1928 births

Charles Allan "Skeeter" Skelton (May 1, 1928, in Hereford, Texas – January 17, 1988, in El Paso, Texas) was an American lawman and firearms writer. After serving in the United States Marine Corps from 1945-46 he began a law enforcement career which included service with the United States Border Patrol, a term as Sheriff of Deaf Smith County, Texas, and investigator with both the US Customs Service and Special Agent in Charge with Drug Enforcement Administration. After his first nationally published article hit newsstands in September 1959, Skelton began writing part-time for firearms periodicals. In 1974 he retired from the DEA and concentrated full-time on his writing.

Clifford Donley Scott (June 21, 1928 – April 19, 1993), born and raised in San Antonio, Texas, was an American saxophonist and flautist who played in jazz, blues, and R&B idioms.
Scott started as a drummer in a family band and also learned to play piano and violin before picking up clarinet as a teenager. He played in a house band led by James Hopkins at San Antonio's Avalon Grill in the late 1940s, then worked with Amos Milburn, Jay McShann, Lionel Hampton, Roy Brown, and Roy Milton. In 1955 he began working with Bill Doggett, and was a prominent soloist on many of Doggett's most famous recordings, including "Honky Tonk". He also recorded as a leader in the late 1950s and early 1960s and worked as a session musician for rock, pop, and R&B recordings. In the 1960s he worked with Sonny Thompson, Jimmy Witherspoon, Gerald Wilson, Onzy Matthews, and Frank Butler, and was a member of Ray Charles's ensemble from 1966 to 1968 and again in 1970. Late in his career he worked primarily locally in San Antonio, playing with George Prado and Jim Cullum, Jr.

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.

William Ray Svoboda (July 12, 1928 – June 20, 1980) was an American football linebacker who played nine seasons in the National Football League (NFL) for the Chicago Cardinals and New York Giants. He played college football at Tulane University and was drafted in the third round of the 1950 NFL Draft. Svoboda died after suffering a heart attack while jogging.
His wife Joyce, who appeared on the Nov 4,1957 evening episode of “The Price Is Right” hosted by Bill Cullen, responded to his question about her size saying she was 4’10” and weighed 89lbs. She described William as 6’1” and 220lbs. While she didn’t win any prizes, she received a Polaroid camera as a parting gift.

Jimmie Coker Holland (April 9, 1928 – December 24, 2017) was a founder of the field of psycho-oncology. In 1977, she worked with two colleagues to establish a full-time psychiatric service at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. The program was one of the first of its kind in cancer treatment, and trained its psychologists to specialize in issues specific to people with cancer.

Welcome Wade Wilson Sr. (March 17, 1928 – February 16, 2024) was chairman of the Welcome Group—a privately held real estate development firm with 5 million square feet of industrial and manufacturing facilities in over 100 locations in the state of Texas. The company headquarters is located in Houston, Texas (USA). He previously served on the Board of Regents of the University of Houston System, and was a 1949 graduate of the University of Houston.

Leona Ford Washington (1928 – August 5, 2007) was a community activist in Texas and founder of the McCall Neighborhood Center in El Paso. She taught for 39 years in the El Paso Independent School District. Washington composed the song, "The City of El Paso," which was adopted as the city's official song in the 1980s.

Lonnie Alfred "Bo" Pilgrim (May 8, 1928 – July 21, 2017) was the co-founder of Pilgrim's Pride, which at one time was one of the largest chicken producers in the United States. Pilgrim founded Pilgrim's Pride when he opened a feed store in 1946 in Pittsburg, Texas, with his older brother, Aubrey. He became the CEO of the company upon the death of his brother Aubrey in 1966, eventually amassing a net worth of $1 billion US.In 1989, when the Texas Senate was debating a bill to make major changes to the state workers' compensation system, Pilgrim handed out $10,000 US checks to nine of the 31 state senators while on the Senate floor two days before the vote. Pilgrim was not a supporter of the bill, and defended his actions by saying the checks were campaign contributions, not an attempt at bribery. The episode led to changes in the state's ethics laws.In addition to his holdings in Pilgrim's Pride, Pilgrim was also a principal shareholder of NETEX Bancorporation, a bank holding company which operated Pilgrim Bank, a bank with branches in Pittsburg and nearby Mount Pleasant.Pilgrim was also a noted philanthropist, giving money to many different charities and community organizations, including Dallas Baptist University to build the Pilgrim Chapel as well as the Patty and Bo Pilgrim Cancer Center in Mount Pleasant.Pilgrim gave the maximum amount allowed by law to Jeb Bush's 2016 Presidential Campaign. He was a frequent contributor to conservative politicians. For several consecutive years he would donate $25,000 to the NRCC.
Pilgrim died on July 21, 2017, in Pittsburg, Texas. He was 89 years old.

Dextra Quotskuyva Nampeyo (September 6, 1928 – February 2019) was a Native American potter and artist. She was in the fifth generation of a distinguished ancestral line of Hopi potters.
In 1994 Dextra Quotskuyva was proclaimed an "Arizona Living Treasure," and in 1998 she received the first Arizona State Museum Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2001, the Wheelwright Museum organized a 30-year retrospective exhibition of Quotskuyva's pottery, and in 2004, she received the Southwestern Association for Indian Arts Lifetime Achievement award.

Christopher Kovacevich (Serbian: Христофор Ковачевић / Hristofor Kovačević; December 25, 1928 – August 18, 2010) was metropolitan bishop of Libertyville and Chicago in the Serbian Orthodox Church making him Primate of Serbian Orthodox Christians in America. He was also the first American-born bishop to serve a diocese of the Serbian Church in North America.