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1. Dead on

   June 21, 2021 9:53 am Leave a Comment

   

   Jerry Garcia and the Grateful Dead played Daniel-Meyer Coliseum on Nov. 14, 1971. Rock music historians say that their TCU performance was seminal to the group becoming a touring band. Courtesy of TCU Archives

   Goldilocks was a bigger role model than we give her credit for. Her steadfast pursuit of a harmonious “just right” condition stands as the definitive model for those seeking balance: something not too hot, not too lumpy, but just right.

   Both musically and historically, TCU found itself — at least once — at an enviable fulcrum between fate and destiny when, on Nov. 14, 1971, the rock bands Grateful Dead and New Riders of the Purple Sage brought a divergent mix of communities together on campus. In Daniel-Meyer Coliseum, hippies and debutantes danced side by side with ROTC cadets and trust fund kids for an evening that bound cultures. Greater though, was that this show was among the nexus of concerts for both bands’ outward propulsion into national consciousness.

   To some alumni, that may mean nothing. Many TCU students will have graduated without knowing anything about Saint Stephen with his rose, or Casey Jones and his train, or other Dead staples. The New Riders of the Purple Sage, who played with the Dead on the road for years, may have also escaped some students’ collections. But even those who never picked up the Dead’s “Skeletons in the Closet” or the Riders’ self-titled 1971 album should remain impressed that our own campus administration booked both bands during their ground breaking 1971 tour.

   Those who recall campus life in the early ’70s won’t be surprised to know that the decision to hold a Grateful Dead event on campus was spiked like punch. But administrators at TCU that year found the give and take between authority and spontaneity to be just right.

   First a little background: The university booked Jefferson Airplane to play at TCU in 1970, and turmoil ensued. Unrest was in the air in 1970 as a general result of coming after 1969, but Jefferson Airplane and front man Paul Kantner were especially good at stoking the fires. According to a November 1971 Skiff  article “because of the abundance of marijuana, liquor and trash, concerts of that type are indefinitely banned on TCU’s campus. However, the Grateful Dead, also one of San Francisco rock pioneers, has been allowed on campus with the hope this year’s concert will lack the problems encountered last year.”

   Thankfully the TCU brass bent to the student’s request. “I am giving the TCU students a second chance,” Libby Proffer, director of student services, told the Skiff. “If there are problems with this concert, there will not be a third chance.”

   Luckily, nothing blew up. The show went off without a hitch.

   The New Riders of the Purple Sage opened for the Dead, as they did for most of that 1971 tour and many Grateful Dead shows after. Few, if any, arrests occurred, and the evening was an enjoyable one by most accounts.

   Buddy Cage, the New Riders’ world-renowned pedal steel guitar virtuoso, does not recall details about their set list at Daniel-Meyer Coliseum, but the TCU visit did jump out, partly because this was his first tour with the bands. “I had traveled the Southwest a lot when I was a kid, so I was fairly excited and a little nostalgic about playing Fort Worth,” he said.
   Still, he had some reservations.

   “What would a Christian school do with an atheist on campus? More seriously, the Dead were always viewed suspiciously in the South and Southwest due to drug laws around the time.” Any concerns he or the band had were put to rest, though, once the show started. “When we played at TCU, people were there to PAR-TAY!”

   Cage recalled a nice, open vibe and great fan interaction.

   “It was a fairly open scene, and with the co-mingling of the Homecoming campus crowd — all tuxed and gowned up — we were in for some serious boogie! I recall we played an exceptional night as the push and pull from the audience was utterly remarkable,” Cage said.

   And so the concert would remain in the history books — more of an event than a memorable set list. Even Grateful Dead historian and publicist Dennis McNally, whose national bestselling history of the Grateful Dead, A Long Strange Trip: The Inside History of the Grateful Dead, did not reference much about the concert. But he suggested that the selection of the Dead to play was fortuitous based on the more peaceful demeanor of the band compared to that of Jefferson Airplane.

