People from Victoria

Mildred Vorpahl Baass (April 15, 1917 – November 4, 2012) was an American poet. She served as the Poet Laureate of Texas from 1993 to 1995.Baass was born in San Antonio, Texas, on April 15, 1917, to Alfred H. Vorpahl Sr. and Ida M. Keller Vorpahl. She was widowed during her first marriage when her husband, Lt. A. M. Hutchison Jr. of the United States Army Air Forces, was shot down and declared killed in action during World War II. She married her second husband, Judge Alfred C. Baass, on May 9, 1946. Baass had two daughters, Carol Sowa and Nancy Baass.A resident of Victoria, Texas, Mildred Vorpahl Baass died on November 4, 2012, at the age of 95.

Conrad Oberon Johnson (November 15, 1915 – February 3, 2008) was an American music educator, long associated with the city of Houston, who was inducted into the Texas Bandmasters Hall of Fame in 2000.
Born in Victoria, Texas, Conrad Johnson was nine when his family moved to Houston. Following studies at Yates High School, he attended Houston College for Negroes and graduated from Wiley College. He was an active member of Omega Psi Phi fraternity. He started his career in music education in 1941 and, following a thirty-seven-year career, retired from his position at Kashmere High School in 1978, but continued to remain active in shaping music in Houston by conducting summer programs and in-home tutoring.
Johnson was a proficient musician in his own right and, at one point, played with Count Basie[1]. Erskine Hawkins tried to convince him to join his orchestra, but Johnson declined, citing a love of teaching and obligations to his family. Later, Johnson made his lasting contribution to music by forming the Kashmere Stage Band, a renowned school orchestra that won a number of awards during its decade-long run.
The Conrad O. Johnson School of Fine Arts at Kashmere High School is named after him.
Conrad O. Johnson died in Houston days after his former students staged a celebration in his honor. The gala Saturday night concert, which was filmed by a documentary crew, was described by the students as "the greatest 92nd birthday gift that he could have ever requested."