In June 1954, a father and son strolled along a cliff, surveying the land and breathing in the fresh sea air. As fathers often do, this man shared stories of years gone by, and the son listened and was transported back to a day when the beach was not so calm. The father spoke of the events of another June morning on that very same cliff where the 2nd Ranger Battalion of the U.S. Army set foot on French soil.

The title of Audie Murphy's famous autobiography, To Hell and Back, referred to his experiences in World War II, but it could just as easily have been about his childhood.

From the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel Lonesome Dove to books like Horseman, Pass By and The Last Kind Words Saloon, America has seen the Old West through the eyes of Larry McMurtry. McMurtry’s lifelong pursuit began with just an inheritance of a small sack of books.

Resting 20 miles south of the City of Austin sits a three-roomed house in the quaint town of Kyle, Texas, where a small child and her five-membered family moved as the result of a tragic death. This now-motherless child, Katherine Anne Porter, filled her days in this home with dancing, singing, drawing, and playing piano, experimenting with finding her given talents.

Roy “the Judge” Hofheinz, former mayor of Houston and the man who built the Astrodome, was an extravagant, boisterous personality, a man whose life accomplishments matched perfectly his outsized character and quirky genius.

Born in Refugio, Texas, in 1947 as the youngest of six children, Lynn Nolan Ryan was no stranger to hard work and hand-me-downs. At six months old, his father, Lynn Nolan Ryan, Sr., who worked for Hastings Oil Field was transferred to Alvin, Texas, where Ryan spent the rest of his childhood and much of his adult life.

“As I exited the hatch, I understood that I was getting an opportunity that few people ever have – to see with my own eyes an unobstructed view of Earth from space, to view the beauty and majesty of God's creation in an awe-inspiring panorama.

The story of the last cowboy has been written, a movie was made, but out in a rolling pasture near Hamilton, Texas, the final scene has not been cut; the last word is still unwritten.

There is something called salesmanship, that when done really well, is a bit more like showmanship; it is the difference between convincing someone to buy something and allowing them to experience something. There is a broad contrast between having a press pass, which allows someone to view a special celebrity from behind the curtain, and being allowed the experience of feeling important in one's own right.

A venture mostly ignored before her involvement, the plight of the illegitimate, the orphaned, and the homeless child became Edna Gladney's lifelong pursuit—a pursuit that would eventually change the face of Texas and America as well.