In early 2013 same-sex marriage was legal in only ten states and the District of Columbia. That year the Supreme Court’s decision in United States v. Windsor appeared to open the door to marriage equality. In Texas, Mark Phariss and Vic Holmes, together for sixteen years and deeply in love, wondered why no one had stepped across the threshold to challenge their state’s 2005 constitutional amendment prohibiting same-sex marriage. They agreed to join a lawsuit being put together by Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLD. Two years later—after tense battles in the Federal District Court for the Western District of Texas and in the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, after sitting through oral arguments at the Supreme Court of the United States in Obergefell v. Hodges—they won the right to marry deep in the heart of Texas. But the road they traveled was never easy. Accidental Activists is the deeply moving story of two men who struggled to achieve the dignity of which Justice Anthony Kennedy spoke in a series of Supreme Court decisions that recognized the “personhood,” the essential humanity of gays and lesbians. Author David Collins tells Mark and Vic’s story in the context of legal and …

A UNT Opera Summer Workshop performance at the UNT College of Music Lyric Theater.

A faculty recital performed at the UNT College of Music in Voertman Hall.

In the early 1900s, two families in Scurry and Kent counties in West Texas united in a marriage of fourteen-year-old Gladys Johnson to twenty-one-year-old Ed Sims. Billy Johnson, the father, set up Gladys and Ed on a ranch, and the young couple had two daughters. But Gladys was headstrong and willful, and Ed drank too much, and both sought affection outside their marriage. A nasty divorce ensued, and Gladys moved with her girls to her father’s luxurious ranch house, where she soon fell in love with famed Texas Ranger Frank Hamer. When Ed tried to take his daughters for a prearranged Christmas visit in 1916, Gladys and her brother Sid shot him dead on the Snyder square teeming with shoppers. One of the best lawyers in West Texas, Judge Cullen Higgins (son of the old feudist Pink Higgins) managed to win acquittal for both Gladys and Sid. In the tradition of Texas feudists since the 1840s, the Sims family sought revenge. Sims’ son-in-law, Gee McMeans, led an attack in Sweetwater and shot Billy Johnson’s bodyguard, Frank Hamer, twice, while Gladys—by now Mrs. Hamer—fired at another assassin. Hamer shot back, killed McMeans, and was no-billed on the spot by a grand …

Personal memoir of Stanley Marcus providing anecdotes about his life and family, and also describing his role in the Neiman Marcus department store chain, which was founded by Herbert Marcus (Stanley's father) with his younger sister and her husband, Carrie and Al Neiman. Index starts on page 373.

The Texas Rangers were institutionally birthed in 1874 with the formation of the Frontier Battalion. They were tasked with interdicting Indian incursions into the frontier settlements and dealing with the lawlessness running rampant throughout Texas. In an effort to put a human face on the Rangers, Bob Alexander tells the story of one of the six companies of the Frontier Battalion, Company D. Readers follow the Rangers of Company D as—over time—it transforms from a unit of adventurous boys into a reasonably well-oiled law enforcement machine staffed by career-oriented lawmen. Beginning with their start as Indian fighters against the Comanches and Kiowas, Alexander explores the history of Company D as they rounded up numerous Texas outlaws and cattle thieves, engaged in border skirmishes along the Rio Grande, and participated in notable episodes such as the fence cutter wars. Winchester Warriors is an evenhanded and impartial assessment of Company D and its colorful cadre of Texas Rangers. Their laudable deeds are explored in detail, but by the same token their shameful misadventures are not whitewashed. These Texas Rangers were simply people, good and bad—and sometimes indifferent. This new study, extensively researched in both primary and secondary sources, will appeal to scholars …

From one o’clock on the afternoon of July 24, 1974, until shortly before ten o’clock the night of August 3, eleven days later, one of the longest hostage-taking sieges in the history of the United States took place in Texas’s Huntsville State Prison. The ringleader, Federico (Fred) Gomez Carrasco, the former boss of the largest drug-running operation in south Texas, was serving life for assault with intent to commit murder on a police officer. Using his connections to smuggle guns and ammunition into the prison, and employing the aid of two other inmates, he took eleven prison workers and four inmates hostage in the prison library. Demanding bulletproof helmets and vests, he planned to use the hostages as shields for his escape. Negotiations began immediately with prison warden H. H. Husbands and W. J. Estelle, Jr., Director of the Texas Department of Corrections. The Texas Rangers, the Department of Public Safety, and the FBI arrived to assist as the media descended on Huntsville. When one of the hostages suggested a moving structure of chalkboards padded with law books to absorb bullets, Carrasco agreed to the plan. The captors entered their escape pod with four hostages and secured eight others to …

