Teala Loring (1922-2007)

    Teala Loring, American actress, was born Marcia Eloise Griffin on October 6, 1922 in Denver, Colorado. She was the sister of actors Debra Paget, Lisa Gaye, and Reull Shayne. At the start of her film career, she was sometimes credited as Judith Gibson. From 1942, Loring appeared in uncredited or bit parts in films at Paramount, turning up as a cigarette girl in Holiday Inn and as a telephone operator in Double Indemnity, for example. In 1945-46, she appeared in ten films released by the low-key Poverty Row studio Monogram Pictures, including Fall Guy (1947), the Charlie Chan vehicle Dark Alibi (1946), and two films starring Kay Francis, Allotment Wives (1945) and Wife Wanted (1946). Having failed to achieve the success that her sister Debra would capture in the 1950s, Loring made her final film, Arizona Cowboy in 1950. She died at the age of 84 on January 28, 2007 from injuries she sustained in an automobile accident in Spring, Texas.

Section S1

Houston National Cemetery

Houston

COORDINATES

29° 55.948, -095° 27.333

Frank Mariano Tejeda (1945-1997)

    Frank Mariano Tejeda, Jr., congressman, was born in San Antonio, Texas, on October 2, 1945. He was the son of Frank Tejeda and Lillie (Cisneros) Tejeda. Growing up in the slums of the South Side of San Antonio, young Frank experienced the difficulties of being poor. Still, he served as an altar boy at St. Leo the Great Catholic Church and attended St. Leo the Great Catholic School, played Little League athletics, participated in the Boy Scouts, and worked with his parents to earn money. As a teenager, Tejeda appeared difficult and often found himself in trouble with authorities. An indifferent student, he skipped classes, fought with school authorities, and associated himself with a tough gang. At the age of seventeen in 1963, Tejeda quit Harlandale High School and joined the United States Marine Corps.

    Tejeda served on active duty in the Marine Corps from 1963 to 1967, and the experience changed his life. While serving in Vietnam in 1965 and 1966, Tejeda excelled in combat and demonstrated leadership abilities. In one incident that occurred on January 17, 1966, Sergeant Tejeda was recognized for his efforts near Da Nang when his troops managed to take an enemy position. For his performance in this action, Tejeda was awarded the Bronze Star. He also received a Purple Heart for a wound he suffered in combat a month before his tour of duty ended in 1966. In 1996 Secretary of the Navy John Dalton ordered the Navy Secretary Awards Board to review Tejeda’s record in Vietnam. The board concluded that Tejeda’s effort at the risk of his own life to save a fallen Marine in a rice paddy under fire merited awarding the Silver Star. Backed by President Bill Clinton, the Silver Star was posthumously awarded to Tejeda’s family in 1997. Before his enlistment ended in 1967, Tejeda also earned a high school equivalency diploma. After leaving active duty, he continued his military career and later attained the rank of major in the Marine Reserves. In 1972 he attended Marine Corps Officer Candidate School at Camp Quantico, Virginia, where he established records in academic and athletic activities and received the Commandant’s Trophy for achieving a superior academic average. For the rest of his life, Tejeda credited the Marine Corps for providing him discipline and a purpose.

    After receiving his discharge in 1967, Tejeda returned to Texas. He enrolled in St. Mary’s University in San Antonio and received his B.A. degree in 1970. From Texas, Tejeda went to California where he earned a law degree from the University of California at Berkeley in 1974. After launching his political career, he earned a master’s in public administration degree from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University in 1980 and a master of law from Yale University in 1989. Having an interest in politics going back to Lyndon Johnson’s anti-poverty programs of the Great Society in the 1960s, Tejeda sought a career in public office. Running as a Democrat in San Antonio, Tejeda was elected to a seat in the Texas House of Representatives in 1976. Later described as a “conservative, pro-business Democrat with a ‘streak of social activism’,” Tejeda, with his quiet but strong manner, would be known for garnering bipartisan support throughout his political career. Serving five sessions in the House from 1977 to 1987, he emerged as a vocal opponent of pari-mutuel wagering on horse racing and the establishment of a state lottery. In Austin, he found success in sponsoring a crime victim’s bill of rights and bills creating the Texas Veteran Housing Assistance program and the Texas Research Park. In 1986 Tejeda used his position as chairman of the House Judicial Affairs Committee to launch a series of hearings on the questionable behavior of some justices of the Texas Supreme Court.

    Elected to the Texas Senate in 1986, he served there from 1987 through 1992. In the early 1990s the Texas legislature redrew the state’s congressional districts. In the aftermath of their efforts, a new Twenty-eighth District was created that took most of its votes from Hispanic sections in South San Antonio and Bexar County. Senator Tejeda fought to determine the boundaries and constituents of the new district. In September 1991 he announced he would run as a candidate in the new district. Facing no opposition in the primary and the Republicans’ refusal to field a candidate, the popular Tejeda easily defeated Libertarian David Slatter in the general election in November 1992. As a member of the new Congress in 1993, Frank Tejeda was assigned to the House Armed Services and the Veterans Affairs committees. In Washington, he devoted much of his efforts to veterans issues and the hardships that came with cuts in defense spending that affected the military bases in the San Antonio area. Tejeda joined Republicans against efforts to close Brooks and Kelly Air Force bases in Texas. He also endorsed the North American Free Trade Agreement but supported government aid to displaced workers. During his second term in Congress, Tejeda learned he had cancer. On October 3, 1995, he underwent brain surgery in an effort to have the tumor removed. Although most of the tumor was removed, doctors failed to remove all of it. In 1996 Tejeda was reelected, but his health continued to decline. In December he quit granting interviews after his speech impairment grew worse and doctors determined the tumor’s growth. Unable to return to Washington for the beginning of his third term, Frank Tejeda died at the age of fifty-one in San Antonio on January 30, 1997. Former San Antonio mayor Henry Cisneros praised Tejeda as a “warrior for our country and.…He was a warrior for his neighborhood, a warrior for San Antonio and a warrior in Congress….”

