Interview with Dr. Victor Rodriguez, educator and author of the memoir "The Bell Ringer," about his life and career. Dr. Rodriguez is a North Texas alumni, member of the UNT Athletic Hall of fame, member of the Geezles Fraternity, and pioneer Mexican American educator. Dr. Victor Rodriguez spotlights significant insights into his storied career through five eras: his early all-Hispanic elementary school training; his continued study and budding athletic prowess in the Edna, TX, school district; his Victoria Junior College athletic achievements and learning; his higher education, Geezle membership, and track accomplishments at North Texas State College; and his 37-year career as a teacher, coach, and superintendent in the San Antonio school district. Inspired by his Anglo third-grade teacher in an all-Hispanic school in Edna, TX, Rodriguez responded to his teacher's challenge to be a civic contributor by becoming a daily bell ringer at the local Catholic church (described in detail in his book, The Bell Ringer), a job requiring him to arise at 4:30 each morning and to run two miles one way amid nipping dogs to ring the bell. This discipline and activity would tap his athletic ability later as he surfaced as a distance district winner despite …

Interview with Jodi-Anne Davidson, Jamaican immigrant, for the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex Immigration Project. She discusses her childhood and family history in Jamaica; parents’ divorce; father’s decision to immigrate to the U.S. with two daughters; experiences with the U.S. immigration system; reminiscences of family life in Jamaica and Jamaican history.

Transcript of an interview with Kathy Jack concerning her childhood and education in Shreveport, Louisiana, and Dallas; "coming-out" narrative; social life in Dallas's gay and lesbian bars; effects of AIDS epidemic on Dallas gay community; career as employee, manager, and eventually owner of various bars; involvement in and support of various Gay Pride events; thoughts about future of gay rights movement.

Transcript of an interview with William Wayne Kitts, U.S. Navy anti-submarine warfare veteran of World War II. Kitts shares concerning his childhood and family history in Sulphur Springs, Texas; college at the University of Texas during the Depression; musical background; enlistment in the U.S. Navy shortly after the attack at Pearl Harbor; midshipman school in New York City and selection for sonar school in Key West, Florida; assignment to USS Mason, the first ship in the navy with an integrated crew; post-war duty as commanding officer of USS Hollis and USS Tollberg; role in establishing Naval Reserve Training Center in Lubbock, Texas; reactivation to active duty during Korean War; and his post-military career at Vought Aeronautics.

Transcript of an interview with Gudrun Raschen, a German-born immigrant to Denton, Texas, and adjunct professor of Music at Texas Woman's University. Raschen shares concerning her childhood, and education in Kiel and Hamburg, Germany; family history; parents' move to South Africa; own move to South Africa; discovery of the cello and decision to study it seriously; involvement in anti-apartheid movement; decision to move to the U.S. for graduate school; attraction of UNT Doctorate of Musical Arts program; first impressions of the U.S. and of Denton; comparison and contrast of life in Germany, South Africa, and the U.S.; plans for the future.

Transcript of an interview with Mary George Billingsley Sullivan, a longtime Denton County resident, concerning her family history; farming life, religious practice, and education in the public schools of Argyle, Texas; marriage to Carson Sullivan and 1929 move to city of Denton; work for Denton Building and Loan Association; 1951 move to Dallas and 1973 return to Argyle; recollections of Influenza epidemic, Great Depression, World War II, and Kennedy assassination; admiration for Barack Obama. Appendix consists of four photocopies of photographs.

Jazz concert performed at the UNT College of Music Winspear Performance Hall.

Jazz concert performed at the UNT College of Music Winspear Hall with guest performers Dave Brubeck Quartet.

Interview with Estel G. Burns, World War II veteran and B-17 pilot, as part of the Tarrant County War Veterans Project. The interview includes Burns' personal experiences of childhood and education in Missouri, farm life in the Great Depression, basic training, and training for aviation mechanics at Sheppard Field, Texas. Additionally, Burns talks about his family history, his 1942 enlistment in Army Air Corps, being accepted into pilot training, marriage to Dorothy Perrin, life at Deenethorpe Air Base, England, crew members and their respective duties on his plane, various missions bombing German targets, his feelings about missions against civilian targets, opinions of Luftwaffe pilots and of Germans, and his postwar Air Force career, including service in the Korean War. The interview includes an appendix of photographs.

Interview with Kirthica Chandrasekar, Indian-born immigrant to Carrollton, Texas, as part of the DFW Metroplex Immigrants Oral History Project. The interview includes Chandrasekar's personal experiences of childhood and education in India, her arranged marriage to a family friend living in New Jersey, and working in the insurance industry. Chandrasekar talks about her first impressions of the U.S., struggling to keep close ties with her family in India, and the contrast of life in India, New Jersey, and Texas.