From the author of Through Animals’ Eyes come more true stories from the rare perspective of someone who not only cares for the animals she treats, but also has never wanted nor tried to tame or change them. Lynn Cuny founded Wildlife Rescue and Rehabilitation (WRR) in 1977 in her backyard in San Antonio. It has since grown to 187 acres and now rescues more than 7,000 animals annually and maintains an emergency hotline 365 days a year. Native animals are released back into the wild, and those non-native or severely injured animals that cannot be released become permanent Sanctuary residents. Through her stories, Lynn hopes to dispel the belief that animals do not reason, have emotions, or show compassion for each other. Lynn’s stories cover the humorous and the tragic, the surprising and the inevitable. The animals she describes range from the orphaned baby Rhesus monkey who found a new mother in an old monkey rescued from a lab, to the brave red-tailed hawk who was illegally shot, but healed to soar again. The stories will touch your heart and help you see “through animals’ eyes.” “These true accounts, as amazing as some of them are with their unlikely …

Guest artist recital performed at the UNT College of Music Voertman Hall.

Forty-two commercially collected dumpsters from Denton’s Municipal Solid Waste Stream were emptied, sorted and weighed to characterize the material types and make preliminary recycling policy recommendations. The general composition of Denton’s solid waste stream was not significantly different from the composition of the nation’s solid waste stream. Fifty-eight percent of the observed waste stream was recyclable. Paper made up the largest portion of recyclable materials and the "grocery" source category had more paper than any of the other five categories. Based on these findings, an incrementally aggressive approach is recommended to reduce certain types of wastes observed in the waste stream. This would include a Pay-As-You-Throw Program followed by an Intermediate Processing Center that can be converted to a Materials Recovery Facility.

The life history and case-making behaviors of Phylloicus ornatus from two springfed first order streams in the Edwards Plateau Bioregion of Texas were studied from January 1998 to November 1999. Field larval, pupal and adult samples and laboratory rearings indicated a multivoltine cycle. First instars differ from late instars in number of labral setae and in having a unique spur-like claw on each lateral hump. Larval development was asynchronous with second through fifth instars and pupae present most months. First instars were present April through July, October and November. Case making of first instar and case reconstruction of later instars extracted from their cases was documented by videophotography.

A guest artist recital performed at the UNT College of Music Voertman Hall.

Interview with Leonard Bock, a Navy veteran (PC-1135 and PC-1128), concerning his experiences in the Pacific Theater during World War II.

Interview with William Dunphy, an anesthetist and Army veteran from the Vietnam War. In the interview, Dunphy describes some of his experiences while serving as an Army nurse during the Vietnam War. Dunphy discusses what it was like working at the Army hospital in Saigon, Vietnam, and includes details that concern general living accommodations, hospital facilities, relationships between doctors and nurses, work schedules, alcohol abuse by military personnel, drug problems, and American relations with Vietnamese civilians. He also recalls post-war adjustments and a rest and recuperation trip to Hawaii.

Interview with Carl Horton, an operating room nurse and Vietnam Army veteran. In the interview, Horton describes his experiences while serving as an Army nurse during the Vietnam War. He goes in depth about his assignments, which include Yokohama, Japan and Dong Tam and Can Tho with the 3rd Surgical Hospital. Horton also discusses living accommodations, hospital facilities, American relations with the South Vietnamese military personnel and civilians, "short time" and out-processing, leisure time, and recreational activities. He also discusses the adjustments that he had to make after the war was over and his continuing work with the Veterans Administration.

