Traces of Tx (today)

[Shakey Jake]

Here's the Texas Quote of the Day (Per Traces of Texas)
"In 1966 upon being told that French President Charles De Gaulle had taken France out of NATO and that all U.S. troops must be evacuated off of French soil, President Lyndon Johnson mentioned to Secretary of State Dean Rusk that he should ask De Gaulle about the Americans buried in France. Rusk implied in his answer that De Gaulle should not really be asked that in the meeting, at which point President Johnson then said to Rusk:
"Ask him about the cemeteries Dean!"
That made it into a Presidential Order, so Rusk had to ask President De Gaulle.
So at end of the meeting Dean did ask De Gaulle if his order to remove all U.S. troops from French soil also included the 60,000+ soldiers buried in France from World War I and World War II.
De Gaulle, embarrassed, got up and left and never answered.”
----- Thomas J. Schoenbaum, "Waging peace and war: Dean Rusk in the Truman, Kennedy, and Johnson Years", 1988.
Shown here: Dean Rusk and President Lyndon B. Johnson

[Shakey Jake]

Another goodie from T of T Facebook group:
After former Texas Governor Jim Hogg's death in 1906, his daughter Ima and her brothers tried to sell the Varner Plantation that the governor had owned, but a provision in his will specified that the land be kept for 15 years. On January 15, 1918, oil was found on the Varner Plantation. A second strike the following year provided oil income amounting to $225,000 a month shared among the four siblings. This is the equivalent of about 3 million dollars per month in today's money. The Hoggs did not believe that the oil money was rightfully theirs, as it had come from the land and not hard work, and they were determined to use it for the good of Texas. As a result, Ima Hogg became one of the greatest philanthropists in Texas history.
Shown here: Circa 1890, Governor Jim Hogg with wife Sarah, daughter Ima on the far left, and sons William Clifford, Michael Stephen, and Thomas Elisha.
(Note: This includes the Bayou Bend in Houston. It's a "must stop" if you're ever in the area. https://www.visithoustontexas.com/listi ... ens/19626/

[Shakey Jake]

A. J. Royal, Pecos County sheriff, son of Ethel Joseph and Mary Frances (Ousley) Royal, was born in Lee County, Alabama, on November 25, 1855, the only son in a family of five daughters. He left the family farm and moved as a young man to Fort Worth, Texas, where he worked for the railroad. He married Naomi Obedience Christmus on January 19, 1879, in Coryell County, and the couple moved to Junction, where Royal operated a saloon and a ranch. Reportedly, he was indicted for murder there. In 1889 he took his family to Pecos County, where he farmed. The Royals had six daughters and one son. In Pecos County Royal quarreled with one of his employees and killed the man on the street in Fort Stockton. In 1892 he was elected sheriff of Pecos County. While sheriff, he won the Koehler Saloon in a card game, but the owner died before signing it over. On August 6, 1894, Royal had a shoot-out with James Rooney in the saloon.

As sheriff, Royal was a controversial figure. Some citizens thought he used his power to terrorize those who disagreed with him, especially several prominent people. Others considered him a tough lawman who fought hard to establish law and order. During the campaign for reelection, he reportedly allowed a Mexican American prisoner to escape in exchange for being allowed to make a campaign speech to Hispanic voters. He was subsequently arrested by the United States marshal for letting a federal prisoner escape. Royal was defeated in the election. On November 21, 1894, he was murdered in his office at the courthouse by an unknown assailant. Tradition in Pecos County states that nine leading citizens met together and agreed that Royal should be killed. No one was ever charged with the crime.

[Shakey Jake]

William Everett Preston (September 2, 1946 - June 6, 2006) was a soul musician from Houston, Texas. Along with Tony Sheridan, he was one of just two non-members to receive top billing on a Beatles record.
Billy first met The Beatles while touring with Little Richard’s band in 1962. At the time The Beatles were the opening act.
They met again in 1969, during the sessions for the Let It Be album and film. George had recently gone to a Ray Charles concert in London, where he saw Preston playing the organ.
“When I went with Eric Clapton to see Ray Charles play at the Festival Hall, before Ray came on there was a guy on stage playing the organ, dancing about and singing ‘Double-O Soul’,” said George.
“I thought, That guy looks familiar,’ but he seemed bigger than I remembered. After a while Ray came on and the band played for a few songs and then he reintroduced… Billy Preston! Ray said, ‘Since I heard Billy play I don’t play the organ any more – I leave it to him.’ I thought, ‘It’s Billy!’ Since we had last seen him in Hamburg in 1962, when he was just a little lad, he had grown to be six foot tall.”
George invited Preston into the studio, where his enthusiasm and easy-going personality helped ease the tensions. At the time Preston was in London to film some BBC television appearances.
John was in favor of making Preston a full member of the band; Paul disagreed, saying there was little point as the band was close to splitting. Nevertheless, he worked with The Beatles for ten days in January 1969, playing Fender Rhodes electric piano and a Lowrey DSO Heritage organ.
Preston performed with The Beatles during their 42-minute performance on the rooftop of Apple, in January 1969, which was the band’s final public performance.
The ‘Get Back’ single was credited to “The Beatles with Billy Preston”, as was its b-side, ‘Don’t Let Me Down’.
In the years preceding his death Preston had worked on a collection of Beatles cover versions, which remains unreleased.
(Source: Abbey Road Tribute)

