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The way we were: Jack White ’49

Artist, historian, collector and creative genius Jack White ’49 left his mark on his school and hometown.

The way we were: Jack White ’49

Jack White ’49 was a renown photographer, historian, ad man and expert in all things JFK. He died in June, but his collection lives on.

The way we were: Jack White ’49

Artist, historian, collector and creative genius Jack White ’49 left his mark on his school and hometown.

If you like AMC’s “Mad Men,” you would have loved Jack White ’49. He was Fort Worth’s very own Don Draper: dashingly handsome, creative and always unpredictable.

But he was more than that, too. Because unlike the mid-century advertising men who paraded around Madison Avenue brandishing bourbons on ice in the hit television show, Jack cared deeply about Fort Worth and his alma mater, TCU.

A 1944 graduate of Carter-Riverside High School, White worked briefly for the Fort Worth Press, covering high school sports under the legendary sports editor H.H. “Pop” Boone. During World War II, he enlisted in the U.S. Navy, and while serving, attended Stanford University in the ROTC program.

After the war, he enrolled at TCU, where he created lively illustrations and editorial cartoons for the TCU Skiff and Horned Frog annual. After graduation, Jack became the first art director at Witherspoon and Ridings Public Relations agency, which eventually became Witherspoon and Associates. He later became part owner of the firm before opening his own creative design studio.

A lifelong Texan, Jack moved to the Fort Worth suburb of Haltom City when he was just a baby. As an adult, he settled in east Fort Worth, in the White Lake Hills neighborhood. He found the plot of land where he wanted to live years before he ever found the right architect to build it — and years before he met his soul mate, Sue Benningfield.

Sue was from Dallas. And he wasn’t leaving Fort Worth. In 1969 she agreed to marry him, on two conditions: She got to keep the job that she loved in Dallas, and she didn’t have to leave her beloved hairdresser in Big D. Jack agreed. They remained happily married until Jack passed away June 18. He was 85. Sadly, Sue followed him on Nov. 18.

Besides having a painting hanging in the Fort Worth Library and a house that doubled as an art gallery, Jack was a collector. His most visible and important collection started in 1972 when he was working on the 100th anniversary advertising campaign for Fort Worth National Bank. Part of the project involved collecting old photographs of Fort Worth.

Jack loved history and the stories told through photography. So when he retired from Witherspoon, he began to catalog his collection and post thousands of photos on his website The Way We Were.

His penchant for history and photography also inspired a lifelong pursuit for the truth surrounding the JFK assignation. He became a world-renown expert on the photography taken during that fateful day and the conspiracy theories that followed. He was even hired by Oliver Stone as a historical consultant during the making of the film JFK and testified before the U.S. Senate Select Committee during the assassination hearings.

Throughout his successful career, he credited his TCU experience for shaping his life. From when he graduated in 1949, until he was too ill to leave his home in 2009, he never missed a TCU home basketball game; and like any good collector, he’s got the ticket stubs to prove it.

After Jack’s death, Sue boxed up all of his TCU items and donated them to the school he loved. Here we share just a sample of the art, editorial cartoons and items he collected over the years. They will be housed in Special Collections in the library.

On the Web:
Gallery of Jack White artwork

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