    At the time of his death, Congressman Tejeda was survived by his three children, Marisa, Sonya, and Frank Tejeda III; and his mother; three brothers, Juan, Richard, and Ernest; and sister Mary Alice Lara. His marriage to Celia Tejeda had ended in divorce. His funeral Mass at St. Leo the Great Catholic Church on San Antonio’s Southwest Side was attended by 2,500 mourners. The Vietnam War hero was buried with full military honors, including a Texas National Guard “missing man” formation flyover, at Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery in San Antonio. The Marine Corps Reserve Association established the Frank M. Tejeda Leadership Award to be presented to congressional members who demonstrate strong commitment to national defense, leadership, and service to country. The Frank M. Tejeda VA Outpatient Clinic, the Frank Tejeda Academy, the Frank Tejeda Post Office Building, and the Frank Tejeda Park, all in San Antonio, as well as the Frank M. Tejeda Texas State Veterans Home in Floresville were named in honor of the former Marine hero and Texas congressman. Source

Section AI
Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery
San Antonio

COORDINATES

29° 28.586, -098° 25.976

Kenneth "Big Moe" Moore (1974-2007)

    Kenneth Doniell “Big Moe” Moore, musician, rapper, and an original member of DJ Screw’s Screwed Up Click (S.U.C.), was born in Houston, Texas, on August 20, 1974. He grew up in southeast Houston and graduated from Jack Yates High School. Moore, whose stage name was Big Moe, gained distinction from other Houston rappers for his softer and slower style and his "rapsinging," the term he applied to his mixture of rapping and singing. As a founding member in S.U.C., he began his music career by freestyling on DJ Screw’s mixtapes. He was subsequently signed to Wreckshop Records, and in 2000 the label released Big Moe’s debut album, City of Syrup. The title paid homage to the codeine-laced cough syrup that was prevalent in Houston’s hip-hop community. The album cover show’s Big Moe pouring syrup from a styrofoam cup. City of Syrup featured the single, Maan! which was Big Moe’s answer to an East Coast hit titled Whoa! by Black Rob. 

    In 2002 Moore released his second album Purple World. The release showcased a number of prominent Houston vocalists and two versions of Moore’s breakthrough single, Purple Stuff. The song’s Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory-like video garnered some airplay on MTV, and the album ranked as high as Number 3 on Billboard’s Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart. Moore’s third album, Moe Life, issued in 2003, included the commercially-successful single Just a Dog. After suffering a heart attack and slipping into a coma, Kenneth “Big Moe” Moore died on October 14, 2007. Wreckshop Records and the Koch label released his album Unfinished Business posthumously in 2008. In 2009 City of Syrup earned Number 25 on The Houston Press' list of the 25 Best Houston Hip-Hop Albums. Lil’ O, another original S.U.C. member, commented, “While Moe did sing about syrup, he also sang about a wide array of things. Outside of hip-hop, he was a happy man….He was very approachable. The fans knew they could always come up and ask for a picture, and he signed every autograph.” Musicologists regarded Big Moe’s style of rap as a type of hip-hop/R&B hybrid that covered a middle ground between hardcore and pop styles. Source

Block 4

Paradise Cemetery South

Pearland

COORDINATES

29° 34.116, -95° 20.970

John Joseph "Johnny" Keane (1911-1967)

    Johnny Keane, major-league baseball manager, was born in St. Louis, Missouri, on November 3, 1911. His mother died when he was young, and he was raised by his grandmother. As a youth, he studied six years to become a Catholic priest but cut seminary classes on occasion in order to play semiprofessional baseball and soccer. He also played as the first-string quarterback at a St. Louis high school under an assumed name. At the age of seventeen he was about to sign a professional soccer contract, when the St. Louis Cardinals signed him and sent him to the minor leagues. He moved to Houston in 1935 to play for the Houston Buffs and appeared headed for the major leagues when he was struck in the head by a pitched ball. He was unconscious for six days and was hospitalized for six weeks. Although he played ball again after his recovery, the Cardinals decided to make him a manager in 1938. Keane managed teams in Albany, Georgia, Rochester, Minnesota, Columbus, Ohio, and Omaha, Nebraska.

    In 1946 he returned to Houston as manager. The next year the Buffs won the Texas League pennant and the Dixie Series. In the seventeen years that Keane managed in the minor leagues, his teams finished third place or higher eleven times and won five pennants. Keane joined the Cardinals as coach in 1959 and became manager of the team midway through the 1961 season. The Cardinals barely missed winning the pennant in 1963, after a streak of nineteen victories in twenty games. In 1964 they won the National League pennant and defeated the New York Yankees in a seven-game World Series; Keane, hailed as Manager of the Year, startled the baseball world by leaving the Cardinals immediately for the Yankees, where he replaced Yogi Berra as manager. His teams were plagued by injuries, however, and Keane was released in 1966, after the Yankees lost sixteen of their first twenty games. He next worked as a special-assignment scout for the California Angels, the job he held at the time of his death. Keane was noted for being soft-spoken and mild-mannered but also for being a strict disciplinarian. Sports writers observed that he drank little but smoked about fifteen small cigars a day, which he inhaled. He died of a heart attack in Houston on January 6, 1967. He was survived by his wife, Lela, whom he had married in 1937, and by one daughter. He was buried in Houston at Memorial Oaks Mausoleum. Source

Chapel of the Oaks Mausoleum
Memorial Oaks Cemetery
Houston

COORDINATES

29° 47.009, -095° 36.871

 

Lloyd Millard Bentsen (1921-2006)

    Lloyd Millard Bentsen, Jr., businessman, United States representative and senator, and secretary of the treasury, was born on February 11, 1921, in Mission, Texas. He was the son of Lloyd Millard Bentsen, Sr. (informally known as Big Lloyd), and Edna Ruth Colbath (informally known as Dolly). Bentsen grew up on the Arrowhead Ranch, one of the largest ranches in the Rio Grande Valley, where his father was in the ranching, oil, and banking businesses. The younger Bentsen graduated from Sharyland High School and later earned a law degree in 1942 at the University of Texas at Austin. He married Beryl Ann Longino (informally known as B. A.) of Lufkin in 1943. Bentsen served as a B-24 pilot in the U.S. Army Air Forces and flew combat missions over Europe during World War II. He earned the rank of colonel and received the Distinguished Flying Cross. A Democrat, Bentsen was elected Hildago county judge and served in that role from 1946 to 1948. In 1948 Bentsen was elected to serve in the U. S. House of Representatives, where he was a protégé of Speaker of the House Sam Rayburn. (Rayburn would autograph a photo of himself to Bentsen with the inscription, "For Lloyd Bentsen, who likes ugly things." The keepsake photo was eventually given to the Sam Rayburn Library in Rayburn's hometown of Bonham.)

    In 1955 Bentsen stood down from elective politics and moved his family to Houston, where he worked in the financial industry and solidified his financial position. During this time he founded Consolidated American Life Insurance Company. By the late 1960s he was chairman of Lincoln Consolidated Inc., a financial holdings company. While Bentsen was not seeking office during these years, he remained in touch with Democratic Party politics. In 1970 Bentsen decided to reenter politics, this time as a candidate for the United States Senate. He won an upset victory over incumbent U.S. Sen. Ralph Yarborough in the Democratic primary and then went on to win the general election over the Republican nominee, U. S. Rep. George H.W. Bush. Bentsen was reelected to the Senate in 1976, 1982, and 1988, eventually serving as chairman of the Senate Finance Committee. He campaigned for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1976 but lost. In the Senate, he was known for his pro-business stance and was a supporter of the oil and gas industry, free trade, and the real estate industry. In 1988 Massachusetts Gov. Michael Dukakis won the Democratic Party nomination for the presidency. Dukakis chose Bentsen to be his vice presidential running mate in the general election. Thanks to Texas election law, Bentsen was able to seek both the vice presidency and his Senate seat, which was up for reelection, that year. Bentsen was easily reelected to his Senate seat. However, the Republican ticket of Vice President George H.W. Bush and U.S. Sen. Dan Quayle of Indiana won the presidential election. Despite the loss of the Dukakis-Bentsen ticket, Bentsen received notoriety for his performance in the nationally-broadcast vice presidential debate. When Quayle compared his political experience to that of President John F. Kennedy, a Democrat, Bentsen replied, "Senator, I served with Jack Kennedy, I knew Jack Kennedy, Jack Kennedy was a friend of mine. Senator, you are no Jack Kennedy."