   Garcia, McNally said, was always very respectful of the power that one held when in front of the microphone. Jefferson Airplane’s Kantner, who McNally described as “kind of a difficult, arrogant kind of guy,” was more prone to abuse the power and work the crowd into a frenzy.
   “Jerry would be just the opposite. The idea of encouraging the audience to endanger somebody would be the furthest thing from his mind,” McNally said.

   TCU was able to host an outstanding show, both for the students and for the bands. What should be memorable is that TCU took at least one more chance, however risky, to have both groups on campus in 1971. Just as NASA was launching rockets into outer space with great aplomb, both bands skyrocketed to new success as a result of that tour, the third date of which was played at TCU.

   The Grateful Dead, of course, grew to become one of the history’s largest musical touring sensations. They have toured since the 1995 death of Garcia, as recently as this spring and summer. The New Riders of the Purple Sage released their new album “Where I Come From” in June of ’09, with seven of 12 tracks co-written by Grateful Dead lyricist Robert Hunter.

   For fans of the genre and the bands, the New Riders still come through Texas on occasion, playing Austin and in Dallas — most recently at Dallas’ Granada Theater in 2008. But from the Grateful Dead’s touring history, it deserves mention that of the few shows that came through Texas, TCU was able to nab one.

   To hear the Daniel-Meyer Coliseum Grateful Dead show, click the play button on the embedded file below or check out www.tinyurl.com/yabjoha. Or search archive.org
   under “Grateful Dead Fort Worth.” No searches were able to generate a
   recording of the New Riders’ show from that day, but as any taper will
   tell you, the search for the show is often half of the fun. 

   
   Nov. 14, 1971 set list
   Bertha
   Beat It On Down the Line
   China Cat Sunflower
   I Know You Rider
   El Paso
   Sugaree
   Jack Straw
   Big Railroad Blues
   Me and Bobby McGee
   Loser
   Playing in the Band
   Tennessee Jed
   You Win Again
   Mexicali Blues
   Casey Jones
   One More Saturday Night
   Truckin’
   Drums
   The Other One
   Me and My Uncle
   Wharf Rat
   Sugar Magnolia
   Johnny B. Goode

   To listen to the playlist, go to www.tinyurl.com/yabjoha.

2. Chancellor’s Message: Good neighbors and community connections

   December 20, 2017 1:40 pm 1 Comment

   The Texas Christian University neighborhood is purple on every football game day. Take a stroll around the area and you will see TCU banners fluttering in front yards, T-shirt-clad neighbors streaming to Amon G. Carter Stadium and a growing sense of spirit and excitement as kickoff nears.

   Neighborhood support is important to us. We know that a football Saturday also brings heavy traffic, cars parked solid along the streets, Frog Horn blasts and the accompanying noise when fireworks light up the sky.

   In return, TCU works to be a good neighbor, too. We delight in seeing residents out exercising on the sidewalks; parents and their children at the Christmas tree lighting in the Campus Commons; and neighborhood kids playing on our fields at soccer and football camps. Joggers. Dog walkers. Parents with strollers. The need for community connection is in TCU’s DNA.

   Collaboration is also vital to being a good neighbor. The Berry Street Initiative is a great example of the good that can grow from working together. This partnership includes the city, businesses, neighbors, community organizations and TCU — all entities with the mindset that the commercial area on the university’s southern border could be transformed. The results are obvious: a wide, well-lit, tree-lined street, beautiful landscaping, strong pedestrian traffic and a vibrant business environment. Those of us involved in the Berry Street renaissance are convinced that its best days are still ahead. For when we collaborate, we all win.
   From connection and collaboration comes change, which is at the heart of the university education experience. After more than 100 years here, we consider all of Fort Worth and the DFW Metroplex to be our neighborhood, part of our greater campus community. We truly strive to be integral to the heart and soul of our hometown and region.

   The community connection grows servant leaders. When our students participate in more than 60,000 hours of community service each year … when they intern in schools and hospitals … when they develop professional expertise by giving a hearing test or taking a patient’s blood pressure … these students are honing professional and leadership skills … they are preparing to become tomorrow’s leaders … and they are developing the habits of civic engagement and professional expertise.

