Library: Texas by Credo Reference: Biographies

Musicians

Gene Autry
In The Faber Companion to 20th Century Popular Music
Actor, singer, producer, songwriter and businessman, Autry was one of the most commercially successful popular artists of the twentieth century.
Bill Haley
In The Faber Companion to 20th Century Popular Music
One of the founders of rock'n'roll, Haley contributed a strong cowboy and Western swing influence to the emerging music, while his group the Comets established many conventions of rock-group stagecraft.
Buddy Holly

In The Faber Companion to 20th Century Popular Music
Despite the brevity of his recording career (effectively just three years), Holly was one of the most influential rock performers.
Blind Lemon Jefferson
In The Faber Companion to 20th Century Popular Music
Though not the first male blues singer to make records, Jefferson was the first to impose a significant amount of his own vocal and guitar style, and repertoire, upon the country-blues tradition.
Janis Joplin: Topic Page
The finest white blues and soul singer of her generation, Janis Joplin was a central figure of San Francisco rock in the late sixties.
Scott Joplin: Topic Page

Scott Joplin (1868-1917), the “king of ragtime,” composed lively syncopated music at the turn of the 20th century that accompanied the rise of urban America.
Lyle Lovett
In The Faber Companion to 20th Century Popular Music
The most intriguing of the modern generation of country singers, Lovett melds the traditional concerns of country music, introspective songs (in the manner of seventies singer-songwriters) with idiosyncratic narratives and incisive lyrics in a wholly compelling fashion.
Willie Nelson: Topic Page
Willie Hugh Nelson is an American singer, songwriter, actor, author, and social activist. Much of his advocacy work involves green initiatives, particularly with his ventures in biodiesel and agricultural reform.
Roy Orbison: Topic Page
With a near-operatic vocal range and a sound once described as 'the slow fall of teardrops', Orbison was one of the most distinctive singers of the sixties.
T-Bone Walker

Aaron Thibeaux “T-Bone” Walker was born on May 28, 1910, in Linden, Texas. Walker was considered one of the key originators of the Texas and California blues.
Stevie Ray Vaughan
In Encyclopedia of World Biography
American musician Stevie Ray Vaughan (1954–1990) was a guitar virtuoso who sparked a blues-rock revival in the 1980s.
ZZ Top
In The Faber Companion to 20th Century Popular Music
With an incongruous mixture of Rip Van Winkle beards, heavy blues guitar music and videos that were both lascivious and self-mocking, ZZ Top were one of the most popular rock bands of the mid-eighties.

Other Famous Figures

Bonnie and Clyde
In World of Criminal Justice, Gale
The pair were reunited in the summer of 1932 and began their infamous spree of terror and killing. In what would become a pattern for Bonnie and Clyde, they took a New Mexico sheriff hostage, bound him, terrorized him, and eventually set him free.
Jamie Foxx (1967- ): Topic Page
US comedian, actor, and singer.
Howard Hughes: Topic Page

US industrialist, aviator, and film producer. Inheriting wealth from his father, the industrialist Howard Robert Hughes, who had patented a revolutionary oil-drilling bit, he took control of the family firm, the Hughes Tool Corporation, in 1923, to create a financial empire.
Dan Rather
In Culture Wars in America: An Encyclopedia of Issues, Viewpoints, and Voices
His journalistic career spanned a half-century and included firsthand coverage of virtually every major event and issue in the postwar era—from the civil rights movement and the assassination of President John F. Kennedy to the Vietnam War, Watergate scandal, and post-9/11 world.
Robert Rauschenberg: Topic Page

1925–2008, American painter, b. Port Arthur, Tex., as Milton Ernest Rauschenberg. With his friend Jasper Johns, Rauschenberg became a pivotal figure in the emerging pop art movement, and together they were vital to initiating a new era of experimentation in American art.
Joan Crawford: Topic Page

U.S. film actress. She was a dancer in a Broadway chorus line when she won her first Hollywood contract in the mid 1920s.

Political Figures

Stephen Austin: Topic Page
1793–1836, American leader of colonization in Texas, known as the Father of Texas, b. Wythe co., Va. In Jan., 1822, he planted the first legal settlement of Anglo-Americans in Texas.
George Bush: Topic Page
41st President of the United States (1989–93). Bush was unsuccessful in his bid for the 1980 Republican presidential nomination, but served two terms (1981–89) as President Reagan's Vice President. In 1988, he won the Republican nomination for President. Bush and his running mate, Dan Quayle, easily defeated the Democratic ticket of Michael Dukakis and Lloyd Bentsen.
George W. Bush (1946 - ): Topic Page

43rd president of the United States (2001–2009). In 1999, Bush officially began his campaign for the 2000 Republican presidential nomination. Although he appeared generally to lead in the polls, he ultimately lost the popular vote to Democrat Al Gore. However, Bush secured the presidency with a victory in the electoral college when he won Florida by a narrow margin, having outlasted Gore's attempt to challenge the Florida vote-counting process in court. He thus became the first person in more than a century to win the presidency without achieving a plurality in the popular vote.
Laura Bush

In From Suffrage to the Senate: America's Political Women
Laura Bush was first lady from 2001 to 2009, the eight years her husband George W. Bush served as president of the United States. Literacy was a central theme throughout the eight years her husband was in the White House.
Dwight Eisenhower: Topic Page
1890–1969, American general and 34th President of the United States, b. Denison, Tex.; his nickname was “Ike.”
Sam Houston: Topic Page

1793–1863, American frontier hero and statesman of Texas. In 1836 Houston was elected the first president of the new Republic of Texas. The independence of Texas was recognized by the United States and other countries.
Lyndon B. Johnson: Topic Page

1908–73, 36th President of the United States (1963–69), b. near Stonewall, Tex. Johnson lost the 1960 Democratic presidential nomination to John F. Kennedy, but accepted Kennedy's offer of the vice presidential position. After Kennedy's assassination on Nov. 22, 1963, Johnson was sworn in as president and announced that he would strive to carry through Kennedy's programs.
Sandra Day O'Connor
In Britannica Concise Encyclopedia
U.S. jurist. She was nominated in 1981 by Pres. Ronald Reagan to the Supreme Court of the United States, becoming the first female justice in the court’s history.
Ross Perot: Topic Page
US industrialist and independent politician. In 1962 he founded Electronic Data Systems (EDS), a multi-billion dollar corporation which he sold to General Motors (GM) for $2.5 billion in 1984; GM bought out his stock for $700 million in 1986.