    In 1992 Bentsen was urged to seek the presidency but chose not to make the race. The Democratic nominee, Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton, won the election. Clinton asked Bentsen to serve as secretary of the treasury. The Senate confirmed Bentsen to that post, and he resigned his Senate seat. As secretary, Bentsen played an important role in the formation of the Clinton Administration's early fiscal policies. Bentsen served as secretary from 1993 to 1994, and left, he said, because he had planned to retire from politics in 1994, upon the conclusion of what would have been his fourth Senate term. Clinton recalled Bentsen as a "conservative Democrat, a fiscal conservative who thought more prosperous people like him should pay taxes so that those who were less fortunate should be able to get a good education and have some opportunities in life." In 1999 he received the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Bentsen, who had suffered a stroke in 1998, died in Houston on May 23, 2006, at the age of eighty-five. He was survived by his wife, two sons, a daughter, two brothers, a sister, and seven grandchildren. He was a Presbyterian. Bentsen was buried at Forest Park Lawndale Cemetery in Houston. Source

Section 30
Forest Park Lawndale Cemetery
Houston

COORDINATES

29° 42.946, -095° 18.261

Margaret Julia Trigg (1964-2003)

    Margaret Julia Trigg was born May 30, 1964, in Bastrop, Texas, to Kleber and Minifred Trigg. She graduated from Bastrop High School in 1982 and Stephens Womans College in Columbia, Missouri, in 1985 with a B.A. Degree in Literature and Dramatic Art, then spent her junior year at Oxford University in England. After graduation, she lived in Dallas and briefly in Los Angeles before moving to New York in 1989 where she worked tirelessly writing her own stand up comedy routines. A skilled comedian, her popularity took off  after performances at Caroline's Comedy Club, The Comic Strip, The New York Comedy Club and others. 

    She appeared on several television shows and won a starring role as alien mother Cookie Brody in Aliens in the Family on ABC. She began accepting roles in movies, and starred in two low budget films, R.O.T.O.R. and Dream House. It was around this time that she became heavily addicted to plastic surgery, mostly on her face to fix issues that weren't there, and she quickly went bankrupt from spending every dollar she earned on imaginary flaws. In 2003, she died of a heart attack triggered by extreme amphetamine abuse.

Fairview Cemetery

Bastrop

COORDINATES

30° 06.856, -097° 18.319

Anson Jones (1798-1858)

    Anson Jones, doctor, congressman, and the last president of the Republic of Texas, son of Solomon and Sarah (Strong) Jones, was born at Seekonkville, Great Barrington, Massachusetts, on January 20, 1798. He hoped to become a printer but was persuaded to study medicine, and in 1820 he was licensed by the Oneida, New York, Medical Society and began practice at Bainbridge. He met with meager success and soon moved to Norwich, where he opened a drugstore that failed. He subsequently started for Harpers Ferry, to begin business again in "the West," but at Philadelphia he was arrested by a creditor and remained to open a medical office and teach school until 1824, when he went to Venezuela for two years. Jones returned to Philadelphia, opened a medical office, qualified for an M.D. degree at Jefferson Medical College in 1827, and became a Mason and an Odd Fellow. He became master of his Masonic lodge and grand master of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows in Pennsylvania, but his medical practice did not prosper. In October 1832 he renounced medicine and became a commission merchant in New Orleans, where he lived through cholera and yellow fever epidemics and a series of failures that left him despondent and broke. In October 1833, at the suggestion of Jeremiah Brown, Jones drifted to Texas. He had engaged passage back to New Orleans when John A. Wharton and other citizens of Brazoria urged him to "give Texas a fair trial."

    Jones soon had a practice at Brazoria worth $5,000 a year. As tension between Texas and Mexico mounted, he counseled forbearance and peace until the summer of 1835, when he joined in signing a petition for the calling of the Consultation, which he visited. At a mass meeting at Columbia in December 1835 he presented resolutions for calling a convention to declare independence but declined to be nominated as a delegate. When war came he enlisted in Robert J. Calder's company and during the San Jacinto campaign was judge advocate and surgeon of the Second Regiment. Nevertheless, he insisted upon remaining a private in the infantry. On the field of San Jacinto he found Juan N. Almonte's Journal and Order Book, which he sent to the New York Herald for publication in June 1836. After brief service as apothecary general of the Texas army, Jones returned to Brazoria, evicted James Collinsworth from his office with a challenge to a duel, and resumed practice.

    During the First Congress of the Republic, Jones became increasingly interested in public questions and critical of congressional policies. He was elected a representative to the Second Congress as an opponent of the Texas Railroad, Navigation, and Banking Company. As chairman of the Committee on Foreign Relations, he advocated a withdrawal of the Texas proposal for annexation to the United States. He was also chairman of the committee on privileges and elections and the committee on ways and means. He helped formulate legislation to regulate medical practice and advocated a uniform system of education and an endowment for a university. At the end of his congressional term, Jones planned to marry Mrs. Mary (Smith) McCrory and return to his practice at Brazoria. President Sam Houston, however, appointed him minister to the United States in June 1838 and authorized him to withdraw the annexation proposal. Jones's purpose as minister was to stimulate recognition from and trade relations with Europe in order to make the United States desire annexation or to make Texas strong enough to remain independent. Thus early he hit upon the policy of alternatives that characterized his management of foreign relations until Texas joined the Union and that gave him the title of "Architect of Annexation." He was recalled by President Mirabeau B. Lamar in May 1839 and resolved to retire from politics, but when he arrived in Texas he found that he had been elected to finish William H. Wharton's term in the Senate.

    As senator he criticized the fiscal policies of the Lamar administration and the Texan Santa Fe expedition. Jones was chairman of the committees on foreign relations and the judiciary and was president pro tem of the Senate during the Fifth Congress. On May 17, 1840, Jones married Mrs. McCrory at Austin and in the spring of 1841 returned to practice in Brazoria. He declined candidacy for the vice presidency in the election of 1841, in which Houston again became president. Houston appointed Jones his Secretary of State, and from December 13, 1841, until February 19, 1846, Jones managed the foreign relations of Texas through a series of crises. Both Houston and Jones later claimed to have devised the foreign policy followed by Texas after 1841, and it is impossible to determine which man originated its leading features. In the main they agreed on the purpose of getting an offer of annexation from the United States or getting an acknowledgment of Texas independence from Mexico. They preferred getting both proposals simultaneously, so that an irrevocable choice might be made between them.

