also, a wildcat well drilled near a Burkburnett farm ignited an oil boom near the Red River that soon made the little North Texas town world famous. Rex Tillerson’s (ExxonMobil CEO) grandfather went to work on a Burkburnett crew delivering casing with mule teams, the family’s first adventure into Texas oil.

1910 to 1920 -- Meanwhile, that same decade, Pancho Villa, outlaw and leader in the Mexican Revolution, evaded young U.S. Army officers Gen. John J. “Black Jack” Pershing, Capt. Douglas MacArthur and Lts. George Patton and Dwight Eisenhower. Villa stole silver mines, including three belonging to the prominent Reyes family of San Lucas. Their son stood up against Villa who demanded he leave Mexico or be shot. Reyes fled to South Texas as a political refugee, managed large cattle ranches and fathered 14 children, including Humberto “Bert” Reyes (Berclair, international bilingual auctioneer), who could hear from his segregated schoolhouse Longhorns bawling as they entered railroad cars headed to Chicago’s slaughterhouses.

1920 — Born this year, Denton Cooley (pioneering heart surgeon) was a third-generation Houstonian. In the 1880s his grandfather developed the Houston Heights when he noticed that a breeze blew at this slightly higher elevation, making it less advantageous to yellow fever-carrying mosquitoes prevalent in low-lying Houston. Years later, A.J. Foyt (1935, Houston, auto racer), also grew up in the Heights, running his earliest cars on dirt streets near a pickle factory. During Prohibition, the Texas Rangers patrolled the Rio Grande against tequila smugglers and cattle rustlers. The National Football League was created, and the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution allowing women the vote was ratified.

1922 — Lillian Dunlap (Mission, military nurse) showed up the year the Lincoln Memorial was dedicated. At the same time, Vanity Fair magazine called women who wore short hair, red rouge and shapeless dresses showing too much ankle “flappers.”

1923 — With the construction of a carbon black plant in Stephens County, the Texas petrochemical industry was born. Liz Smith (Fort Worth, gossip columnist) appeared on the scene the same year the Dr Pepper Co. was incorporated in Dallas and Paramount produced Cecil B. DeMille’s epic “The Ten Commandments.”

1926 — Ray Price was born (Perryville, country music singer) the year Americans celebrated the 150th Fourth of July and a noted writer penned, “The machine (has caused) the herding of men into towns and cities … Minds began to be standardized as were the clothes men wore.” Indeed, Texas had about 5 million folks at the time, and its big cities were growing.

1927 — Lauro F. Cavazos drew his first breath on the enormous King Ranch, where his family proudly called themselves “Kineños,” or King’s men, since they followed Capt. Richard King from their village in Mexico to help build the legendary ranch in 1854. Red McCombs (billionaire entrepreneur) was born in teeny Spur in the middle of nowhere. Far away from Texas, Lucky Lindy hopped over the Atlantic, flying 3,600 miles from New York to Paris in 33.5 hours.

1928 — Jimmy Dean (Olton, country music star and businessman) was born as politics in Texas was heating up when the Democratic National Convention came to Houston, the first nominating convention held in a southern city since 1860. Also, Walt Disney created Mickey Mouse, and sliced bread was invented, prompting the saying “the best thing since … .”

1929 — “Black Tuesday” blared across the headlines as Wall Street took a dive so deep and fast it collapsed in violent trading that was the most disastrous in its history. Meanwhile, that same year, the League of United Latin American Citizens, known as LULAC, was founded in Corpus Christi while Patrick Flores (Ganado) was born to a migrant family. Dan Jenkins (Fort Worth, sports journalist and author) came along as the Texas-Oklahoma football game was established as an annual event. The next year construction began on the 46,000-seat stadium later renamed the Cotton Bowl.