   Among TCU’s significant attractions to students are the amazing opportunities for internships and employment in Fort Worth and the region. The TCU-Fort Worth partnership obviously makes an impression with more than half of our 83,000 alumni living and working in North Texas. As we say at TCU, our students are learning to change the world.  That starts — and continues — right here in our hometown.

   As always, thanks for your loyalty to TCU,

   Victor J. Boschini, Jr.

3. Books: Conversation with Ron Hall and Denver Moore

   October 20, 2017 11:23 am Leave a Comment

   When Ron Hall ’71 (MBA ’73) and Denver Moore pitched the uplifting tale of their unlikely friendship and the woman who had brought them together — Ron’s late wife Deborah Short Hall ‘67 — the publishing world didn’t exactly come running.

   “We got turned down so many times, from agents, major publishers, minor publishers, they all turned us down,” Hall said.

   All except Thomas Nelson, a Nashville-based publisher specializing in inspirational works.  Since then, their book, Same Kind of Different As Me has spent more than 85 weeks on The New York Times bestsellers list and raised more than $35 million for homeless shelters nationwide.

   This fall the follow-up book What Difference Do It Make: Stories of Hope and Healing (Thomas Nelson) hit bookstores including the TCU Barnes & Noble, where Hall and Moore recently held a book signing this week. The TCU Magazine managed to snag Hall for a few minutes for a quick interview.
   
   What inspired the new book?
   Our agent and publisher wanted a follow up to Same Kind of Different as Me. I didn’t know what I was going to write. We started talking. We had so many people who had read Same Kind of Different As Me and sent us letters telling how the story had inspired them to go out help people. That became the premise of the book Stories of Hope and Healing. And it was mostly going to be those stories.

   We had over 500 stories, but there didn’t seem to be a common theme. I couldn’t get a common thread to make it work. I had written some stories, Lynn Vincent had worked with Denver to write his stories. It just wasn’t coming together.

   I was disappointed. We were past deadline and the publishers were getting anxious, we didn’t even have a name. This was back in May. I had lost my father in January and started writing about that for another book. All of the sudden I realized I had all this compassion for homeless people all over America, but I’d never really loved my father. I started writing about my father and how sometimes how charity should begin at home.

   I tell the story of how in his last three years of his life, my father became an invalid and I had to start taking care of him. And tied that into the homeless story. All of the sudden, it started to come together and the writing came alive. We had the stories and I put the narrative in there about my father and it came together.

   We still had to come up with a title, I was on the phone to the publishers trying to come up with something and Denver walked in, and I told him they wouldn’t let me off the line until we had a title and he said, “What difference do it make?” We laughed and knew we finally had a title.
   
   What’s been the reaction to the new book?
   Last week in Dallas we had one of the best selling hardbacks and one of the best selling paperbacks (Same Kind of Different As Me). We’ve had great reviews. It’s taken off. I’m surprised.

   Why do you think your book struck such a nerve?
   It’s a story of hope, that sometimes a random act of kindness can really impact a city, a nation, the world. Denver tells me over and over again, he says, ‘You never know whose eyes God is watching you through.’ When we look at homeless people, we should not be asking, ‘What’s going to happen if I stop by and help.’ We should ask, ‘What happens if we don’t?’

   We all want to do better. We all want to do more and sometimes we need someone to remind us. We (Denver and myself) had a great TCU graduate, Deborah Hall, who pushed us. She had a vision that’s impacted our city, nation, and other countries. Now we have a feature film in the works, Samuel L. Jackson is making a movie.

   On the Web:
   For more on the book, upcoming film, book signings and speaking engagements, go to http://www.samekindofdifferentasme.com/
   TCU Daily Skiff coverage

4. Trailblazer in nursing: Allene Parks Jones ’63

   October 2, 2017 12:41 pm Leave a Comment

   On a sticky-hot day in 1962, a young nurse named Allene Parks Jones stood in a long, winding line to register for classes.

   Always an impeccable dresser, Jones had taken even greater care in her appearance that morning, selecting a simple yellow, short-sleeve dress and high heels the color of straw.

   In line, a few people stole quick glances at Jones, 29, but she barely noticed. Even when a local newspaper photographer approached and asked to take her photograph, Jones said yes, and smiled politely for the camera.