    Jones was elected president of Texas in September 1844 and took office on December 9. He had made no campaign speeches, had not committed himself on the subject of annexation, and did not mention the subject in his inaugural address. After James K. Polk's election as president of the United States on a platform of "re-annexation of Texas" and President John Tyler's proposal of annexation by joint resolution, Jones continued his silence. But the Texas Congress declared for joining the Union. Before Jones received official notice of the joint resolution, the charges of England and France induced him to delay action for ninety days. He promised to obtain from Mexico recognition of Texas independence and delayed calling the Texas Congress or a convention. Meanwhile, public sentiment for annexation and resentment against Jones mounted. He was burned in effigy, and threats were made to overthrow his government, but he remained silent until Charles Elliot returned from Mexico with the treaty of recognition. On June 4, 1845, Jones presented to the people of Texas the alternative of peace and independence or annexation. The Texas Congress rejected the treaty with Mexico, approved the joint resolution of annexation, and adopted resolutions censuring Jones. The Convention of 1845 considered removing Jones from office. He subsequently retained his title, though his duties were merely ministerial.

     On February 19, 1846, at the ceremony setting up the government of Texas as a state in the Union, Jones declared, "The Republic of Texas is no more." Then he retired to Barrington, his plantation near Washington-on-the-Brazos. Jones hoped to be elected to the United States Senate, but Houston and Thomas Jefferson Rusk were chosen. For twelve years Jones brooded over his neglect while he became a prosperous planter and accumulated a vast estate. After an injury that disabled his left arm in 1849, he became increasingly moody and introspective, and his dislike for Houston turned into hatred. While in this frame of mind, he edited his Republic of Texas, which contained a brief autobiography, portions of his diaries, and annotated selections from his letters. The book was published in New York in 1859, after his death. On March 1, 1835, with four other persons, Jones had established the first Masonic lodge in Texas, originally Holland Lodge No. 36 at Brazoria. He was its first head. He called the convention that organized the Grand Lodge of Texas on December 20, 1837, and was elected first grand master. He was a charter member and vice president of the Philosophical Society of Texas in 1837 and in 1853 helped found the Medical Association of Texas. In 1857 Jones believed that the legislature would send him to Washington as senator, but he received no votes. He committed suicide at Houston on January 9, 1858, and was buried in Glenwood Cemetery at Houston. The Texas Centennial Commission erected a statue of him in Anson, Jones County, both of which were named after him. Barrington, his plantation home, is preserved in Washington-on-the-Brazos State Historic Site as part of the Barrington Living History Farm. Source

Section F1

Glenwood Cemetery
Houston

COORDINATES

29° 45.940, -095° 23.123

Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown (1924-2005)

    A multi-faceted musician whose eclectic tastes reflected the great diversity of musical styles found throughout the Southwest, Gatemouth Brown was born in Vinton, Louisiana, on April 18, 1924. Brown’s father, who was one of his strongest musical influences and taught young Clarence to play piano, fiddle, and guitar, was a railroad worker and a local musician who played country, Cajun, and bluegrass. Throughout his career, Brown performed a variety of musical styles on a broad array of instruments, including guitar, fiddle, piano, drums, mandolin, harmonica, and viola. As a youth who grew up in Southeast Texas near Orange, Brown absorbed the country, bluegrass, R&B, Czech and German polka, Cajun, and early jazz and swing that could be heard throughout the Texas-Louisiana border region. By the time he was five years old, he had learned to play fiddle, and by age ten he was performing on guitar. By the time he was a teenager, Brown played the drums in territory swing bands where he was given the nickname "Gatemouth" because of his deep voice. After returning from military service following World War II, Brown first relocated to San Antonio and then eventually to Houston where he found work at the Bronze Peacock nightclub. During a T-Bone Walker concert there in 1947, Walker became ill and could not finish his show. Brown went onstage, picked up his guitar, and proceeded to play Gatemouth Boogie, to which the audience responded very enthusiastically. The club owner, Don Robey, also was impressed and arranged for Brown to sign a recording contract with the Los Angeles record label Aladdin. Brown’s first singles for Aladdin were not as successful as he had hoped, so Robey decided to start his own label, Peacock Records, in order to market Brown’s music.

    Brown’s first single with Peacock, Mary is Fine, hit Number 8 on the R&B charts in 1949. Soon afterwards, Robey picked Brown to be the front man for a twenty-three-piece orchestra that toured throughout the South. During his time with Peacock, Brown recorded a number of hits, including Okie Dokie Stomp, Ain’t That Dandy, Boogie Rambler, Depression Blues, and Dirty Work at the Crossroads. By the late 1950s Brown had become frustrated with the limitations of being strictly a blues and R&B musician and decided to finally part ways with Robey and Peacock Records by 1961. However, throughout the 1960s Brown had difficulty finding other work as a musician, something he blamed in part on his strained relations with the influential Robey. During this period, Brown held a variety of jobs. He worked as bandleader on the Dallas syndicated R&B television show The !!!! Beat in 1966. In the late 1960s he was a deputy sheriff in New Mexico. At one point he moved to Nashville where he appeared a few times on the popular country music television show Hee Haw. It was also in Nashville that Brown released his first series of country singles. He later recorded a well-received album, Makin’ Music, with Roy Clark in 1979. In the 1970s Brown was able to restart his career, this time performing the broad range of styles for which he would become famous, including country, jazz, and Cajun, as well as the blues and R&B he had played earlier. Brown also began touring again, not only throughout the United States, but also in Europe and around the world. On several stints he toured as a music ambassador for the United States State Department.

    During the late 1970s Brown signed with Real Records, and by the 1980s he was enjoying success recording for both Alligator and Rounder Records. In 1982 Brown’s Alright Again received a Grammy for Best Traditional Blues Album. He also appeared several times on the PBS television series Austin City Limits. Brown’s second release through Rounder Records, One More Mile (1982), along with the re-release of his earlier Peacock recordings, brought him more acclaim. Brown won eight W. C. Handy Awards. He received the Rhythm and Blues Foundation’s Pioneer Award in 1997 and was inducted into the Blues Foundation Hall of Fame in 1999. Brown’s independent spirit and eclectic repertoire influenced a variety of other musicians, including Guitar Slim, Albert Collins, Johnny “Guitar” Watson, Jimi Hendrix, Buddy Guy, and Stevie Ray Vaughan. Brown’s wide-ranging tastes also helped broaden the parameters of blues music and redefine the entire blues repertoire. In the summer of 2004 Brown was diagnosed with lung cancer. Since he was given only a 15 percent chance to survive after chemotherapy, he decided against treatment. His final album, Timeless, was released on the Hightone label in 2004. Despite failing health, Brown continued to perform at various festivals, including the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival in April 2005. After being displaced by Hurricane Katrina, he died at his brother’s home in Orange, Texas, on September 10, 2005. Brown was given a military funeral due to his honorable discharge following World War II, and he was laid to rest at the Hollywood Cemetery in Orange. During his lifetime, Brown had married and divorced three times. His survivors included four children, Renee, Ursula, Celeste, and Dwayne. Brown is honored as a music legend in the Museum of the Gulf Coast’s Music Hall of Fame in Port Arthur. A Texas Historical Marker honoring Brown was dedicated at his gravesite in 2012. Source 

