I didn’t know a lot about John Nance Garner except that he had once been the Vice-President of the United States. Our first stop of the morning of Wednesday, April 2, 2008 – and in fact the reason that we had stayed the night in Uvalde, Texas – was to see the grave and former home of Garner. It didn’t take us long to find Garner’s grave in the Uvalde Cemetery so we had plenty of time to stop for some breakfast at Burger King before venturing over to his home, which was now restored into a museum of his life.
Here I learned a great deal about ‘Cactus Jack’ as he was known due to his promotion of the prickly pear cactus to be the state flower of Texas . As a member of the House of Representatives for more than 30 years, he was elected Speaker of the house in 1931. He was a serious opponent of Franklin Roosevelt as the Democratic candidate for President in 1932, but settled for running as FDR’s vice president. He later described the job of VP as “not worth a bucket of warm piss” and disagreeing with FDR’s decision to run for a third term, he bowed out of his administration in 1941.
Retiring in Uvalde, he would go on to be consulted by many prominent members of the Democratic party including Harry Truman and John F. Kennedy. In fact, Kennedy’s last phone call from Dallas on November 22, 1963 was to wish Garner a happy 95th birthday. Garner passed away just two weeks shy of his 99th birthday.
At the grave of Vice President John Nance Garner in Uvalde
At the Garner Museum
Garner’s former home, now turned into a museum dedicated to his life and work
With cutouts of Mr. and Mrs. Cactus Jack
From Uvalde, we then headed back to San Antonio (a town we were now traveling through for the third time!) During this final visit, we stopped at the Brooks City Base, home of Hangar 9, the only remaining World War 1 airplane hangar. There was a nice little museum displaying war relics accompanying the hangar, now used for public events.
With Hangar 9, the last from World War 1
Making a speech in the hangar to a crowd of zero
Then it was on to Austin, the state capitol of Texas. We had actually not planned to visit Austin until Thursday, but somehow, despite our mishaps, we were nearly a day ahead of schedule. We quickly caught the end of a brief tour of one of the homes of ironic author O. Henry of Gift of the Magi fame. We also happened upon the house next door, the home of Alamo survivor Susanna Dickenson which has been relocated to this area and not yet open to the public.
O. Henry’s home in Austin from the mid-1890’s
Alamo survivor Susanna Dickenson’s home (with a false facade) was relocated to this spot and funds are currently being collected to create a museum of her life
It was then time for the Lyndon B. Johnson Library and Museum, my sixth Presidential Library to date. This represented my midway point of the twelve official Presidential Libraries. More details of my visit can be seen in my LBJ posting found here.
Although I haven’t gotten too far in my quest yet, I have decided to attempt to visit all of the State Capitols during my travels. What fun is life if you don’t have any goals? So for our Texas visit, the Capitol building in Austin was a must. This one naturally had some Presidential history as well, housing the former office of current President George W. Bush who served as Governor from 1995-2000. Also serving as Governor here was John Connelly who was shot during the Kennedy assasination. (The photo at top was taken in front of the Confederate Soldier Memorial outside the Capitol with a would-be soldier standing guard).
In front of the Texas State Capitol
It was a beautiful structure originally built from 1882-88 and was the fourth building to serve as seat of the Texas Government. Bob and I wove in and out of the various rooms joining whatever tour was currently in progress in the chambers of the Texas Senate and House, whispered inside the rotunda cupola (which anyone standing in the vacinity could hear), and even found our way into the Governor’s office area where state bills were signed by Bush and other Governors. Unfortunately the nearby Governor’s Mansion where George W. Bush once resided was closed for renovations and therefore we could not tour it, but we did drive by for a glimpse.
Face in the cannon on the Capitol lawn
With George Bush’s official Governor’s portrait in the Capitol
Where Bush and other Governors signed their state bills in the Governor’s office
After our Capitol visit, we headed over to the Texas State Cemetery elsewhere in Austin to check out some famous Texans’ graves including Stephen Austin, Barbara Jordan, John Connally, Ralph Yarborough, and Susanna Dickenson. We also located cenotaphs for James Michener and Tam Landry.
At the grave of Stephen Austin, “The Father of Texas,” who led the successful colonization of the state by the United States
With Barbara Jordan, the first Southern black woman to serve in the House of Representatives. She served from 1973-79 and was considered as a running mate for Jimmy Carter in 1976.
With Governor John Connally, who took a bullet during the assassination attempt of John F. Kennedy
With Ralph Yarborough, United States Senator from Texas who rode with Vice President Lyndon Johnson in the motorcade when JFK was assassinated. Yarborough made the announcement at Parkland Hospital that “Excalibur has sunk beneath the waves.”
Susanna Dickinson was charged by General Santa Anna to bring the message to Sam Houston that the Alamo had fallen to the Mexicans.
What we thought was the grave of Dallas Cowboys coach Tom Landry turned out to only be a cenotaph, which we found out when we stumbled onto his real grave
As Bob was a longtime English literature teacher, it was important for him to find the grave of James Michener as well. There had been a cenotaph for Michener at the previous cemetery but the actual grave was located elsewhere. So we went over to the Austin Memorial Park and began to scout. Some cemeteries are easy as they have signs and maps to guide you to the various famous graves. This one was not. No one seemed to have a clue, until we encountered an old man whom we thought was just a mourner. After passing him a couple of times while circling the cemetery, we finally asked him if he knew where Michener was and he did! He later vanished into thin air and Bob and I were convinced that he was actually a ghost – possibly of Michener himself or A.K. Ross.
After much searching, we finally found the grave of famous American author James Michener
After a busy day of traveling, touring, and grave digging…er hunting, we were famished. So we headed over to our final BBQ dinner of the week at a place called Stubbs which one of Bob’s friends from the area had recommended. The meat was great but again, we were chagrined by the bitter vinegar-taste of the local southern BBQ opposed to the Yankee-sweet BBQ that we both favored.
Bob’s last opportunity for BBQ this trip
Getting ready to scarf down some of Stubb’s finest
Finally, our last stop of the day was to find the grave of legendary baseball player (and former manager of the Cincinnati Reds) Rogers Hornsby. Although the grave itself didn’t mean a lot to me, I always enjoy the challenge of finding some of these out-of-the-way graves. This was the highlight of the week in that category and reminded me a bit of our adventure of finding Stonewall Jackson’s arm. It was on the east side of Austin in a remote location to begin with. Then the cemetery itself was about a mile or more off the main street, down a dusty gravel road through a woods. We had to ask the Mexican neighbors if it was okay to head down this path which said “Private Property – No Trespassing”.
Then when we arrived we found a Mexican cemetery that was gated off. After unsuccessfully scouring that, we realized that there was another adjoining cemetery. We thought it was going to be easy when we saw some headstones with Hornsby, then quickly realized that the cemetery was littered with Hornsbys in every direction. By this time it was getting dark and ready to rain. Finally we located the grave, adorned with baseballs left by other eager fans just as crazy as we were.
Darkness descends as we finally locate Rogers Hornsby and his balls
And that ended our day’s adventures. We headed north back to the Waco area and stayed on the outskirts in the little town of Belton at a Budget Host Inn.
That was a good day. We saw so much and it was fun to have someone as crazy as myself enjoying each of our adventures.
Bob
May 22nd, 2008
Good stuff! I ran across this as I was searching the phrase, “Excalibur has sunk beneath the waves.” I was rereading “The Death of a President” and punched that phrase into Google and your site came up. I lived in Texas during the early seventies as a young boy and had forgotten how much I missed the state. I envy you in your trip. It was nice to see what you had posted!
Don Gulmire
July 1st, 2008