Dean Caswell (July 24, 1922 – September 21, 2022) was a United States Marine Corps flying ace during World War II. He accrued seven victories in the war. He retired from military service in 1968 at the rank of colonel. He was the last living Marine Corps flying ace of World War II.
Roberta P. Crenshaw (April 17, 1914 - February 8, 2005) was an American civic leader and philanthropist. Crenshaw campaigned for over 60 years to preserve parkland in Austin, Texas and supported Austin-area cultural institutions.
Ravenna Mathews Helson (February 13, 1925–2020) was an American psychologist known for her research on the psychology of women and creativity. Dacher Keltner has described her as "a pioneer in the study of women's lives".
Richard S. "Cactus" Pryor (January 7, 1923 – August 30, 2011) was an American broadcaster and humorist. He received his nickname after the old Cactus Theater on Congress Avenue in Austin, Texas, which was run by his father, "Skinny" Pryor.
Pryor was first heard on Lady Bird Johnson's radio station 590 KLBJ, though his face became as well known as his voice once he moved to television broadcasting on Austin television station KTBC.In addition to his work in radio and television, Pryor also appeared in two films starring John Wayne, both released in 1968: Hellfighters and The Green Berets. Pryor was the author of a 1995 collection of some 40 essays entitled Playback. At KTBC, Pryor had served as programming manager and had hosted a variety of shows. He had conducted interviews with celebrities such as Arthur Godfrey and Dan Blocker and narrated behind-the-scenes programs about KTBC.As part of his involvement with the Headliners Club of Austin journalists, Pryor starred in satires of television news. He provided the voiceover for the 1960 KTBC film “Target Austin”, which presents the scenario of a nuclear missile strike on Austin.
In 1950, Pryor had a novelty hit on the country music charts with the number 7 "Cry of the Dying Duck in a Thunder-Storm", a parody of Tennessee Ernie Ford's "The Cry of the Wild Goose".He regaled audiences on Austin radio with a daily 2-minute trip down memory lane, reminiscing about places and people from his past well into the 2000s. He was a self-described liberal, but acknowledged that his children do not share his beliefs. He claimed to have been one of the first people to have heard of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, having been at the ranch of then-vice president Lyndon Baines Johnson at the time.
Pryor had for several years, been a radio spokesman for the Austin-based Tex-Mex restaurant chain Serrano's. In these ads, he is often called "Nopalito," which loosely means little cactus, after the Spanish word nopal. His broadcasting sign-off consisted of a nonsense word, "thermostrockimortimer," the meaning of which (if any) was never made public. Cactus stated that, "The phrase is in the Bible; if you don't find it, keep reading." "Thermostrockimortimer!" appears on the shared headstone of Cactus Pryor and his wife Peggy in the Texas State Cemetery in Austin.
In 2007, Pryor told his radio audience that he was battling Alzheimer's disease. He died on August 30, 2011, in Austin, Texas, aged 88, weeks after breaking his leg in a fall.
His son, Don Pryor, is co-host of the "Todd and Don Show" on News Radio KLBJ. Another of Cactus's sons, Paul Pryor (1949-2015), once worked in Austin radio as well.
Idanell Brill Connally (February 24, 1919 – September 1, 2006) was the First Lady of Texas from 1963 to 1969. She was the wife of John Connally, who served as Governor of Texas and later as Secretary of the Treasury.
She and her husband were passengers in the Presidential limousine carrying United States President John F. Kennedy when he was assassinated in Dallas, Texas on November 22, 1963.
William Pitt Root (born 1941 Austin, Minnesota) is an American poet.He was raised in Fort Myers, Florida.He studied at the University of Washington, and University of North Carolina at Greensboro.He was Tucson Poet Laureate from 1997 to 2002, and taught at Hunter College.
He was a US/UK Exchange Artist, Rockefeller Foundation fellow, Guggenheim Fellow, Wallace Stegner Fellow at Stanford University, and an NEA fellow.His work appeared in Asheville Poetry Review, The Atlantic, The New Yorker, Harpers, The Nation, Commonweal, The American Poetry Review, Tri@uarterly, and Poetry. He is poetry editor of Cutthroat Magazine.He is married to poet Pamela Uschuk; they live near Durango, Colorado and Tucson Arizona
Helon Blount (January 15, 1929 – March 7, 2005) was an actress and singer who appeared in the original Broadway productions of such musicals as The Most Happy Fella, Woman of the Year and Follies.