Interview with Eleonore Greenfield, Germany-born immigrant to Weatherford, Texas, as part of the DFW Metroplex Immigrants Oral History Project. The interview includes Greenfield's personal experiences of childhood and education in Germany, escaping to Berlin from the Soviet army, and again to Bavaria, and marriage to an America GI. Greenfield also discusses her family's experiences with occupying U.S. Army forces, the decision to settle in Weatherford, the struggle to pass on German language and culture to her children and grandchildren, and her family history. The interview includes an appendix with photographs.

Interview with Ivan Arteaga, Mexican national and immigrant to Princeton, Texas, as part of the DFW Metroplex Immigrants Oral History Project. The interview includes Arteaga's personal experiences of childhood and education in Mexico City. Arteaga also talks about his family's decision to immigrate to Provo, Utah, his first impressions of the U.S., marriage, deciding to relocate to Texas, opinions regarding anti-immigrant feelings prevalent in American culture and regarding the U.S. immigration bureaucracy, as well as his feelings about his two children's U.S. citizenship.

Interview with executive director of resource Center Dallas Cece Cox. The interview includes Cox's personal experiences about childhood in Ohio and Bartlesville, Oklahoma, education at Northwestern University, moving to Dallas, and having a career as a photojournalist and studio photographer. Additionally, Cox discusses her coming out narrative, involvement with groups such as Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation and Dallas Gay Alliance/Dallas Gay and Lesbian Alliance, as well as her decision to enter SMU Law School, and her relationship with her partner, adopted son, and family members. The interview includes an appendix with newspaper articles from the Dallas Morning News and flyers.

Interview with World War II veteran Dolphus E. Compere III as part of the Tarrant County War Veterans Oral History Project. The interview includes Compere's personal experiences of childhood in Dallas, Texas, medical school at Baylor College of Medicine in Dallas, and interning at the University of Michigan prior to his enlistment in the Army Air Corp as a surgeon with the Third Air Commando Group. Additionally, Compere discusses his experiences in the Philippines providing medical care to military personnel and local civilians, his post-war medical career in Fort Worth, Texas, and his experience of returning a war souvenir, a Japanese ceremonial sword, to its ancestral family. Photographs are included throughout the interview.

Interview with Joseph Andrew Brenner Sr., Hungarian-American immigrant to Weatherford, Texas, as part of the DFW Metroplex Immigrants Oral History Project. The interview includes Brenner's personal experiences of childhood and education in Budapest, Hungary, having a career as a tool and die machinist, the involvement with his brothers in anti-Soviet and anti-Communist resistance movements, being captured by Hungarian political police and subsequent torture, his sentence in a Soviet work camp, escaping across the Austrian border, and coping with memories of torture. Additionally, Brenner discusses his father's service in the German Luftwaffe, memories of the Soviet Army entering Budapest in 1945, immigrating to the U.S., settling in Weatherford, his efforts to maintain connections with family in Hungary, and the process of earning his citizenship. The interview includes an appendix with photographs.

Interview with Isabel Cano, Argentina-born immigrant to Denton and daughter of Spanish diplomats, as part of the DFW Metroplex Immigrants Oral History Project. The interview includes Cano's personal experiences of immigration, struggling to learn English and acculturate, and provides family history, her first impressions of Texas, and opinions about Denton.

Interview with Michael Flight, Argentinian-born immigrant to Roanoke, Texas, as part of the DFW Metroplex Immigrants Oral History Project. The interview includes Flight's personal experiences of childhood and education in Buenos Aires and Sao Paulo, Brazil, being a university student, and the September 11, 2001 attacks and aftermath. Additionally, Flight discusses his parents' backgrounds, life under military dictatorship, perspectives on the Cold War, the Argentinian government's inability to manage the economy, the Falkland Islands War, Argentinian politics, effects of hyperinflation, his work in import-export and manufacturing fields, his wife's work in the information technology field, the 2001 economic collapse and ensuing constitutional crisis, the "cacerolazo" and "choripan and a coka" protests, his decision to emigrate, acculturation struggles, the difficulty finding work in the midst of recession, his perspectives on various aspects of American culture and politics, and his participation in the North Texas Caledonian Pipes and Drums Band.

Interview with Jonathan Forbes, Canadian-born immigrant to Plano, Texas, as part of the DFW Metroplex Immigrants Oral History Project. The interview includes Forbes' personal experiences of childhood and education in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and dealing with the U.S. immigration and customs bureaucracy. Forbes also talks about his parent's decision to immigrate to the U.S., the similarities and differences of life in Canada and the U.S., his perception of changes due to 9/11 attacks, his intention to remain in the U.S. and gain citizenship, and views on contemporary political issues.