   That sultry September day in 1962, Allene Jones became one of the first three black undergraduate students to enroll at TCU.

   Civil rights clashes were rocking the country, the South in particular. Not so far away, at the University of Mississippi, U.S. marshals escorted James Meredith, the school’s first black student, to campus amid violent riots that killed two people.

   Those events, however terrifying, seemed far removed from Jones’ life in Fort Worth.

   “I just wanted to go to school,” says Jones, now 78. “I was too young and naïve to understand the significance of what I was doing. It didn’t seem like a big deal.”

   Six years later, Jones would return to TCU, this time as the university’s first black professor, where she specialized in clinical psychiatric nursing and was beloved by students and colleagues.

   This fall, TCU’s Harris College of Nursing and Health Sciences Alumni Association recognized Jones with the inaugural Allene Jones Trailblazer Award, which will be given to others with ties to the college who break barriers.

   “Allene did blaze a path for so many others, but it was never what she set out to do,” says Paulette Burns, dean of Harris College. “She just wanted an education. She wanted to teach. She not only improved her life, but the lives of others who followed in her steps.”

   The white nurse’s uniform, sparkling clean and perfectly pressed, first caught Jones’ attention. She was 6 or 7 years old and accompanying her mother to the town of Taylor to visit Dr. James Dickey, the only black doctor for miles.

   Two black nurses worked in the office. One of them, Marie, was especially kind and outgoing, and Jones imagined herself as a grown-up, wearing the white uniform and helping others.

   Jones was born in 1933, in the middle of the Great Depression, when few opportunities existed for anyone, much less African-Americans.
   The Jones family farmed cotton and corn and struggled to pay the bills like everyone else in their small, rural community near Giddings, Texas.

   Once, Jones recalls her mother asking her father for money. Her father said he did not have any; he had loaned it to a neighbor in need.

   “You gave away the last of our money?” she remembers her mother exclaiming.

   “He needed it more than us,” her father replied calmly.

   “That stuck with me,” Jones said. “My father always told me to treat others the way you want to be treated.”

   At 16, Jones graduated from Giddings High School and moved to Fort Worth, where she lived with an aunt and enrolled in typing courses.

   One year later, she met Albert Jones Jr. They dated for three years before marrying.

   

   In 1962, Allene Jones was among the first black students to register for classes at TCU. (Photo by TCU Yearbook)

   When Jones read about a nursing course in Dallas open to black women, Albert urged her to try it. Once a week, she rode the bus to Dallas to learn how to give injections, insert catheters and administer enemas. Students practiced only on mannequins, and Jones realized the class was not accredited. Undeterred, she continued attending and learning.

   Jones enrolled in John Peter Smith’s School of Vocational Nursing, one of the few places in Fort Worth that accepted black students, and in 1954 became a licensed vocational nurse.

   Two years later, she heard a rumor that St. Joseph Hospital School of Nursing planned to integrate. One day, she called the director to inquire. The director told her there were no plans now or ever to integrate.

   “That would be too embarrassing,” the woman said.

   However, within months, the school integrated and Jones was accepted into the registered nursing program and became the school’s first black student.

   Older than many of the girls in her class, Jones became a sort of mother-figure, giving classmates advice and helping them get over squeamishness.

   “Some of the girls were scared to death to give injections,” she says. “By that time, this stuff was no big deal to me. I had been doing it for years.”

   As graduation approached in 1959, the class planned a trip to swim in a private lake. When the owner of the lake learned that one of the students was black, he banned her from the property.

   Girls were crying. Some said they refused to go if Jones could not.

   “I didn’t understand why they were crying,” Jones said. “I didn’t even like to swim.”

   Jones told the girls to go swim and have fun, not to worry about her. Still, many stayed home.

   One of Jones’ dreams remained unfulfilled: a college degree.

   While working in 1962 as a registered nurse at the United States Public Health Service Hospital in south Fort Worth, Jones learned that TCU planned to integrate. Jones applied to TCU and became one of the first three black undergraduate students at the university.

   Students were kind and treated her with respect, she says. A professor once asked her how she felt being one of the first black students on campus.