Hollywood Community Cemetery
Orange

COORDINATES

30° 06.141, -093° 43.408

Frederic Douglas "Curly" Neal (1942-2020)

    Born in Greensboro, North Carolina, Fred Neal attended James B. Dudley High School and Johnson C. Smith University in Charlotte, North Carolina from 1959 to 1963. At Smith, he averaged 23.1 points a game and was named All-Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association (CIAA) guard. Neal played for 22 seasons (from 1963 to 1985) with the Globetrotters, appearing in more than 6,000 games in 97 countries. His shaved head earned him his nickname, a reference to the Three Stooges' Curly Howard, and made him one of the most recognizable Globetrotters. 

    In the 1970s, an animated version of Neal starred with various other Globetrotters in the Hanna-Barbera animated cartoon Harlem Globetrotters as well as its spinoff, The Super Globetrotters. The animated Globetrotters also made three appearances in The New Scooby-Doo Movies. Neal himself appeared with Meadowlark Lemon, Marques Haynes, and his other fellow Globetrotters in a live-action Saturday morning TV show, The Harlem Globetrotters Popcorn Machine, in 1974-75, which also featured Rodney Allen Rippy and Avery Schreiber. Neal also appeared in The White Shadow, The Harlem Globetrotters on Gilligan's Island, and The Love Boat. 

    On January 11, 2008, the Globetrotters announced that Neal's number 22 would be retired on February 15 in a special ceremony at Madison Square Garden as part of "Curly Neal Weekend." Neal was just the fifth Globetrotter in the team's 82-year history to have his number retired, joining Wilt Chamberlain (13), Meadowlark Lemon (36), Marques Haynes (20) and Goose Tatum (50). On January 31, 2008, it was announced that Neal would be inducted into the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame. He was also granted the Harlem Globetrotters' prestigious "Legends" ring, which is presented to those who make major humanitarian contributions and work for the Harlem Globetrotters organization. 

    On March 26, 2020, Neal died at his home outside Houston at the age of 77. A mural commemorating Neal's achievements both as a Globetrotter and during his time at Dudley High School is painted in the basketball gym of the Hayes-Taylor Memorial YMCA at 1101 East Market Street in Greensboro, North Carolina. He had two daughters, Rocurl (Raquel) and Laverne Neal, and six grandchildren, David, Dante, Jayden, Brandon, Deja, and Hailey. Neal lived in Houston with his fiancée Linda Ware until his death.  

Mausoleum

Rosewood Funeral Home and Cemetery

Humble 

COORDINATES

29° 57.867, -095° 15.958

Juan Nepomuceno Seguin (1806-1890)

    Juan Seguín, political and military figure of the Texas Revolution and Republic of Texas, was born in San Antonio on October 27, 1806, the elder of two sons of Juan José María Erasmo Seguín and María Josefa Becerra. Although he had little formal schooling, Juan was encouraged by his father to read and write, and he appears to have taken some interest in music. At age nineteen he married María Gertrudis Flores de Abrego, a member of one of San Antonio's most important ranching families. They had ten children, among whom Santiago was a mayor of Nuevo Laredo and Juan, Jr., was an officer in the Mexican military in the 1860s and 1870s. Seguín began his long career of public service at an early age. He helped his mother run his father's post office while the latter served in Congress in 1823-24. Seguín's election as alderman in December 1828 demonstrated his great potential. He subsequently served on various electoral boards before being elected alcalde in December 1833. He acted for most of 1834 as political chief of the Department of Bexar, after the previous chief became ill and retired. Seguín's military career began in 1835. In the spring he responded to the Federalist state governor's call for support against the Centralist opposition by leading a militia company to Monclova.

    After the battle of Gonzales in October 1835, Stephen F. Austin granted a captain's commission to Seguín, who raised a company of thirty-seven. His company was involved in the fall of 1835 in scouting and supply operations for the revolutionary army, and on December 5 it participated in the assault on Gen. Martín Perfecto de Cos's army at San Antonio. Seguín entered the Alamo with the other Texan military when Antonio López de Santa Anna's army arrived, but was sent out as a courier. Upon reaching Gonzales he organized a company that functioned as the rear guard of Sam Houston's army, was the only Tejano unit to fight at the battle of San Jacinto, and afterward observed the Mexican army's retreat. Seguín accepted the Mexican surrender of San Antonio on June 4, 1836, and served as the city's military commander through the fall of 1837; during this time he directed burial services for the remains of the Alamo dead. He resigned his commission upon election to the Texas Senate at the end of the year. Seguín, the only Mexican Texan in the Senate of the republic, served in the Second, Third, and Fourth Congress. He served on the Committee of Claims and Accounts and, despite his lack of English, was chairman of the Committee on Military Affairs. Among his legislative initiatives were efforts to have the laws of the new republic printed in Spanish. In the spring of 1840 he resigned his Senate seat to assist Gen. Antonio Canales, a Federalist, in an abortive campaign against the Centralists, but upon his return to San Antonio at the end of the year he found himself selected mayor. In this office Seguín became embroiled in growing hostilities between Anglos and Mexican Texans. He faced personal problems as well.

    He had gained the enmity of some residents by speculating in land. He financed his expedition in support of Canales by mortgaging property and undertook a smuggling venture in order to pay off the debt. Although upon his return from Mexico he came under suspicion of having betrayed the failed Texan Santa Fe expedition, he still managed to be reelected mayor at the end of 1841. His continuing conflicts with Anglo squatters on city property, combined with his business correspondence with Mexico, incriminated him in Gen. Rafael Vásquez's invasion of San Antonio in March 1842. In fear for his safety, Seguín resigned as mayor on April 18, 1842, and shortly thereafter fled to Mexico with his family. He spent six years in Mexico and then attempted to reestablish himself in Texas. While living in Mexico he participated, according to him under duress, in Gen. Adrián Woll's invasion of Texas in September 1842. Afterward his company served as a frontier defense unit, protecting the Rio Grande crossings and fighting Indians. During the Mexican War his company saw action against United States forces. At the end of the war he decided to return to Texas despite the consequences. He settled on land adjacent to his father's ranch in what is now Wilson County. During the 1850s he became involved in local politics and served as a Bexar County constable and an election-precinct chairman. His business dealings took him back to Mexico on occasion, and at the end of the 1860s, after a brief tenure as Wilson county judge, Seguín retired to Nuevo Laredo, where his son Santiago had established himself. He died there on August 27, 1890. His remains were returned to Texas in 1974 and buried at Seguin, the town named in his honor, during ceremonies on July 4, 1976. Source

