The Texarkana Phantom Killer, 1946 RoadyGoat

1946

In the spring of nineteen forty-six, Texarkana had a problem it couldn't name. Eight people were attacked over ten weeks — always on weekends, always at night, always in lovers' lanes or quiet roads on the dark edges of town. Five died. The attacker left no fingerprints, no usable witnesses, and no weapon. The Texas Rangers worked the case. The Federal Bureau of Investigation worked the case. A suspect named Youell Swinney was quietly identified — his wife placed him near two of the crime scenes — but her testimony alone couldn't convict him, and she eventually stopped talking. The attacks stopped as suddenly as they started. No one was ever charged. Texarkana called the killer the Phantom, and the name stuck. Local families started locking their doors for the first time. Some of them never stopped.

Wake Village, TX RoadyGoat

Wake Village is a place where the ordinary can quickly become extraordinary. Drive around, and you might think it’s just another quiet Texas town. But those of us who live here know there's more to the story.

4.1 mi away

Wake Village, TX RoadyGoat

Wake Village is a place that wouldn't exist quite as it does without the Red River Army Depot. Right after it was incorporated back in '53, it was all about managing the boom. The depot was expanding, and people needed homes, schools, places to shop. While the Depression hit farming hard around here, the Depot offered steady work, and Wake Village became a haven, a place for families to build a life. Even now, you'll find folks working there, or in the hospitals and schools that grew up around it. It's a community tied to that legacy. Of course, we’re close to Texarkana, so you get all that history mixed in – the football rivalry between Texas High and Arkansas High, the echoes of the Dallas Cowboys' Super Bowl win. And if you listen to the old-timers, they'll tell you about the time capsule buried downtown, a little piece of the past waiting to be rediscovered. But the real reason people stay, the reason Wake Village feels like home, isn’t just the history or the jobs. It’s that quiet, steady rhythm of life.

4.1 mi away

Scott Joplin - King of Ragtime

1868

Texarkana, Texas was the birthplace of Scott Joplin, the King of Ragtime, whose 'Maple Leaf Rag' became the first million-selling piece of sheet music in American history.

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Joplin, Scott

1868

(November 24, 1868 - April 1, 1917) Black composer Scott Joplin, often called the "King of Ragtime Music", was born in Texarkana, Texas, five years before the townsite was platted in 1873. His family lived in this vicinity, and he attended nearby Orr School on Laurel Street. His early musical training came from his father, Giles Joplin, an ex-slave who played the fiddle, and mother, Florence Givens Joplin, who played the banjo. By tradition, a German music teacher realized Joplin's talent and gave him lessons. Joplin left home at age 14 and wandered through the midwest entertaining in saloons and honky-tonks. In the 1890s, he was one of the originators of ragtime, a rhythmic new musical form that combined black and white musical traditions. Joplin's "Maple Leaf Rag", published in 1899, launched ragtime as a national fad. Joplin defended ragtime against those who called it frivolous and worked constantly to refine his music, which included over 30 piano rags. Demand for ragtime had declined by 1917, when Joplin died in New York City. Joplin's background is revealed in his most ambitious work, the black folk opera "Treemonisha", set on a plantation "northeast of the town of Texarkana". It was not produced until the 1970s, when a revival of Joplin's music inspired public recognition of his genius. (1976) Incise on back: Texarkana Joint Bicentennial Commission, Bowie County Historical Commission, Jerry L. Atkins, Nick Demopulos

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The Phantom Killer of Texarkana

1946

Unsolved 1946 murder spree in Texarkana, Texas in which a hooded attacker killed five people and wounded three over ten weeks, terrorizing the town and inspiring the film The Town That Dreaded Sundown.