   “There is pressure to being the first at anything,” she remembers telling him. “If I fail, I feel like that sets the stage for future black students. I cannot fail.”

   In May 1963, Jones became one of TCU’s first two black graduates. The other, Doris Ann McBride Goree, who passed away in 2009, was also a nursing student.

   Psychiatric nursing appealed to Jones, and she spent three years running group therapies and learning how to interview patients at the Public Health Service Hospital, which then was a psychiatric hospital for federal prisoners with mental health or drug addiction problems.

   On one occasion, she recalled standing up to a doctor who was forcing patients to undergo shock therapy without their consent.

   Jones loved the work but set her sights on graduate school, an unusual goal at the time for nurses. She was accepted at the University of California Los Angeles and moved west in 1966. In 1968, Jones received her master’s degree in psychiatric nursing.

   After returning home to Fort Worth, TCU offered Jones a job. In 1968, she became the university’s first black professor. The dean asked what she thought.

   “Well, you have intelligent people working here,” Jones told her. “I expect to be treated like I want, and I will treat others the same way. I don’t foresee any problems.”

   Jones taught clinical and psychiatric nursing, earning a reputation among students as being kind and fair.

   Rhonda Keen, TCU professor of nursing, recalled her first encounter with Jones when she was an undergraduate in Jones’ introductory nursing course, a large lecture-style class.

   Bored by the topic, Keen hid her paperback book behind school notes and secretly read a novel. After class, Jones walked by Keen. “That must be very interesting reading,” Jones told her, smiling.

   “She never gave up on students,” Keen said. “She was an advocate for everyone and always believed in students.”

   Among colleagues, Jones became known for her signature even temper, which she frequently used to defuse tension at staff meetings.

   

   Allene Jones graduated from TCU in 1963. She returned to the university as a faculty member and taught for nearly 30 years. (Photo by TCU Yearbook)

   “Everyone would get hot under the collar over some issue or another,” said Linda Curry, professor of nursing. “Allene was always the calm voice of reason, a soft-spoken leader. I never once heard Allene raise her voice. She never needed to. People just listened.”

   Jones spent summers traveling the world, visiting Europe, Africa, China, Japan, South America and many more places.

   In 1998, after three decades as a professor, Jones retired from TCU, though she remains involved with the university as an emeritus professor.

   On occasion, she sorts through old papers and photos from days long passed. Jones remembers herself as a young nurse, as a college student, unaware of what lay ahead, and she smiles.

   She didn’t plan to be a trailblazer, she just wanted an education.

   On the Web:
   TCU Nursing – www.nursing.tcu.edu

5. Start ’em Up

   February 29, 2016 1:53 pm 1 Comment

   t’s great to get a job, but starting a company and creating jobs is even better.

   That was the message of an Extreme Entrepreneurship Tour that hit campus in April.

   Launched by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the tour was part of the chamber’s “Dream Big” campaign that has the goal of creating 20 million jobs this year through new business start-ups.

   “They heard about what we’re doing here at TCU and wanted to connect with our students,” said Brad Hancock, director of the Neeley Entrepreneurship Center. “We’re the only college campus they’re visiting in Texas.”

   Successful entrepreneurs, including Rick Wegman ’93, spoke to students about how they started their firms and also took questions from the audience on topics that ranged from handling rejection to battling generational stereotypes.

   Wegman, who became a clinical psychologist after graduating from TCU, told students about his winding career path, which included a stint as an actor in Hollywood, a period he dubbed “lucrative, but unimpressive.”

   He returned to Fort Worth and started HGC Development, a real estate firm, and CWI Design Group. He also co-owns April Lane Exquisite Footwear, a women’s shoe firm on Camp Bowie Boulevard, with his wife.

   He told students to make the most of their time at TCU and to network with fellow Frogs.

   “TCU is such a great vehicle for instilling a sense who you are and what you can accomplish,” Wegman said. “Everybody — the faculty, staff, everyone — works so hard to make you believe in yourself.”