1930 — The biggest news in Texas was out in the East Texas oilfield, where 5,000 landowners, leaseholders, stockholders, creditors and spectators congregated to see if the Daisy Bradford No. 3 well drilled in Rusk County by affable wildcatter C.M. “Dad” Joiner would come it. Come in it did, a gusher floating on an ocean of oil. One Kilgore historian wrote that thousands crowded their way to the site, hoping against hope that if oil was indeed discovered that it would “wash away the misery of the Great Depression.” The East Texas oilfield covered parts of five counties, has more than 30,000 historic and active wells, and is the second-largest oil field in the United States outside Alaska. Its discovery changed how Texans and Americans lived. Samuel W. Lewis Jr. (Houston, U.S. ambassador to Israel) made his appearance this year.

1931 — While men looking to make their fortunes swarmed into the East Texas oil patch, Dan Rather (Wharton, TV news journalist and anchor), whose dad worked for Humble Oil, was born as well as Les Wilk (Houston, fashion designer), whose family never worked in the oil bidness. In an effort to promote a favorable image for the Texas prison system, the Texas Prison Rodeo was begun at the Huntsville Penitentiary and had a 55-year run. Elsewhere in America, Congress designated “The Star-Spangled Banner” as the national anthem and New York’s Empire State Building opened as the tallest building in the world.

1932 — Debbie Reynolds (El Paso, actress and comedienne) made the scene as Amelia Earhart made a scene of her own, the first aviatrix to cross the Atlantic Ocean. John Nance “Cactus Jack” Garner, born in a log cabin near Detroit, Texas, was elected vice president on Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s ticket. Texans agreed that a “New Deal for the forgotten man” should be backed, and almost 89 percent of the state’s votes went to the Democratic ticket.

1933 — Babies Kathryn Crosby (West Columbia, actress) and Rose Spector (San Antonio, Texas Supreme Court justice) showed up as FDR took the oath of office, declaring, “The only thing to fear is fear itself.” He instituted the “Fireside Chat” to address radio audiences. Newsweek and Esquire magazines began publication, and King Kong carried a scared Faye Wray up the side of the Empire State Building. Newly elected Gov. “Ma” Ferguson fired all the Texas Rangers who opposed her, drastically decreasing the force. Consequently, Texas became a haven for bad guys such as George “Machine Gun” Kelly, Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker.

1935 — From this year until the end of the decade, Western Texas was severely impacted by the Dust Bowl. This was the worst year for the storms in Amarillo, where they lasted 908 hours. Seven times in three months the visibility there declined to zero, and one of these complete blackouts lasted 11 hours. Another storm lasted 3 1/2 days. Also this year, Nettie Houston Bringhurst, Sam Houston’s last surviving daughter, died and was the first to lie in state in the Alamo. Only four have been so honored, including Clara Driscoll.

1936 — A group in Bartlett received one of the first 10 loans from the Rural Electrification Administration, an attempt to bring electricity to rural farmers at a time when only 2.3 percent of Texas farmers had central-station electricity. When the first 158-mile line serving 120 members was energized, members claimed the Bartlett project was the first in the nation under REA. This year, too, the Texas Centennial Exposition drew more than 6 million people during a six-month run at Dallas’ much-expanded Fair Park.

1937 — This was a big birth year for future famous Texans Robert Crippen (Beaumont, Shuttle astronaut), Trini Lopez (Dallas, musician) and Bob Schieffer (Austin, TV news journalist). The year was one for the Texas history books, as a natural gas leak beneath the New London School building caused a massive explosion in that small Rusk County town. It killed 296 students, teachers and staff, and as a result, the Texas Legislature required that a scent be added to the odorless gas to more easily detect leaks. But that wasn’t the only bad gas news, as the hydrogen-filled Hindenburg dirigible exploded, and Amelia Earhart disappeared near New Guinea. Her last transmission was “gas is low.”

1938 -— Rex Reed was born (Fort Worth, movie critic) as Superman hit the comic book stand and “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” delighted audiences as the first feature-length cartoon film. The San Antonio River Beautification Project, turning the little river, whose disastrous 1921 flood took 50 lives, into the 2.5-mile downtown River Walk, had funding from bonds and the Works Progress Administration. But the biggest news impacting Texans and every other American was that the Depression continued with nationwide unemployment at 10 million.