Ben Thompson was a remarkable man, and few Texans can claim to have crowded more excitement, danger, drama, and tragedy into their lives than he did. He was an Indian fighter, Texas Ranger, Confederate cavalryman, mercenary for a foreign emperor, hired gun for a railroad, an elected lawman, professional gambler, and the victor of numerous gunfights. As a leading member of the Wild West’s sporting element, Ben Thompson spent most of his life moving in the unsavory underbelly of the West: saloons, dance-houses, billiard halls, bordellos, and gambling dens. During these travels many of the Wild West’s most famous icons—Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday, Bat Masterson, Wild Bill Hickok, John Wesley Hardin, John Ringo, and Buffalo Bill Cody—became acquainted with Ben Thompson. Some of these men called him a friend; others considered him a deadly enemy. In life and in death no one ever doubted Ben Thompson’s courage; one Texas newspaperman asserted he was “perfectly fearless, a perfect lion in nature when aroused.” This willingness to trust his life to his expertise with a pistol placed Thompson prominently among the western frontier’s most flamboyant breed of men: gunfighters.

Frank Reaugh (1860–1945; pronounced “Ray”) was called “the Dean of Texas artists” for good reason. His pastels documented the wide-open spaces of the West as they were vanishing in the late nineteenth century, and his plein air techniques influenced generations of artists. His students include a “Who’s Who” of twentieth-century Texas painters: Alexandre Hogue, Reveau Bassett, and Lucretia Coke, among others. He was an advocate of painting by observation, and encouraged his students to do the same by organizing legendary sketch trips to West Texas. Reaugh also earned the title of Renaissance man by inventing a portable easel that allowed him to paint in high winds, and developing a formula for pastels, which he marketed. A founder of the Dallas Art Society, which became the Dallas Museum of Art, Reaugh was central to Dallas and Oak Cliff artistic circles for many years until infighting and politics drove him out of fashion. He died isolated and poor in 1945. The last decade has seen a resurgence of interest in Reaugh, through gallery shows, exhibitions, and a recent documentary. Despite his importance and this growing public profile, however, Rounded Up in Glory is the first full-length biography. Michael Grauer argues for Reaugh’s …

Interview with Pauline Dixon, a teacher and longtime resident of Hamilton Park from Pittsburg, Texas. Dixon discusses her education, her father's work as assistant sheriff in segregated Pittsburg, the Classroom Teachers of Dallas, moving to Hamilton Park, development of the area, the "buy out" of the neighborhood, the Civic League, desegregation and busing, and her political work.

Interview with John Hargrove, a Army Air Corps WWII veteran from Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Hargrove discusses growing up and his family background, being drafted into the Air Corps, training, assignment to the 18th Reconnaissance Squadron, 22nd Bomb Group at Langley Field as a radio operator, life and work at Langley, transition to the B-26, the start of the war, submarine patrol, deployment to Townsville, Australia via Hawaii, flying his first mission, liberty and recreation, bombing and close air support missions, the crew being awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross, losses, returning to the US, work as a radio instructor, meeting his wife, postwar service, and reflections on the atomic bomb. In appendix is a manuscript for an autobiography written by Hargrove, an addendum to the interview, and a letter to Ron Marcello making corrections to the interview.

Interview with Kenneth Poff, a Army WWII veteran from Wrightsville, Pennsylvania, who served with the 1913th Engineer Aviation Battalion. Poff discusses his early life, being drafted and training, shipping out to Townsville, Australia, and landing on New Guinea, fighting attached to the 1st Marine Division for the Cape Gloucester and Hollandia campaigns, constructing and maintaining an airstrip, the Lingayan Gulf campaign in the Philippines, the atomic bomb and VJ-Day, and returning home.

Interview with Lloyd F. Hudson, a Texas National Guard WWII veteran from Fort Worth, Texas. Hudson discusses his family background, joining the 124th Cavalry and transfer to the 112th, work as a cavalryman before activation, activation and the Louisiana Maneuvers, deployment to Townsville, Australia, amphibious assault on Arawe, New Britain, falling ill and returning to the States, the character of troops, equipment, rivalry with the Marine Corps, and acts of bravery. In appendix is a list of Hudson's fellow soldiers, the places he served, descriptions of the equipment mentioned in the interview, and the 112th's service chronicle.

Faculty recital presented at UNT College of Music Voertman Hall.

Faculty recital presented at UNT College of Music Voertman Hall.

Interview with Army veteran Archie Gantt. The interview includes Gantt's personal experiences about the European Theater during World War II, boyhood in central Texas, basic training, shipping to England, combat on the Siegfried Line, and the Battle of the Bulge. Additionally, Gantt talks about leadership problems, combat living conditions, Officer Candidate School and commissioning, and his postwar war service in Europe.