David Spangler Kaufman (1813-1851)

David Spangler Kaufman, lawyer, Indian fighter, and politician, son of Daniel Kaufman, was born in Boiling Springs, Pennsylvania, on December 18, 1813. After graduating with high honors from Princeton College in 1830, he studied law under Gen. John A. Quitman in Natchez, Mississippi, and was admitted to the bar. He began his legal career in Natchitoches, Louisiana, in 1835. Two years later he settled in Nacogdoches, Texas, where he practiced law and participated in military campaigns against the Cherokee Indians. He was wounded in the encounter in which Chief Bowl lost his life in 1839. Kaufman occupied a number of important positions in the republic and state of Texas. Between 1838 and 1841 he represented Nacogdoches County in the House of the Third Congress of the republic; he served as speaker in the Fourth and Fifth congresses. From December 1843 through June 1845 he represented Shelby, Sabine, and Harrison counties in the Senate of the republic. Texas president Anson Jones named him chargé d'affaires to the United States in February 1845. After annexation Kaufman represented the Eastern District of Texas in the United States House of Representatives during the Twenty-ninth, Thirtieth, and Thirty-first congresses. While in Congress, Kaufman argued unsuccessfully that Texas owned lands that are now parts of New Mexico, Colorado, Kansas, Wyoming, and Oklahoma. He encouraged Governor Peter H. Bell to have Texas troops seize Santa Fe. He also played a role in the Compromise of 1850, whereby the national government assumed the debts of Texas. No other Jewish Texan served in Congress until the 1970s. Kaufman was a Mason and a charter member of the Philosophical Society of Texas. He married Jane Baxter Richardson, daughter of Daniel Long Richardson, on April 21, 1841. The couple had three sons and a daughter. Kaufman died in Washington, D.C., on January 31, 1851, and was buried in the Congressional Cemetery there. In 1932 his remains were moved to the State Cemetery in Austin. Kaufman County and the city of Kaufman are named for him. Source

Republic Hill
Texas State Cemetery
Austin

30° 15.937, -097° 43.642

Wilmer Allison (1904-1977)

Wilmer Lawson (Lee) Allison, tennis player, was born in San Antonio, Texas, on December 8, 1904, one of two children of Dr. and Mrs. Wilmer L. Allison. His family moved to Fort Worth in his youth, and he graduated from Fort Worth Central High School, where he was an outstanding amateur baseball player. He enrolled at the University of Texas in 1925 after his father refused to permit him to sign a professional baseball contract with the Beaumont team of the Texas League. At UT he began an internationally acclaimed career as a tennis player. Under the tutelage of Daniel A. Penick he won the Southwest Conference and National Collegiate Athletic Association championships in 1927.

Allison won the Wimbledon doubles title in 1929 and 1930 with partner John Van Ryn. They are considered by many tennis historians to be the best doubles combination of the period. Perhaps Allison's finest moment as a singles player came on June 30, 1930, when he upset the legendary Henri Cochet of France in the quarterfinal round of the 1930 Wimbledon tournament. However, he lost the championship in the finals to fellow American Bill Tilden in straight sets.

Allison achieved the number-one ranking in the United States in 1934 and again in 1935 and won the United States National Open Championship in 1935 by defeating Fred Perry in the semifinals and then Sydney Wood for the title at Forest Hills, New York. Along with partner Van Ryn he claimed National Doubles in 1931 and 1935 and finished second in 1930, 1932, 1934, and 1936. Allison competed on behalf of the United States in Davis Cup competition from 1928 until 1937. He retired from full-time competition in 1937 after a serious injury to his lower abdomen. Upon retirement, he served as an assistant to Penick at the University of Texas from 1938 to 1941, when he left to join the army air corps; he achieved the rank of colonel. After his discharge he returned to the university in 1947 and served as Penick's assistant until 1957. That year he became the head tennis coach at the university, where he served until his retirement in 1972. He instituted a policy restricting athletic scholarships for tennis to players from Texas. His teams won four Southwest Conference team championships, three singles titles, and one doubles title. He was elected to the Texas Sports Hall of Fame in 1957 and is a member of the Longhorn Hall of Honor. In 1963 he was enshrined in both the national and international tennis halls of fame.

Allison died on April 20, 1977, of a heart attack, only four days after the dedication of the new University of Texas tennis facility in his and Penick's honor. He is buried at Oakwood cemetery in Austin. He was survived by his wife, Ann (Caswell). The couple had no children. Source

Section 2
Oakwood Cemetery
Austin

30° 16.565, -097° 43.517

Washington Anderson (1812-1894)

Washington (Wash) Anderson, hero of the battle of San Jacinto, was born in Pittsylvania County, Virginia, where his grandfather, Richard Anderson, had been a captain in the Revolutionary War. He arrived at Port Lavaca, Texas, in February 1835 with his father, Dr. Thomas Anderson, and brother John D. Anderson. His mother was Chloe Glascock Anderson, who died when Wash was three years old.