Perot, Henry Ross

1962

Henry Ross Perot, a groundbreaking information technology businessman, philanthropist, and two-time presidential candidate, was born on June 27, 1930, in Texarkana, Texas. His parents, Gabriel Ross Perot, Sr., and Lulu May (Ray) Perot, originally named him Henry Ray, but he changed his middle name to Ross in honor of his brother, Gabriel Ross, who died as a young child. Thereafter he went by Ross Perot, though journalists often included his first initial in media reports, much to his chagrin. Hard-working and ambitious, Perot caught the entrepreneurial bug from his father, a cotton broker and horse trader. During his adolescence, Perot hawked garden seeds and delivered daily newspapers to neighbors. He was active in the Boy Scouts and at age thirteen achieved the rank of Eagle Scout. Throughout his life he credited the Boy Scouts for its influence on his values of hard work and leadership. He achieved good grades at Texarkana’s Texas High School, not through intellectual brilliance but rather diligence and elbow grease. Perot then spent two years at Texarkana Junior College before Senator W. Lee “Pappy” O’Daniel granted his appointment to the U.S. Naval Academy. Perot’s leadership qualities blossomed at Annapolis. He held numerous elected positions, including serving as class president during his junior and senior years. He also chaired the Honor Committee, credited with developing an honor system, at the Naval Academy. Perot met Margot Birmingham during his final year in Annapolis, and the couple eventually married on September 15, 1956, and went on to have five children. After graduating from Annapolis in 1953, Perot matriculated into the U. S. Navy where he was first assigned to the destroyer USS Sigourney during the latter days of the Korean War. He later served as an assistant navigator aboard the aircraft carrier USS Leyte . A chance encounter aboard the Leyte with an International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) executive changed Perot’s life. The businessman encouraged Perot to apply for a job at IBM, further convincing Perot that his future lay in the private sector rather than the military ranks. Subsequently, Perot declined to re-enlist when his service ended in 1957. After mustering out of the U. S. Navy, Perot accepted a job offer from Dallas-based IBM—the first step of his business career. He quickly made a name for himself as a top-notch salesman and once completed his yearly sales quota within three weeks. Equipped with an energetic mind and thirst for innovation, Perot urged IBM to enter the nascent computer software industry to complement to the company’s robust hardware unit. The IBM leadership, content with their business model, rejected his advice. Perot grew frustrated with the company’s slow-moving bureaucracy and struck out on his own, founding Electronic Data Systems (EDS), with an initial investment of $1,000, in 1962. Perot built EDS to handle software and technical logistics for companies with large data needs, a strategy which seemed far ahead of the competition. EDS made millions processing data for major businesses such as insurance carrier Blue Cross and Blue Shield . When his company went public in 1968, shares skyrocketed from $16 a share to $162 and made him one of the wealthiest men in America overnight. In 1984 Perot sold EDS to General Motors for a staggering $2.5 billion and assumed a position on the company board. His cantankerous personality and criticism of General Motors management, however, irked board members, who bought out his shares in 1986. In 1988 Perot launched a new Plano-based corporation, Perot Systems, with his son Ross Perot, Jr., and brought over disgruntled EDS executives to compete with his former company. Perot Systems failed to reach the dizzying heights of EDS. Perot eventually stepped down as chairman in 2000, and the company was purchased by Dell Computer Corporation in 2009. Perot’s fabulous wealth and renowned business acumen opened doors to philanthropy as

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Church, Dorothea Towles

1949

Dorothea Towles Church, pioneering Black model, was born on July 26, 1922, in Texarkana, Texas. She was the seventh of eight children born to Thomas Elsworth Towles of Alabama and Anabella Clark of Arkansas. Her father worked as a farmer and self-employed carpenter, and her mother was a school teacher. Dorothea Towles studied biology at Wiley College in Marshall, Texas, and graduated in 1945 with the intent of practicing medicine. However, when her mother died, she moved to Los Angeles to live with a wealthy uncle, Dr. H. H. Towles, and attend the University of Southern California, where she earned a master's degree in education. Captivated by the glamour and glitz of Los Angeles, she changed course again and enrolled in the Dorothy Farrier Charm and Modeling School as the institution's first Black student. She worked in California and modeled for African-American fashion shows and magazines before marrying a dentist that she said was "old enough to be my father." In 1949 her husband took her on a two-month vacation to Paris where Lois Towles , her famous concert pianist sister, was on tour with the Fisk University Choir. While there, Dorothea looked for modeling work and was hired on the spot by famous fashion designer Christian Dior to replace a model who was on vacation. She enjoyed modeling in Paris so much she decided not to return to the United States. After trying and failing to change her mind, her husband filed for divorce. Dorothea Towles modeled in Paris for five years during the 1950s and worked with other famous designers besides Dior, such as Elsa Schiaparelli, Robert Piguet, Jacques Fath, and Pierre Balmain. She said of the French, "If you're beautiful, they don't care what color you are....For once I was not considered Black, African American, or Negro," she said in an interview, "I was just an American." Her success and acceptance there were widely publicized in Black magazines and periodicals in the U.S., including earning her a place on the cover of the African-American weekly Jet in April 1953. Her modeling successes were historic not only because she was the first Black woman accepted into the world's top fashion houses in Paris, but before her, the industry was largely closed to accepting beauty as being represented by anyone except Whites, both in Europe and the U.S. Thus, she was responsible for breaking down some of those barriers. Still, Towles experienced some racial prejudice from designers. For example, Pierre Balmain's staff refused her request to borrow dresses for a photo shoot with Ebony magazine because they were concerned White clients would be displeased. Furthermore, they said African-American women would not be interested in, nor could they afford to buy, Balmain's clothes. During her five years in Paris, Dorothea Towles accumulated an enormous collection of designer couture gowns-with distinctive styles, unknown to Americans-using her model's discount, estimated to be valued at $50,000. When she returned to the United States in 1954, she had to travel by ship due to her excess of baggage. She settled in New York City and hoped to find work with the top American designers. However, she found that few would hire a Black model at first. Consequently, after her return, Dorothea organized a fashion show throughout the United States and exhibited her own couture wardrobe in conjunction with Alpha Kappa Alpha, a sorority for Black women that she was a member of in college. She hired local models and college students from the more than 100 high schools and colleges she traveled to and donated the proceeds to local sororitys' scholarship funds. Dorothea Towles eventually signed with the New York modeling agency Grace del Marco and was thought to be the only Black model that made her entire income in the profession at that time. During the 1960s and 1970s, while opportunities continuously opened up in the U.S., she regularly returned to Europe to model across the continent. She also opened a charm

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Texarkana, Arkansas

Music in Texarkana

Songs About Texarkana

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History of Texarkana

The Texarkana Phantom Killer, 1946 RoadyGoat

Wake Village, TX RoadyGoat

Wake Village, TX RoadyGoat

Scott Joplin - King of Ragtime

Joplin, Scott

The Phantom Killer of Texarkana

Perot, Henry Ross

Church, Dorothea Towles

Everything Near Texarkana