Juan N. Seguin Memorial Plaza

Seguin

COORDINATES

29° 33.704, -097° 58.251

Johnny "Clyde" Copeland (1937-1997)

    Songwriter and blues guitarist Johnny Copeland was born in Haynesville, Louisiana, on March 27, 1937, the son of sharecroppers. Copeland developed an interest in the blues at an early age. His parents separated when he was six months old, and his mother took him to Magnolia, Arkansas. When his father died a few years later Copeland inherited a guitar and began learning to play it. When Johnny was thirteen years old, the Copelands moved to Houston, where the boy first saw a performance by guitarist T-Bone Walker. In 1954, influenced by Walker, Copeland and his friend Joe "Guitar" Hughes formed a band, the Dukes of Rhythm. While his musical interest grew, Copeland engaged in boxing and acquired the nickname Clyde.

 
    The band played regularly in several leading Houston blues clubs, including Shady's Playhouse and the Eldorado Ballroom. While with the Dukes of Rhythm, Copeland also played backup for such blues figures as Big Mama Thornton, Freddie King, and Sonny Boy Williamson II. In 1958 he recorded his first single with Mercury Records, Rock 'n' Roll Lily, which became a regional hit. In the 1960s he achieved only limited regional success as he recorded with various small and independent labels. His hits included Please Let Me Know and Down on Bending Knees, recorded with the All Boy and the Golden Eagle labels, both based in Houston.

    During the early 1970s Copeland toured the "Texas Triangle" - Louisiana, Texas, and Arkansas - and developed a reputation as one of the most frenetic live performers in Texas-style blues. In 1974 he moved to New York City, where he worked at a Brew 'n' Burger during the day and performed in clubs at night. In a few years Copeland became a major draw, attracting receptive audiences at clubs in Harlem and Greenwich Village, and leaving his mark by "brandishing his sizzling guitar, like a slick, sharp weapon." In 1981 he signed with Rounder Records, which released the album Copeland Special, recorded in 1979 with saxophonists Arthur Blythe and Byard Lancaster. This album inspired Copeland to cut a series of albums with the label in the 1980s, including Make My Home Where I Hang My Hat (1982) and Texas Twister (1983), which also featured guitarist Stevie Ray Vaughan. With this recording success, Copeland toured the United States and Europe. In 1986, while on a ten-city tour in West Africa, he recorded Bringing It All Back Home, using local musicians. The album included imaginative hybrids of blues mixed with African idioms. Copeland thus became the first American blues musician to record an album in Africa. That same year he won a Grammy for the best traditional blues recording for Showdown! (1985), an album he recorded with fellow blues musicians Robert Cray and Albert Collins. His follow-up album, Ain't Nothing But a Party (Live), earned him a Grammy nomination in 1988.

    Throughout the decade he played and recorded with a furious Texas-style blues guitar, performing burning guitar licks that became his trademark and earned him another nickname, the "Fire Maker." Despite adversity, Copeland continued to perform throughout the 1990s. He showed off his songwriting talents when he released his albums Flying High for Verve Records in 1992 and Catch Up With the Blues for Polygram in 1994. The albums included the hits Life's Rainbow and Circumstances. In 1994 he was diagnosed with heart disease, and he spent the next few years checking in and out of hospitals and undergoing a series of open-heart operations. He had been placed on an L-VAD (left ventricular assist device), a battery-powered pump designed for patients suffering from congenital heart defects. He appeared on CNN and ABC-TV's Good Morning America wearing the L-VAD, an event that gave both Copeland and the medical device greater national exposure. He lived a remarkable length of time, twenty months, on the L-VAD.

    On January 1, 1997, he received a successful heart transplant, and in a few months he resumed touring. During the summer his heart developed a defective valve, and he was admitted to Columbia-Presbyterian Hospital in New York for heart surgery. He died on July 3, 1997, of complications during surgery, and was buried in Paradise South Cemetery in Pearland, Brazoria County, Texas. He was survived by his wife, Sandra, and seven children. Copeland had a lasting impact on Texas-style blues and played a major part in the blues boom of the 1980s. In his career he earned a Grammy, four W.C. Handy awards, and the album of the year award from the French National Academy of Jazz (1995). In 1984 he also became one of the few blues musicians to perform behind the Iron Curtain during the Cold War. Source

Block 3

Paradise South Cemetery

Pearland

COORDINATES

29° 34.076, -095° 20.912

Greer Garson (1904-1996)

    Famed actress Greer Garson was born Eileen Evelyn Greer Garson in London, England, on September 29, 1904. She was the only daughter of George Garson, a London clerk, and Nina Nancy Sophia Greer. Her father died in 1906. She attended East Ham Secondary School in London and the prestigious University of London, where she graduated with a B.A. and with honors in English in 1926. Though family members suggested that she might enter the teaching field, Garson had ambitions to become an actress. She did postgraduate work and studied French theater at Grenoble University in France in 1927. From 1927 to 1931 she worked at an advertising agency in London where she met another aspiring actor, George Sanders, who later starred in such films as The Gay Falcon and The Saint. She joined the Birmingham Repertory Theatre in late 1931 and made her stage debut in 1932. In just a few short years she landed starring roles in a number of West End productions on the London stage. During one of her productions, she caught the eye of MGM mogul Louis B. Mayer, who was desperate to find a leading lady to revitalize his studio with the impending departures of Norma Shearer and Greta Garbo. Garson signed with MGM in 1937.

    Garson’s first Hollywood production, Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1939), won her an Academy Award nomination. This began a remarkable run of five more Oscar nominations during the first half of the 1940s for her leading roles in Blossoms in the Dust (1941), Mrs. Miniver (1942), Madame Curie (1943), Mrs. Parkington (1944), and The Valley of Decision (1945). In 1942 she earned her only Oscar for playing the title role in Mrs. Miniver. Her portrayal of a British homemaker on the home front during World War II was a particular favorite of Winston Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt. Her remarks upon accepting the Oscar the longest recorded acceptance speech (5.5 minutes in length) in the Academy’s history, which afterward prompted organizers to place a cap on them. After her role in Madame Curie, which featured the popular pairing of Garson with actor Walter Pidgeon, she was pictured on the cover of Time magazine. Garson was honored as Hollywood’s most popular star in polls within the United States and throughout the world in 1944. Her star was waning, however, by the later 1940s. During the 1950s her movie efforts were regarded mostly with disappointment. Garson negotiated the end of her contract with MGM in 1953 after playing a small role in the blockbuster production of Julius Caesar. She made occasional television performances and in 1958 made her Broadway debut in Auntie Mame. Garson’s portrayal of Eleanor Roosevelt in the 1960 movie Sunrise at Campobello earned her a final Oscar nomination.