   The event drew about 30 students and alumni, including some who have already started their own business. Justin Anderson ’09, founder and chief executive officer of Anderson Trail, a maker of moist-style granola, said he enjoyed hearing first-hand from successful entrepreneurs.

   Anderson also participated in another segment of the chamber’s “Dream Big” initiative — a video contest designed to celebrate aspiring and established entrepreneurs.

   He was recently among the semifinalists in the “I Am Free Enterprise” video contest. His video (screen shot below) placed  16th out of 133 entries.

   “I’ve gotten over 7,500 views of the video since it was uploaded to YouTube,” he said. “It has served as a great way to educate people on what I’ve done to start what’s now a thriving natural foods company with just $500 and a dream,” he says.

6. Winter 2013: Best new books

   February 25, 2016 11:02 am Leave a Comment

   Anything for Thanksgiving
   Wanda Wallace ’72 BBA (MPA ’74)

   Wallace’s third novel features two best friends, Bud and Ginny, who meet again after 40 years to rekindle their relationship. As three Thanksgivings pass, they deal with danger, intrigue and deception to reveal boundless blessings and timeless truth.
   Available on amazon.com.

   Culture Without Accountability: What’s the Fix?
   Julie Maureen Miller ’88 MEd and Brian Bedford

   When businesses, families or individuals decline to be accountable for their actions and decisions, the results can be devastating. Businesses can fail, relationships falter and reputations shatter. This book features real stories of what accountability looks like, and what can go wrong in its absence. Order at millerbedford.com.

   New from TCU Press
   Texas Chili? Oh My!
   Patricia Vermillion, with illustrations by Kuleigh Smith
   This Texas-style retelling of the beloved fairy tale The Three Little Pigs features three armadillos who build their dens out of native Texas materials. But watch out for Trickster Coyote who is always looking for armadillos to make Texas chilli.
   Order from TCU Press at prs.tcu.edu or by calling 1.800.826.8911.

7. Books: Conversation with Theresa Strouth Gaul

   11:01 am Leave a Comment

   Catharine Brown was a Cherokee woman born in Alabama about 1800 who entered a missionary school about age 17 and soon converted to Christianity. In her new book, Cherokee Sister: The Collected Writings of Catharine Brown (1818-1823), English Professor Theresa Strouth Gaul explores the surviving letters written by Brown, the first Native American woman whose own writings saw extensive publication in her lifetime. After Brown’s death at age 23 from tuberculosis, the missionary organization that had educated and later employed her commissioned a biography titled Memoir of Catharine Brown, which enjoyed widespread popularity and praise. Her writings, along with those of other educated Cherokees, became highly politicized and were used in debates about the removal of the Cherokees and other tribes to Indian Territory.

   Describe the process you went through researching Brown and her letters. I was able to take several research trips supported by TCU’s Research and Creativity Fund grants to go through the materials relating to the Cherokee schools, so I really went through the crumbling papers looking for additional material by Catharine Brown or about her, and I couldn’t find much. This was actually really puzzling to me because I knew that the editor of her biography had used these letters, but where were they? There had been a fire in the missionary rooms in Boston in the late 1820s. I thought maybe they had all burned up there, or else who knew where they were? So I kind of gave up on finding the source materials.

   But eventually you were able to locate them?  Yes, randomly one day I had gone back to look at a database about archival materials, reinserted her name to just check again, and all of a sudden this collection came up at a place called the Congregational Library in Boston, which is affiliated with the missionary organization. It said there were 25 items pertaining to Catharine Brown in the archive there. So I got in touch with the librarian immediately and those were the 25 original source items I had been looking for. The reason I found that one record after I had already searched multiple times in that same database is they had just found it, they had just entered it into the database. So, actually the timing for me was fortuitous because the book wasn’t finished yet. The librarians were really cooperative and helpful to me, and I was able to incorporate that material. So it’s a very haphazard process. It’s a combination of digging through old papers in a very old-fashioned way and the new-fashioned technologies, which allow you to be much more comprehensive than you would have been able to be 30 years ago.

