Leonidas Warren Payne, Jr. (1873-1945), counted Robert Frost among his friends and a member of the inner circle of poets who embraced him and sought his advice. He altered forever the perception of Texas when he created the Texas Folklore Society that continues to record, publish, and promote Texas history, myth, music, and customs. He guided J. Frank Dobie back into The University of Texas fold, where Dobie produced his finest work and established a voice for Texas literature. L. W. Payne, Jr., influenced generations of American school children through his anthologies that became basic English textbooks. Drawing upon Payne’s own writing, interviews with former colleagues and students, and private letters lain undisclosed since Payne’s death, Rare Integrity reveals a portrait of a man whose great gift of creative generosity and warmth of heart enabled him to see a person as the person wished to be seen.

During World War II, tens of thousands of African Americans served in segregated combat units in U.S. armed forces. The majority of these units were found in the U.S. Army, and African Americans served in every one of the combat arms. They found opportunities for leadership unparalleled in the rest of American society at the time. Several reached the field grade officer ranks, and one officer reached the rank of brigadier general. Beyond the Army, the Marine Corps refused to enlist African Americans until ordered to do so by the president in June 1942, and two African American combat units were formed and did see service during the war. While the U.S. Navy initially resisted extending the role of African American sailors beyond kitchens, eventually the crew of two ships was composed exclusively of African Americans. The Coast Guard became the first service to integrate—initially with two shipboard experiments and then with the integration of most of their fleet. Finally, the famous Tuskegee airmen are covered in the chapter on air warfare. Proud Warriors makes the case that the wartime experiences of combat units such as the Tank Battalions and the Tuskegee Airmen ultimately convinced President Truman to desegregate the …

The New Yorker recently referred to Pat Metheny as “possibly the most influential jazz guitarist of the past five decades.” A native of Lee’s Summit, Missouri, just southeast of Kansas City, Metheny started playing in pizza parlors at age fourteen. By the time he graduated from high school he was the first-call guitarist for Kansas City jazz clubs, private clubs, and jazz festivals. Now 66, he attributes his early success to the local musical environment he was brought up in and the players and teachers who nurtured his talent and welcomed him into the jazz community. Metheny’s twenty Grammys in ten categories speak to his versatility and popularity. Despite five decades of interviews, none have conveyed in detail his stories about his teenage years. Beneath Missouri Skies also reveals important details about jazz in Kansas City during the sixties and early seventies, often overlooked in histories of Kansas City jazz. Yet this time of cultural change was characterized by an outstanding level of musicianship.

Interview with Benjamin Bình-Thiên Phạm Lương, a chef from Dallas, Texas who studied at the Culinary Institute of America. Benjamin discusses the background of his Vietnamese parents, the Vietnam War, politics, his father's education in the United States, and his own personal journey to becoming a chef.

Recital presented at the UNT College of Music MEIT in partial fulfillment of the Master of Music (MM) degree.

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Denton County and the City of Denton are named for pioneer preacher, lawyer, and Indian fighter John B. Denton, but little has been known about him. He was an orphan in frontier Arkansas who became a circuit-riding Methodist preacher and an important member of a movement of early settlers bringing civilization to North Texas. After becoming a ranger on the frontier, he ultimately was killed in the Tarrant Expedition, a Texas Ranger raid on a series of villages inhabited by various Caddoan and other tribes near Village Creek on May 24, 1841. Denton’s true story has been lost or obscured by the persistent mythologizing by publicists for Texas, especially by pulp western writer Alfred W. Arrington. Cochran separates the truth from the myth in this meticulous biography, which also contains a detailed discussion of the controversy surrounding the burial of John B. Denton and offers some alternative scenarios for what happened to his body after his death on the frontier.

Dirty Eddie’s War is the true account of the war-time experiences of Harry Andrew March, Jr., captured by way of diary entries addressed to his beloved wife, Elsa. Nicknamed “Dirty Eddie” by his comrades, he served as a member of four squadrons operating in the South Pacific, frequently under difficult and perilous conditions. Flying initially from aircraft carriers covering the landings at Guadalcanal in August 1942, he was one of the first pilots in the air over the island and then later based at Henderson Field with the “Cactus Air Force.” When he returned to combat at Bougainville and the “Hot Box” of Rabaul, the exploits of the new Corsair squadron “Fighting Seventeen” became legendary. Disregarding official regulations, March kept an unauthorized diary recording life onboard aircraft carriers, the brutal campaign and primitive living conditions on Guadalcanal, and the shattering loss of close friends and comrades. He captures the intensity of combat operations over Rabaul and the stresses of overwhelming enemy aerial opposition. Lee Cook presents Dirty Eddie’s story through genuine extracts from his diary supplemented with contextual narrative on the war effort. It reveals the personal account of a pilot’s innermost thoughts: the action he saw, the effects of …

This collection’s title-as in tether, strike, eyelash, welt-is a nod to the fluidity of language and the foolish penchant we have for naming things, including ourselves. The poems refuse to navigate, choosing instead to face head-on the snares of gender, patriarchy, and parenting. In the closing environmental poems of farewell, the speaker regains communion with nature through the aging body.