[Shakey Jake]

Eugene Freeman "Shake" Oliver worked as a shoe shiner in several barber shops in Dublin and on the sidewalks of Blackjack and Patrick Streets. He earned the space by sweeping up hair at the barber shops. In the 1940s he lived in a lean-to behind the J. F. Edmonds home on Grafton Street. He was born around 1888 and died after the Korean War. Don't you know he had lots of stories to tell about what he overheard while working. It's a fine picture from the Portals of Texas History. This picture portrait was taken by J.R. Rogers about 1950.

[Shakey Jake]

One of the best Día de los Muertos pictures I've seen. This was taken in Terlingua. There's going to be a huge Día de los Muertos parade in Houston tomorrow.

https://abc13.com/houston-dia-de-los-mu ... /14012596/

[Shakey Jake]

Dean Griffth submitted this awesome photo of the Light House Trail at Palo Duro Canyon.
Jake

[CT_Shooter]

Preston performed with The Beatles during their 42-minute performance on the rooftop of Apple, in January 1969, which was the band’s final public performance.
The ‘Get Back’ single was credited to “The Beatles with Billy Preston”, as was its b-side, ‘Don’t Let Me Down’.

Peter Jackson's documentary about the Beatles final live performance Get Back (streaming on Disney and essential viewing) brought Billy Preston front and center and "back where he once belonged". Thank you, George.

My Sweet Lord.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1EORbL8N-R8

[Shakey Jake]

The man shown in these two images is James Edward Pettus of Goliad, Texas, who was born in 1855 and died in 1942. He was a rancher at death but he had been an old trail cowboy. I just read what he said in a 1930 magazine article and it is so, so good:
"He talks of moving herds of cattle over a great distance of land in dangerous times, the day-to-day struggles, the fears, and the exhilaration of accomplishment and finally heading back home to Texas .... 'I rode the range when it was new, with my father's cattle and horses and many a pleasant memory is mine as I hark back to cow camps, long before barbed wire fence days. The songs that we sung to the cattle; of sleeping, dead to the world, with water running down round our bedding and tricking down our backs as the rain pelted on our hat brims pulled over our faces for protection. Of stampeded and everything else in God's world to make us miserable, but strange to say none of 'em did, we slept, ate, rounded-up, branded, marked and drove cattle as free-hearted and happy as if we had been on a lark of some kind."
HOW GREAT IS THAT? Source: Stories of the Old Trail Drivers of Long Ago" by Cora M. Cross in Semi-Weekly Farm News of Dallas, Texas August 26, 1930
These photos come from James E. Pettus' Find-A-Grave entry. The newspaper article appeared in 1884.
(Source: Traces of Texas)

[Shakey Jake]

The Texas Quote of the Day has Tom Landry, former coach of the Dallas Cowboys and Texan, describing how his B-17 ran out of gas at the end of World War II, forcing a crash landing. Great story!
“We tore up one ’17 pretty good when we ran out of gas. Our alternative airfield was in France because at the time we didn’t have enough gas left in the tank to make it across the Channel to England. So we went to our alternate, and when we got there it was zero visibility—just totally fogged in. I don’t know how many hundreds of planes might have gone down that day trying to find their alternate field. We were skimming the treetops and the roofs of the houses, trying to find an airfield. We’d know about where it was from our navigator; he’d tell us where it was, and then we’d have to drop down through the fog to find the field. Well, finally we just ran out of gas. We moved everybody to the back of the plane, cut the motors, and looked for a field to land in. But fields over there are lined with trees, not fences. We overshot the field we picked and went right into the trees. The trees knocked the wings off, and when the plane stopped, there was a tree trunk sitting about a foot in front of us where we sat as pilots. Everybody just got up and walked off the plane. Nobody got hurt because there was no gas to explode.”
------ Tom Landry in a 1981 interview with Mark Oristano