   How much were her letters self-edited or edited by the missionaries?
   There were so many layers of that editing process. There is the fact that when she wrote, she was writing within missionary context, for missionary readers, to serve missionary purposes, and she was very aware of that. She wrote these letters to donors to encourage them to donate and support the missions. She was writing in Euro-American literary genres that had very formalized conventions. Writing a letter was a very constrained activity in that there was a right way to write a letter. When you fulfilled the conventions of writing a letter in the proper manner, that demonstrated that you were an educated person, you were a moral person; it was all these qualities connected. So she wanted to demonstrate that with her writing.

   The book is available through the University of Nebraska press at nebraskapress.unl.edu

8. Books: Conversation with Ellis Amburn ’54

   10:58 am Leave a Comment

   Ellis Amburn ’54 was introduced to Hollywood legend Elizabeth Taylor when he was on a date with Radie Harris, the Broadway columnist for The Hollywood Reporter. “Instead of giving me an icy stare that you get if you’re not in the club, you’re not a celebrity, she gave me a searching look,” Amburn says. “She took me in, decided she liked me and could trust me.” He would go on to pen the biography The Most Beautiful Woman in the World: The Obsessions, Passions and Courage of Elizabeth Taylor, which was recently updated and re-issued in paperback. Taylor died of congestive heart failure on March 23 at the age of 79.

   Did her Taylor’s off-screen romances and subsequent scandals overshadow her on-screen accomplishments? I think there was so much notoriety off-screen, that for a while, overshadowed her accomplishments, which were great throughout her life. She was wonderful from the get-go in films like “Lassie Come Home,” “Jane Eyre” and “National Velvet.” As an adult, she was able to work with George Stevens, the greatest director in the business, in “A Place in the Son.” Stevens got her to lower her voice. She never sounded as good until she was working with him. Before she tended to screech with her little girl’s voice and it wasn’t attractive, but George Stevens got fantastic performances out of her in the ’50s. Then when she started getting married, her relationships with Eddie Fisher and Richard Burton, that’s when off-screen scandal made us forget that she was an estimable actress. Then after the scandal in Rome when she was filming “Cleopatra” (and ignited a romance when then-married Burton) and the Pope denounced her and Congress denounced her. She made a fantastic comeback in “Whose Afraid of Virginia Woolf” that showed us she was arguably the best actress in the movies at the time.

   Despite her glamour, Taylor seemed down-to-earth, was that how you found her to be? Elizabeth was wonderful woman and I loved her. She insisted on being herself, as we all do today after the sex revolution, women’s lib, and gay lib in the second half of the 20th century. She thought, I’m going to do exactly what I want to do and to hell with anyone who dares to judge me, and I think she was right.

   At age 77, she actively embraced Twitter, and had 258,000 followers. That must have been a great way to directly connect with her fans. Yes, Elizabeth always wanted to be more than a movie star. She wanted to be a business tycoon, and she was.  She wanted to design jewelry, and she did that successfully. She wanted to do something for gays, and she saved their lives. They weren’t dying of AIDS the way they had been because of the research money she made available. On Twitter, she’d say exactly the kind of things you’re supposed to say.

   What is her most enduring legacy? I agree with Her Royal Highness Queen Elizabeth II. When she gave Elizabeth the equivalent of a knighthood, investing her as a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire, it was for charity. Love is what it’s all about. Love is giving. Charity is giving. Elizabeth discovered love, at long last, after she had gone to many men thinking they could fix what was wrong with her, and they never could. Then she started giving and she became Dame Elizabeth Taylor.

9. Books: Conversation with Jim Wright (et al.)

   10:57 am Leave a Comment

   Jim Wright is best known as a powerful politician who worked his way up from being the mayor of Weatherford to the speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, but he’s also a writer.

   Readers can once again by regaled by his powerful prose in the The Wright Stuff: Reflections on People and Politics by Former House Speaker Jim Wright, a collection of his speeches and essays that chronicles his life including the 34 years spent representing Texas’ 12th District in the U.S. House of Representatives where he also served as Speaker of the House.

   Born the son of an English teacher and a salesman who was a voracious reader, Wright had a way with words and also recognized their power.

   “Actions speak louder than words, we are told. Yet very often the most dramatically heralded deeds have ben inspired or provoked by words. Since time began, words have started and ended wars,” he writes in the book’s introduction.