1939 — Tommy Tune’s (Wichita Falls, Broadway dancer and choreographer) birth year also saw Americans flood the theaters to see “Gone With the Wind” and “Wizard of Oz.” Fifty-eight percent of Americans believed the United States would be drawn into war, although the U.S. was officially neutral. Texas geared up its military preparedness. President Roosevelt beefed up the Works Projects Administration. Projects at the San Antonio Zoo and state parks are enjoyed long after WPA funded them. 

1940 — The year Delbert McClinton (Lubbock, blues and rock musician) arrived on the scene, America’s population had climbed to 131.6 million, with a life expectancy of 63 years. Texas had 6.4 million and growth was inevitable. In Vermont, Ida Fuller became the first Social Security recipient when she received check No. 000-00-001 for $22.54.  FDR was back for an unprecedented third term in a sweeping victory. Americans were uneasy over the possibility that the U.S. would enter the war, which was not going well in Europe.

1941-’45 — During these challenging war years, Texas supplied a greater percentage of men and women to the armed forces, more than 750,000 Texans, than any other state. The military presence grew exponentially as military posts sprang up statewide to accommodate the constant stream of recruits, of which 1.5 million were trained in Texas. So many pilots trained at Randolph Field, it was called the “West Point of the Air.” Among top commanders from Texas were Dwight D. Eisenhower and Chester W. Nimitz. Kingston native Audie Murphy was the Army’s most decorated soldier. More than 22,000 Texans died.

1943 — Joe Armstrong’s (Fort Worth, magazine publisher) birth year saw a race riot in Beaumont lead to a declaration of martial law while race riots erupted in New York, Los Angeles and Detroit. The U.S. defeated Japan at Guadalcanal, Allies stopped Rommel in North Africa and 60,000 American soldiers died in battle. Also, the Jefferson Memorial was dedicated, American war production was at its peak, and a popular slogan advised, “Use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without.”

1945 — World War II ended in Europe and Japan. America’s Enola Gay dropped the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima, ushering in the Atomic Age, and Fat Man, the second atomic bomb, blew up Nagasaki as Sarah Weddington (Abilene, attorney), Jaclyn Smith (Houston, TV star and fashion businesswoman) and Ruth Simmons (Grapeland, college president) were born. The Big Three carved up the world at Yalta, Marines raised Old Glory over Iwo Jima, FDR died and Japan formally signed the surrender documents aboard the USS Missouri battleship in Tokyo Bay. Earlier in the spring, the war ended in Europe, too, as the Germans signed an unconditional surrender at Reims, France, on VE Day. Hitler and his mistress were found dead, and as the deaths camps were liberated, man’s inhumanity to man shocked the world one more time.

1946 — As Winston Churchill declared an “Iron Curtain has descended in Europe,” Sandy Duncan (Henderson, actress and comedienne), Jerry LeVias (Beaumont, National Football League athlete) and Michael Levy (Dallas, magazine publisher) entered a world at peace. While American parents read Dr. Benjamin Spock’s “Common Sense of Baby and Child Care,” Nazi leaders were hanged for crimes against humanity, millions of American workers went on strike and rockets launched from White Sands, New Mexico, explored the fringes of space.

1947 — Henry Cisneros (San Antonio, secretary of U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development) and Nolan Ryan (Refugio, Major League Baseball pitcher) were born the year one of the worst disasters in Texas history occurred. The French-owned SS Grandcamp, carrying ammonium nitrate, exploded in Texas City harbor, followed the next morning by the explosion of the SS High Flyer. Almost 600 were killed and at least 4,000 more injured. The concussion was felt 75 miles away in Port Arthur. Despite derision, Jackie Robison broke the color code in baseball, Chuck Yaeger shattered the sound barrier and 4 million veterans took advantage of the G.I. Bill.

1948 – Sandra Brown’s (Waco, novelist) birth coincided with Lyndon B. Johnson beating Coke Stevenson in the U.S. Senate race by 87 votes. The winning margin in the disputed primary was registered in Ballot Box No. 13 in Jim Wells County. Outside Texas, the U.S. was the first to recognize the State of Israel, and despite what the Chicago Tribune’s headline proclaimed, Truman defeated Dewey. Babe Ruth died shortly after appearing at the 25th anniversary of Yankee Stadium, “The House That Ruth Built.”