Interview with David Carlson, a rancher and retired psychologist from Denton, Texas. The focus of the interview is the "Texas blackout," a weeklong power outage from February 14th to February 21st, 2021. Carlson discusses working at nursing homes during the COVID-19 Pandemic, his ranch, how they took care of the animals and themselves during the freeze, and the animal births that occurred during this time.

Interview with Mari Collins, a resident of Fort Worth, Texas, to discuss experiences during the "Texas Blackout," the power and water outage that happened between February 14th and 18th of 2021 due to the winter storm. Collins describes how hey took their care of their pets during that time, how they interacted with their neighbors, and how they handled lack of water and electricity.

Junior recital presented at the UNT College of Music Recital Hall in partial fulfillment of the Bachelor of Music (BM) in Performance degree.

Junior recital presented at the UNT College of Music Recital Hall in partial fulfillment of the Bachelor of Music (BM) in Performance degree.

Art work Oil on Linen by artist Sarah DePetris, as part of an exhibition entitled " Rainbows, Stones & Ghosts (Part II)" in the Cora Stafford Gallery (South), College of Visual Arts & Design, University of North Texas, Denton, Texas, from April 5-8, 2023. Photographed by Stephanie Gerhart.

Art work of oil on linen by artist Sarah DePetris, as part of an exhibition entitled " Rainbows, Stones & Ghosts (Part II)" in the Cora Stafford Gallery (South), College of Visual Arts & Design, University of North Texas, Denton, Texas, from April 5-8, 2023. Photographed by Stephanie Gerhart.

Junior recital presented at the UNT College of Music Voertman Hall in partial fulfillment of the Bachelor of Music (BM) in Performance degree.

Jazz concert performed at the UNT College of Music Lab West.

In the opening decades of the 20th century, war reporting remained one of the most well-guarded, thoroughly male bastions of journalism. However, when war erupted in Europe in August 1914, a Boston woman, Mary Boyle O’Reilly, became one of the first journalists to bring the war to American newspapers. A Saturday Evening Post journalist, Mary Roberts Rinehart, became the first journalist, of any country, of any gender, to visit the trenches. These women were only the first wave of female journalists who covered the conflict. American Women Report World War I collects more than 35 of the best of their articles and those that highlight the richness of their contribution to the history of the Great War. Editor Chris Dubbs provides section introductions for background and context to stories such as “Woman Writer Sees Horrors of Battle,” “Star Woman Runs Blockade,” and “America Meets France.” The work of female journalists focuses more squarely on individuals caught in the conflict—including themselves. It offers a valuable counterpoint to the male, horror-of-the-trenches experience and demonstrates how World War I served as a catalyst that enabled women to expand the public forum for their opinions on social and moral issues.

Senior recital presented at the UNT College of Music Recital Hall in partial fulfillment of the Bachelor of Music (BM) in Performance degree.

Much of the history written about the Vietnam War overlooks the U.S. Marine Corps Combined Action Platoons. These CAPs lived in the Vietnamese villages, with the difficult and dangerous mission of defending the villages from both the National Liberation Front guerrillas and the soldiers of the North Vietnamese Army. The CAPs also worked to improve living conditions by helping the people with projects, such as building schools, bridges, and irrigation systems for their fields. In War in the Villages, Ted Easterling examines how well the CAPs performed as a counterinsurgency method, how the Marines adjusted to life in the Vietnamese villages, and how they worked to accomplish their mission. The CAPs generally performed their counterinsurgency role well, but they were hampered by factors beyond their control. Most important was the conflict between the Army and the Marine Corps over an appropriate strategy for the Vietnam War, along with weakness of the government of the Republic of South Vietnam and the strategic and the tactical ability of the North Vietnamese Army. War in the Villages helps to explain how and why this potential was realized and squandered. Marines who served in the CAPs served honorably in difficult circumstances. Most of these …

Jazz concert performed at the UNT College of Music Lab West.

Recital presented at the UNT College of Music MEIT in partial fulfillment of the Master of Music (MM) degree.

Senior recital presented at the UNT College of Music Lab West in partial fulfillment of the Bachelor of Music (BM) in Performance degree.

Faculty recital performed at the UNT College of Music Voertman Hall.