   At TCU, Wright taught the course Congress and the Presidents each fall for nearly 20 years, from 1992 to 2010. He donated his papers to the TCU Library and that repository was a treasure trove for the editors of this new book, political science professor Jim Riddlesperger Jr.; English professor and TCU Press Director Dan Williams and Anthony Champagne, political science professor at the University of Texas at Dallas. They spent months combing through the collection. They found that the biggest challenge was deciding what not to include. To remedy that, Williams notes a second book is already in the works.

   The editors and Wright came together to discuss the book, joined by Speaker Wright, at a launch party in April at the Mary Couts Burnett Library. Here’s a portion of their comments from that event:

   Dan Williams:  I was so pleased when were able to coax Speaker Wright into helping us collect some of his work. I talked to Jim and Tony about it and they immediately offered their help and support and they were the ones who went through this massive material, started collecting and annotating. It was a real collaborative effort.

   It’s a broad spectrum of Speaker Wright’s thoughts and reflections from throughout his career from when he was mayor of Weatherford and to as recently as a half dozen or so years ago.

   My first introduction to Speaker Wright’s writing was when I moved here 11 years ago, and I started reading his columns in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram and thought he was a remarkable writer and a man of great vision and courage. That’s carried through to this day.

   James Riddlesperger Jr.: This was a joy and it’s been a joy since I’ve known Speaker Wright. I’ve known him since before he left Congress and was the first to welcome him back to campus in 1991. At that time, when he spoke about his coming to TCU, there were more than 40 news people at the announcement.

   It’s been my pleasure and my joy to read many things that Speaker Wright has written. I think I’ve read virtually everything he’s written and everything that’s been written about him, well some of it I haven’t read because I haven’t read the daily Washington Post which would have been an interesting thing too, but he is a brilliant writer. He writes just beautifully.

   The book goes back to before he was mayor of Weatherford, there’s a wonderful piece in here that was published in three parts called “Keeping Free Enterprise Free,” which was published in 1946 and 1947, that’s the earliest piece here. It’s just a wonderful piece of writing, and if you want to start with Speaker Wright as a young Populist, I would suggest you start with that piece. It goes right on up through his public career to the most magnificent public speech he gave as he left Congress, which is still one of the most magnificent pieces of oratory we’ve had in the United States.

   Anthony Champagne: One thing that really impressed me with the Jim Wright collection here in the library is it’s just an incredibly comprehensive set of papers. There are so many good things in this collection. I have worked over the years with many, many Congressional collections and this is the most comprehensive collection of any that I’ve worked with.

   Jim Wright: I have enjoyed working with these gracious gentlemen. I’ve learned so much from them and they’ve included everything, but they cut some of it out! Amazing how that’s the case.
   On the Web:
   To order The Wright Stuff, call 1.800.826.8911 or order online at prs.tcu.edu.

10. Summer 2013: Best new books

    10:57 am Leave a Comment

    Worth Every Penny: Build a Business That Thrills Your Consumers and Still Charge What You’re Worth

    Erin Verbeck ’07 MBA

    Some small business owners opt to discount their products and services to gain new customers, but Verbeck and Sarah Petty offer an alternative approach that focuses on creating specialized offerings and over-the-top customer experiences. Available at major booksellers.

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    Strategic Workplace Planning: Guidance and Back-Up Plans

    Tracey Smith ’06 MBA 

    The aim of strategic workforce planning is to get the right people in the right place at the right time and right cost. Smith, the former head of global strategic workforce planning at FedEx Express, guides readers through the process of creating a framework for workplace planning and presents practical tools for implementation. Available at major booksellers.

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    New from TCU Press

    Limo

    Dan Jenkins ’53 and Bud Shrake ’54 

    In this 1976 novel recently reissued by TCU Press, Jenkins and Shrake tell the story of a producer who creates a reality television show titled Just Up the Street. “Through a combination of writing excellence and keen insight into potential cultural lurchings, they predicted television’s future,” writes Fort Worth author Jeff Guinn in the new forward. Available at prs.tcu.edu.