1949 — Phyllis George (Denton, Miss America and TV sportscaster) entered the world as The University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston admitted its first black student. The next year, the U.S. Supreme Court ordered racial integration at UT Law School. Sam Rayburn was elected speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives. Some 1,780 newspapers reached 53 million in circulation, and the U.S. population was 153 million. The magical “South Pacific,” based on tales by James Michener, enjoyed the largest advance movie sales in history.

1951 — Ponce Cruse, better known as Heloise (Waco, household hints columnist) got her start as General of the Army Douglas MacArthur ended his career, saying, “Old soldiers never die. They just fade away.” The U.S. detonated the first H-bomb while “I Love Lucy” and “The Roy Rogers Show” entertained millions on TV.

1952 — Ben Crenshaw (Austin, professional golfer) was born the year the first Texas-born president of the United States, Dwight D. Eisenhower, was elected. He signed the Tidelands Bill, giving Texas the rights to its offshore oil. In May a devastating tornado killed 114 and injured 597 more in Waco and destroyed many downtown buildings. Edna Ferber published the novel “Giant.”

1954 — The year Leon Coffee (Blanco, rodeo clown) was born, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously struck down the idea of “separate but equal” in Brown vs the Board of Education at the same time Texas women gained the right to serve on juries. Because 70 percent of American families now owned cars, a system of interstate highways was proposed.  

1950s — This decade saw many firsts, including the development of the integrated circuit by Texas Instruments in Dallas, ushering in the semiconductor and electronics age. Also, the first McDonald’s opened, Rosa Parks refused to give up her bus seat, America’s first military advisers went to Vietnam, Lego blocks and Barbie dolls were created, Elvis rocked America, Grace Kelly married her prince and NASA, the National Aeronautics and Space Agency, was created to coordinate space technology research.

1960s — While the famous Texans born in the ’50s were growing up, they spent most of their early school years in the aura of the riotous 1960s, when the times, they really were a-changin’. Civil rights, powered by sit-ins, blew up the country, and Freedom Riders were attacked and arrested in the South. The U-2 spy plane was shot down over Russia, and the Cuban Missile Crisis had the world holding its breath. Astronaut John Glenn orbited the Earth, and Apollo 11 landed the first man on the moon. The British Invasion, led by the Beatles, took America by storm, while 400,000 also stormed a farm outside Woodstock, New York, for a “coming together” around music. The unpopular Vietnam War drug on and dragged families apart. The Kennedy family watched as its son rose to the presidency and was shot and killed in Dallas, followed by a second son who experienced the same fate in Los Angeles. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his inspiring “I Have a Dream” speech from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, and an assassin soon took him away, too.

Texas in the 1960s

Everything being bigger in Texas, as the saying goes, the decade lived up to that reputation as Six Flags Over Texas, a 212-acre theme park, opened in Arlington to rave reviews, while in Houston the Astrodome was unveiled as the first domed stadium and the largest indoor arena ever built. NASA also opened the Manned Spacecraft Center, later renamed the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center, in Houston.

LBJ, born in a small town in the Hill Country and saw poverty first hand, passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, that outlawed discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex or national origin. The poll tax was repealed by an amendment to the Texas Constitution. John Tower won a special election of the U.S. Senate, becoming the first Republican senator from Texas since Reconstruction, while Houstonian Barbara Jordan became the first black woman elected to the Texas Senate. The Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, known as MALDEF, was incorporated in Texas, locating its first national office in San Antonio.

Charles Whitman, a U.S. Marine and Eagle Scout, shot and killed 17 people from the observation deck of the Main Building Tower at The University of Texas in Austin. Because local police were poorly equipped to deal with the sniper, the tragedy was a key catalyst leading to special weapons and tactics, or SWAT, teams across the country.

In the summer of 1969 as the decade raced to its end, Apollo 11 Astronaut Neil Armstrong transmitted the first words from the surface of the moon, saying, “Houston, the Eagle has landed.”

The world had changed. But Texas was on top.