Anderson served in Capt. Jesse Billingsley's company in the battle of San Jacinto, where he was wounded in the ankle. Several years later John Osburn Nash was quoted in the Houston Chronicle: "The old pioneer Wash Anderson was the true hero of San Jacinto, although history gives him no praise. Wash was never known to shout `go on' in battle, but was always known to say `come on' instead. He had more to do with turning the tide of the battle than Sam Houston did." Anderson is pictured in William H. Huddle's painting The Surrender of Santa Anna, which hangs in the Capitol in Austin. He also fought in the battle of Brushy Creek in 1839. The Andersons received several land grants for service.

On March 25, 1838, Anderson married his cousin Mary Ann Glascock. They had one daughter. Anderson, a devout Baptist, a Democrat, and a successful businessman, circulated and signed the petition to form Williamson County in 1848. He was one of the first county commissioners there. He built the county's first sawmill and gristmill and was one of the most prominent settlers of Round Rock, where he sold land to have the town platted. He also sold the land for the first college in the county, Greenwood Institute. After living in several log houses, the Andersons built a large rock house with separate slave quarters in 1859. The home is still standing on Brushy Creek in Round Rock; it received a Texas historical medallion in 1962. The Andersons were active in state affairs, especially the Texas Veterans Association. Wash Anderson died on April 28, 1894, and was buried in Oakwood Cemetery, Austin. Source

Section 1 

Oakwood Cemetery 

Austin

30° 16.531, -097° 43.640 

Gene Eliza Tierney (1920-1991)

Gene Tierney, movie star, was born in Brooklyn, New York, on November 20, 1920, the daughter of Howard S. and Belle Taylor Tierney. Her father, a successful insurance broker, and her mother were wealthy socialites, and as a child Tierney enjoyed a privileged life that included private schools in Connecticut and finishing school in Switzerland. After completing her schooling, where she had exhibited some interest in acting, Tierney earned a supporting part in the Broadway comedy Ring Two in 1939. In the early 1940s she went to Hollywood and established herself as a star for 20th Century Fox, usually playing elegant social characters. Her early films included The Return of Frank James (1940), Belle Star (1941), and Heaven Can Wait (1943). It was, however, her 1944 portrayal of the title character in the murder mystery Laura that established Tierney as a major screen star. In this movie she played a high-society woman who is an apparent murder victim and with whom a police detective, played by Dana Andrews, falls in love through her pictures. Two years after this movie, Tierney was nominated for an Academy Award for her melodramatic role as a self-centered woman who commits suicide in Leave Her to Heaven (1945). Tierney exuded a patrician air and was strikingly attractive, causing some critics to suggest that her acting did not live up to her presence. But others found her a refreshingly direct actor, and she enjoyed continued success throughout the 1940s and 1950s in such movies as The Razor's Edge (1946); The Ghost and Mrs. Muir (1947), in which she costarred with Rex Harrison; and The Left Hand of God (1955). While Tierney enjoyed professional success during her years as a screen star, tragedy struck in her personal life. In 1943, while married to designer Oleg Cassini, she gave birth to a severely brain-damaged daughter. She and Cassini had another daughter in 1948, but the couple divorced four years later. In 1955 Tierney left Hollywood, suffering from stress and depression, and became a patient at the Menninger Clinic in Topeka, Kansas. She was determined to regain a happy life, and in 1960 she married W. Howard Lee, a Houston oil executive and the former husband of Hedy Lamarr. She joined Lee in Texas, where she lived for the next thirty-one years. After her marriage she made a few more movies, including Advise and Consent in 1962 and The Pleasure Seekers in 1965, but subsequently, with more than thirty movie credits to her name, she retired permanently from films. Tierney later made a few television appearances but spent most of her time traveling with her husband and participating in civic and charitable causes in Houston, a life she said was preferable to her years of Hollywood stardom. In 1979 her autobiography, Self-Portrait, was published by Wyden Books. Gene Tierney died of emphysema in Houston on November 6, 1991. She was preceded in death by her husband and was survived by her two daughters, four grandchildren, and one sister. Source

Section E-1
Glenwood Cemetery
Houston

29° 45.904, -095° 23.140

Hiram George Runnels (1796-1857)

Hiram George Runnels, planter and representative at the Convention of 1845, was born on December 17, 1796, in Hancock County, Georgia, the son of Harmon M. and Hester (Hubert) Runnels. 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. He married Obedience Smith in Hinds County, Mississippi, in 1823. 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's 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. H. G. Runnels was the uncle of Texas governor Hardin R. Runnels. Source

Section C3
Glenwood Cemetery
Houston

29° 45.974, -095° 23.215