    Garson’s first marriage, to Edward Snelson in 1933, ended in divorce in 1940. In 1943 she married Richard Ney, who had played her son in Mrs. Miniver; the couple divorced in 1947. Garson's third and final marriage, this time to Texas millionaire oil executive and rancher E. E. “Buddy” Fogelson, occurred on July 15, 1949. The union lasted nearly forty years and only ended with Fogelson’s death from Parkinson’s disease in 1987. It was Fogelson who brought Garson to Texas, and she remained connected to Dallas for the rest of her life, although she split her time between Los Angeles and the ranch they shared near Pecos, New Mexico. Garson retired from acting permanently in 1980. During these years Garson was a generous financier and benefactor to the arts, with Dallas being the recipient of many of her greatest contributions. Garson donated millions of dollars to Southern Methodist University in Dallas and funded the Greer Garson Theatre (part of the Meadows School of the Arts) which opened in 1992. Because of her late husband's fight with Parkinson's, Garson had a strong desire to use her name and celebrity status to kindle public awareness of various medical conditions that needed the support of the community in order to make advancements and/or breakthroughs that could only be facilitated through research dollars. By the early 1990s, Garson, a valiant spokeswoman, championed these initiatives at the Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas, Texas. The Texas Health Presbyterian Foundation’s most recognized fund-raising event is the annual Greer Garson Gala, a signature event that seeks to raise money and support for programs and services of the hospital. Garson was a zealous healthcare advocate and vociferous supporter of medical research, healthcare, and education. On April 6, 1996, at Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas, Texas, Greer Garson passed away in the company of her close friend, pianist Van Cliburn. She was buried at the Sparkman Hillcrest Memorial Park in Dallas. Garson's epitaph on her gravestone is a testament to her legacy: A Dignified Lady of Grace and Beauty/Her Wit, Charm and Talent/Thrilled the World and Touched/All Who Knew Her.  Source 

Fogelson Triangle

Sparkman-Hillcrest Memorial Park Cemetery

Dallas

COORDINATES

32° 52.163, -096° 46.761

Wilson Carl Whitley (1955-1992)

    Wilson Whitley was a consensus All-American defensive tackle at the University of Houston from 1972-1976 under defensive coordinator Don Todd. He led the Cougars to the Southwest Conference championship in football during Houston's first season as a conference member and won the 1976 Lombardi Award as the nation's top lineman. Former President Gerald Ford presented him the award at a ceremony in Houston. He was drafted in the first round by the Cincinnati Bengals and started alongside another Lombardi Award winner, Ross Browner, for six seasons (1977-1982) before being traded to the Houston Oilers for one season (1982). He was later named to the Southwest Conference "All Decade Team" for the 70's. Whitley died on October 27, 1992 in Marietta, Georgia, at the age of thirty-seven due to a heart condition. In 1988, he was inducted into University of Houston's Hall of Honor and was a perennial candidate for the National College Football Hall of Fame until his selection in 2007.

Note: The year of death on his stone is incorrect.

Washington Cemetery

Washington

COORDINATES

30° 19.594, -096° 10.058

Maxime Allen "Max" Faget (1921-2004)

    Max Faget was born at Stam Creek, British Honduras, on August 26, 1921. His father, noted physician Dr. Guy Faget was conducting research on tropical diseases there for the British government at the time (he later developed the first successful treatment for leprosy).  Max attended San Francisco Junior College in San Francisco, California, before receiving a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering from Louisiana State University in 1943. He then served as a naval officer during World War II, seeing considerable combat in the Pacific Theater as a submarine officer. In 1946, Faget went to work for the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), NASA's precursor. At the Langley Aeronautical Laboratory in Hampton, Virginia, he designed ramjets before being assigned to the propulsion-and-performance team that helped develop the X-l5, the experimental plane that flew later flew at Mach 6 speeds.

    When NACA was transformed into the civilian space agency NASA in 1958, Maxime Faget joined the transition team and later the Space Task Group organized to manage Project Mercury.  He headed the flight systems division that designed America's first manned spacecraft, the Mercury capsule. A manned spacecraft must protect its occupant from high G forces and atmospheric friction upon re-entry; Faget successfully argued for a blunt bodied capsule because it could slow down high in the atmosphere where the friction and heat were less. As one of the 35 engineers originally assigned to the Mercury project, Faget devoted time to follow-on programs after Mercury would end, and led the initial design and analysis teams that studied the feasibility of a flight to the Moon.

    As a result of his work Faget was appointed chief engineer at the Manned Spacecraft Center in Houston (now the Johnson Space Center) at the start of the Apollo program in February 1962. In this role, Maxime Faget helped to design the Apollo capsule and service module for lunar landings. Due to the problems of launching the capsule as a single unit he converted the Apollo design into two parts, a command-service module that would orbit the moon and a separate lunar-landing craft. His innovation would play a key role in the success of the Apollo lunar landings. A few months before the Apollo 11 Moon landing in July 1969, Faget organized a team to study the feasibility of a reusable spacecraft.  They produced the final design of the space shuttle that lifted off from Kennedy Space Center in April 1981.

    Max Faget retired from the space agency after the second shuttle flight in November 1981. In 1982 he helped to found one of the early private space companies, Space Industries Inc. As a visiting professor, Faget taught graduate level courses at the Louisiana State University, Rice University, and the University of Houston. He wrote many technical papers on aerodynamics, rocketry, high-speed bomb ejection, reentry theory, heat transfer, and aircraft performance. He was co-author of two textbooks, Engineering Design and Operations of Spacecraft and Manned Space Flight. Faget held joint patents on the "Aerial Capsule Emergency Separation Device" (escape tower), the "Survival Couch," the "Mercury Capsule," and a "Mach Number Indicator." Among the many awards he received was the Arthur S. Fleming Award in 1960, the Golden Plate Award in 1961 (presented by the Academy of Achievement), the NASA Medal for Outstanding Leadership in 1963, and in 1965 the Award of Loyola. In 1966 the University of Pittsburgh awarded him an honorary Degree of Doctor of Engineering. Faget died at his home in Houston on October 9, 2004.