Interview with assistant professor of music history at UNT Ana R. Alonso-Minutti, Mexican-born immigrant to Dallas, as part of the DFW Metroplex Immigrants Oral History Project. The interview includes Alonso-Minutti's personal experiences of childhood and education in Mexico, attending college at Universidad de las Americas, discovering music history as a discipline of study, a one-year course of study in theology in Dallas, choir direction at a church in England, attending graduate school, and accepting a job offer from UNT. Additionally, Alonso-Minutti discusses family history, her grandparents' migration from Spain and Italy, her first impressions of the U.S., the decision to study musicology in the U.S. or Great Britain, the citizenship process, and the contrast of life in Mexico, England, California, and Texas.

Inside Tim Johnston's Irish Girl, readers will find spellbinding stories of loss, absence, and the devastating effects of chance—of what happens when the unthinkable bad luck of other people, of other towns, becomes our bad luck, our town. The contents include: Dirt men -- Water -- Things go missing -- Antlerless hunt -- Jumping man -- Lucky gorseman -- Up there -- Irish girl.

Fort Worth history is far more than the handful of familiar names that every true-blue Fort Worther hears growing up: leaders such as Amon Carter, B. B. Paddock, J. Frank Norris, and William McDonald. Their names are indexed in the history books for ready reference. But the drama that is Fort Worth history contains other, less famous characters who played important roles, like Judge James Swayne, Madam Mary Porter, and Marshal Sam Farmer: well known enough in their day but since forgotten. Others, like Al Hayne, lived their lives in the shadows until one, spectacular moment of heroism. Then there are the lawmen, Jim Courtright, Jeff Daggett, and Thomas Finch. They wore badges, but did not always represent the best of law and order. These seven plus five others are gathered together between the covers of this book. Each has a story that deserves to be told. If they did not all make history, they certainly lived in historic times. The jury is still out on whether they shaped their times or merely reflected those times. Either way, their stories add new perspectives to the familiar Fort Worth story, revealing how the law worked in the old days and what …

Texas singer/songwriter Vince Bell’s story begins in the 1970s. Following the likes of Townes Van Zandt and Guy Clark, Bell and his contemporaries Lyle Lovett, Nanci Griffith, and Lucinda Williams were on the rise. In December of 1982, Bell was on his way home from the studio (where he and hired guns Stevie Ray Vaughan and Eric Johnson had just recorded three of Bell’s songs) when a drunk driver broadsided him at 65 mph. Thrown over 60 feet from his car, Bell suffered multiple lacerations to his liver, embedded glass, broken ribs, a mangled right forearm, and a severe traumatic brain injury. Not only was his debut album waylaid for a dozen years, life as he’d known it would never be the same. In detailing his recovery from the accident and his roundabout climb back onstage, Bell shines a light in those dark corners of the music business that, for the lone musician whose success is measured not by the Top 40 but by nightly victories, usually fall outside of the spotlight. Bell’s prose is not unlike his lyrics: spare, beautiful, evocative, and often sneak-up-on-you funny. His chronicle of his own life and near death on the road reveals what …

Jade Visions is the first biography of one of the twentieth century’s most influential jazz musicians, bassist Scott LaFaro. Best known for his landmark recordings with Bill Evans, LaFaro played bass a mere seven years before his life and career were tragically cut short by an automobile accident when he was only 25 years old. Told by his sister, this book uniquely combines family history with insight into LaFaro’s music by well-known jazz experts and musicians Gene Lees, Don Thompson, Jeff Campbell, Phil Palombi, Chuck Ralston, Barrie Kolstein, and Robert Wooley. Those interested in Bill Evans, the history of jazz, and the lives of working musicians of the time will appreciate this exploration of LaFaro’s life and music as well as the feeling they’ve been invited into the family circle as an intimate. “Fernandez’ insightful comments about her brother offer far more than jazz scholars have ever known about this significant and somewhat enigmatic figure in the history of jazz. All in all, a very complete portrait.”—Bill Milkowski, author of Jaco: The Extraordinary and Tragic Life of Jaco Pastorius

On February 1, 1861, delegates at the Texas Secession Convention elected to leave the Union. The people of Texas supported the actions of the convention in a statewide referendum, paving the way for the state to secede and to officially become the seventh state in the Confederacy. Soon the Texans found themselves engaged in a bloody and prolonged civil war against their northern brethren. During the course of this war, the lives of thousands of Texans, both young and old, were changed forever. This new anthology, edited by Kenneth W. Howell, incorporates the latest scholarly research on how Texans experienced the war. Eighteen contributors take us from the battlefront to the home front, ranging from inside the walls of a Confederate prison to inside the homes of women and children left to fend for themselves while their husbands and fathers were away on distant battlefields, and from the halls of the governor’s mansion to the halls of the county commissioner’s court in Colorado County. Also explored are well-known battles that took place in or near Texas, such as the Battle of Galveston, the Battle of Nueces, the Battle of Sabine Pass, and the Red River Campaign. Finally, the social and …