Sam Houston Clinton, Jr. (September 17, 1923 – October 5, 2004) was a Texas Court of Criminal Appeals Judge, who as a lawyer represented both atheist leader Madalyn Murray O'Hair and Jack Ruby, the man who shot and killed presidential assassin Lee Harvey Oswald.
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.
Gene Mayfield (January 31, 1928 – October 2, 2009) was a former American football coach in Texas high school football.Mayfield played quarterback at West Texas State University (now West Texas A&M University), where he also met his future wife Mary Jean. He began his head coaching career at Littlefield before moving on to Borger in 1958. His 1962 squad made the 4A state championship game, losing 26-30 to San Antonio Brackenridge. In 1965, Mayfield took over head coaching duties at Permian High School of Odessa, Texas, where he started the school's winning tradition by beating San Antonio Lee 11-6 for the 1965 4A state championship. Mayfield was only the fifth head coach in Texas' highest classification to win a state championship in his first year. Odessa Permian made the state finals on two more occasions in 1968 and 1970, losing to Austin Reagan each time.
In 1971 Mayfield succeeded legendary Joe E. Kerbel at his alma mater West Texas State University. He had only mediocre success and left the school after the 1976 season with an overall record of 24-39-2. He retired from coaching in 1977, before returning in 1982 to coach at Levelland for six seasons.
David Glenn Lunceford (May 6, 1934 – May 23, 2009) was an offensive lineman who played for Baylor University and for the Chicago Cardinals of the National Football League.
Lunceford grew up in Tyler Texas, graduating from Van High School in 1952 and lettering in three sports. After a year at Tyler Junior College, he was recruited by Baylor, where he lettered in all three seasons (1954–1956), playing both offensive and defensive tackle. He appeared in both of Baylor's bowl games during that period: the December 31, 1954 Gator Bowl, (which Baylor lost to Auburn 33–17), and the 1957 New Year's Day Sugar Bowl, in which Baylor upset the undefeated Tennessee Volunteers and their superstar (and future Hall of Fame coach) Johnny Majors 13–7.
Lunceford was drafted by the Cardinals in 1957. He played offensive guard for all 12 games in 1957. Injuries ended his career before the start of the 1958 season.
After the NFL, Lunceford returned to his native Tyler and went to work in the oil industry, starting with Humble Oil and Refining, which later merged with Standard Oil of New Jersey (which ultimately became Exxon). He retired from Exxon in 1992, and he continued to work as a management consultant thereafter, as well as serving in various capacities in Tyler for his church, the community, and the local junior college.
Mr. Lunceford died on May 23, 2009, from complications of Alzheimer's disease.
Ben Hamill Procter (February 21, 1927 – April 17, 2012) was a historian who served from 1957 to 2000 on the faculty of Texas Christian University in Fort Worth, Texas.
A native of Temple, Texas, Procter moved with his family to Austin, where he graduated from Stephen F. Austin High School. He obtained Bachelor of Arts and master's degrees from the University of Texas at Austin. He then received a second master's degree and his Ph.D. from Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He served in the United States Navy during the last months of World War II. From 1979 to 1980, Procter was the president of the Texas State Historical Association. Before he became a history professor, he played football briefly with the Los Angeles Rams until his athletic focus was halted by an injury.Procter held the Cecil and Ida Green Emeritus chair in the TCU History Department. He received the Summerfield R. Roberts Award for best book contribution to Texas history. He was a Minnie Stevens Piper Foundation fellow, honored for teaching and research. He was a biographer of newspaper publisher William Randolph Hearst and U.S. Senator John Henninger Reagan.Donald R. Walker (1941-2016), professor emeritus of history at Texas Tech University in Lubbock, called Procter "among the most respected and admired members of the history profession in Texas. He will be missed by students, colleagues. and other historians. ... May he rest in peace."
Jerome Martin "Jerry" Haynes (January 31, 1927 – September 26, 2011) was an American actor from Dallas, Texas. He is most well known as Mr. Peppermint, a role he played for 30 years as the host of one of the longest-running local children's shows in television, the Dallas-based Mr. Peppermint (1961–1969), which was retitled Peppermint Place for its second run (1975–1996). He also had a long career in local and regional theater and appeared in more than 50 films. A 1944 graduate of Dallas' Woodrow Wilson High School, he was the father of Butthole Surfers frontman Gibby Haynes.