Chapel Mausoleum

Mount Olivet Cemetery

Dickinson

COORDINATES

29° 26.370, -095° 04.586

Hiram George Runnels (1796-1857)

    Hiram G. Runnels, planter and representative at the Convention of 1845, was born on December 17, 1796, in Hancock County, Georgia. At an early age he moved with his parents to Mississippi. During the Indian wars he served for a short time in the United States Army. From 1822 to 1830 he was state auditor of Mississippi. In 1829 he was elected to represent Hinds County in the Mississippi legislature. He was defeated in the race for the office of governor of Mississippi in 1831, was elected in 1833, and ran unsuccessfully again in 1835. Runnels' service as president of the Union Bank in 1838 led to a dispute wherein he caned Mississippi governor McNutt in the streets of Jackson and dueled with Mississippian editor Volney E. Howard in 1840. In 1841 he again represented Hinds County in the legislature. Runnels moved to Texas in 1842 and became a planter on the Brazos River. He represented Brazoria County in the Convention of 1845. He died in Houston on December 17, 1857, and was buried in Glenwood Cemetery. On February 1, 1858, Runnels County was named in his honor. Source

Section C3
Glenwood Cemetery
Houston

COORDINATES

29° 45.974, -095° 23.215 

Weldon Philip H. "Juke Boy" Bonner (1932-1978)

    Juke Boy Bonner, blues guitarist, vocalist, and harmonica player, was born in Bellville, Texas, on March 22, 1932, one of nine children of sharecroppers Emanuel and Carrie (Kessee) Bonner. His parents died when he was young, so he was raised by another family on a nearby farm. Bonner became interested in music when he was six and sang with a local spiritual group when he was in elementary school. By the time he was twelve he had taught himself to play the guitar. He quit school when he was a teenager and moved to Houston to find a job. When he was fifteen he won a talent contest held by Trummy Cain, a local talent coordinator. This led to an appearance on KLEE radio.  For the next decade Bonner worked as a one-man band in lounges, bars, and clubs throughout the South and in California. He frequently worked in juke joints accompanied only by jukebox music; hence his nickname. 

    In 1956 he cut his first record, Rock with Me Baby, with Well Baby as the flip side, on Bob Geddins's Irma label. Bonner made his next record for Goldband Records in 1960 and continued to record for Liberty, Sonet, and other labels during the 1960s. In the late 1960s and early 1970s he toured Europe, where he recorded on the British Flyright and Storyville labels. His best work, however, came in the late 1960s on the Arhoolie label. Songs such as Going Back to the Country, Struggle Here in Houston, and Life Is a Nightmare reflected his impoverished youth and the dangers he had faced living in big cities. Bonner continued to tour, work local venues, and record. He was married in 1950 and was later divorced. He died in Houston on June 29, 1978, of cirrhosis of the liver. Five children survived him. Source

Restlawn Cemetery

Houston

COORDINATES

29° 52.667, -095° 25.768

Erastus "Deaf" Smith (1787-1837)

   Deaf Smith was born in Duchess County, New York, on April 19, 1787, the son of Chilaib and Mary Smith. At the age of eleven or twelve he moved with his parents to Natchez, Mississippi Territory. A childhood disease caused him to lose his hearing. Smith first visited Texas in 1817 but did not remain long. He returned in 1821 and settled near San Antonio, where he married a Mexican widow, Guadalupe Ruiz Durán, in 1822. The couple had four children, three of whom, all daughters, survived to adulthood. In the fall of 1825 Smith and five other men settled on the claim of James Kerr, the surveyor for the new colony of Green DeWitt, about one mile west of the site of present Gonzales. This tiny community was the first in DeWitt's colony and one of the first American settlements west of the Colorado River. Although his loyalties were apparently divided at the outbreak of the Texas Revolution, when a Mexican sentry refused to allow him to enter San Antonio to visit his family, Smith joined Stephen F. Austin's army, which was then besieging the town. On October 15 Charles Bellinger Stewart wrote to Austin that Smith had learned that the troops of Gen. Martín Perfecto de Cos were "disaffected to the cause which they are serving". Stewart assured Austin that he knew Smith well and found him to be "perfectly disinterested" and trustworthy "to any extent his abilities and infirmity may warrant." After reporting to Richard R. Royall, president of the council at San Felipe, who found him to be "very importantly useful," Smith returned to Austin's army and took part in the battle of Concepción on October 28, 1835. He was responsible for the discovery of the Mexican supply train involved in the Grass Fight. During the siege of Bexar Smith guided Col. Francis Johnson's men into the town. On December 8 he was wounded on top of the Veramendi Palace at almost the same moment that Benjamin R. Milam was killed at its door. Smith, whom Governor Henry Smith called "well known to the army for his vigilance and meritorious acts," remained with the army despite his severe wounds, "as his services as a spy cannot well be dispensed with."

    After regaining his health, Smith served as a messenger for William B. Travis, who considered him "the Bravest of the Brave in the cause of Texas." Smith carried Travis's letter from the Alamo on February 15, 1836. On March 13 Gen. Sam Houston dispatched Smith and Henry Karnes back to San Antonio to learn the status of the Alamo garrison. "If living," Houston reported to Thomas Jefferson Rusk, Smith would return with "the truth and all important news." Smith returned with Susanna W. and Angelina E. Dickinson. Houston first assigned Smith to the cavalry but later placed him in charge of recruits with the rank of captain. During the San Jacinto campaign he captured a Mexican courier bearing important dispatches to Antonio López de Santa Anna, and on April 21, 1836, Smith and Houston requisitioned "one or more axes," with which Houston ordered Smith to destroy Vince's Bridge, reportedly to prevent the retreat of the Mexican army. Smith accomplished the mission and reported to Houston before the battle of San Jacinto. It was to Smith that Houston entrusted Santa Anna's order to Gen. Vicente Filisola to evacuate Texas. 

    After San Jacinto, General Rusk continued to send Smith out as a scout, and after having been absent from the army for the first two weeks of July he was incorrectly reported as captured by the Mexicans. During this period his family, rendered destitute by the war, was living in Columbia, where it apparently had some dealings with Santa Anna, who was then being held at the nearby port of Velasco. On November 11, 1836, the Texas Congress granted Smith the property of Ramón Músquiz on the northeast corner of San Antonio's Military Plaza as a reward for his military activities. Nevertheless, Smith and his family remained in Columbia. He resigned his commission in the army but raised and commanded a company of Texas Rangers that on February 17, 1837, defeated a band of Mexicans at Laredo. Soon thereafter he resigned from ranger service and moved to Richmond, where he died at the home of Randal Jones on November 30, 1837. On hearing of his death, Sam Houston wrote to Anna Raguet, "My Friend Deaf Smith, and my stay in darkest hour, Is no more!!! A man, more brave, and honest never, lived. His soul is with God, but his fame and his family, must command the care of His Country!" A monument in Smith's honor, paid for by the Forty-first Legislature, was unveiled in Richmond on January 25, 1931. Smith was the father-in-law of Hendrick Arnold, a free black who served in his spy company. Deaf Smith County is named in his honor. Source

Note: This is a cenotaph. The small Episcopal cemetery that Erastus Smith was buried in was originally located on this site, but in the late 1800s it was razed in order to develop the property for housing. His specific grave location has thus been lost, but is known to be somewhere in the immediate area.

Long-Smith Cottage grounds
Richmond

COORDINATES

29° 34.810, -095° 45.738