Killeen, Texas

Everything Killeen is known for

2 songs mention this city 5 artists from here

Music in Killeen

Songs About Killeen

Slide Thru Killeen
Green City
95%
"Title track — song is about Killeen TX"
Killeen
Lil Pterodactyl
95%
"Title track — song is about Killeen TX"

Artists From Killeen

M
Michael Carubelli
country Pop: 8
O
Offenders
rock Pop: 7
G
Green City
hip-hop Pop: 5
L
Lil Pterodactyl
hip-hop Pop: 5
4
41Hussien
hip-hop Pop: 1

Rivers & Roads in Song near Killeen

Songs written about the waterways and highways that run near Killeen.

Interstate 35 27 songs Texas Colorado River 6 songs

History of Killeen

Killeen, TX RoadyGoat

Killeen is more than just a military town. Sure, Fort Cavazos, formerly Fort Hood, is the heart of the place, and you can feel that patriotic spirit everywhere you go. But there's a creative pulse here too.

Killeen, TX RoadyGoat

Killeen wouldn't be here at all if it weren't for the railroad. Back in 1882, when the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe came through, that's when the town really sprung up. But its destiny wasn't just to be another whistle-stop. The arrival of what would become Fort Cavazos changed everything. Suddenly, Killeen wasn't just a place on the map; it was a support system for a whole lot of soldiers and their families. That relationship, though, it's never been without its challenges. Even during wartime, the town felt it. There was a German POW camp nearby during World War II; imagine that kind of thing existing so close to home. Nature has also left its mark. Folks here still remember the '69 tornado that tore through the town. But through it all, that military spirit, that resilience, it's what defines Killeen. You can see it in the way people support each other, the way they honor service. And even though we're close to the big city and the Cowboys, Killeen has its own identity, shaped by the Lampasas River, Stillhouse Hollow Lake, and the people who call it home.

Killeen, TX RoadyGoat

Killeen wasn't always the town it is today. Like so many spots in Central Texas, it started as a whistle-stop, a place where the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe Railway chugged to a halt back in 1882. What makes Killeen different from, say, Lampasas or Copperas Cove, is simply Fort Cavazos. The Army base, originally Camp Hood, arrived during World War II, and everything changed. The area's flat, open land was perfect for training, and suddenly, Killeen wasn't just a railroad town anymore. It became a military town, drawing soldiers and their families, and all the businesses that support them. Even a temporary fixture like the German POW camp nearby left a mark, embedding the area even further into wartime history. Today, you'll find folks visiting Stillhouse Hollow Lake for a little recreation, maybe catching a glimpse of the Dallas Cowboys on TV in a local sports bar. But what really draws people, and what keeps them here, is the sense of purpose, the feeling of contributing to something bigger than themselves. The locals will tell you it's about service. It's about the resilient, patriotic spirit that permeates everything, a spirit forged in the shadow of Fort Cavazos and tempered by events like the devastating 1969 tornado.

Luby's Massacre Site - Killeen

1991

On October 16, 1991, a gunman drove his truck through the window of a Luby's Cafeteria in Killeen and killed 23 people, the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history at the time.

Second Armored Division, United States Army

1778

Gen. Patton's "Hell on Wheels," the 2nd Armored Division, United States Army Formed to meet 20th century challenges, this force includes Battery A, 1st Battalion, 3rd Field Artillery, which has been in service since 1778. That battery and other veteran units have found new capabilities in this age of mechanized combat involving lightning mobility and massive firepower. In 1940, as German panzers overran France, the United States Congress created the 1st and 2nd American Armored Divisions. The 2nd was organized July 15, 1940, at Fort Benning, Ga., by Gen. Charles L. Scott, and received its "Hell on Wheels" name in 1941 from Gen. George S. Patton, Jr. First U.S. armored force in combat in World War II, "Hell on Wheels" landed in North Africa on Nov. 8, 1942. It won great victories at Safi and Casablanca, in the assault on Sicily, the 1944 Normandy invasion, the Battle of the Bulge, and other campaigns. Along 11,702 miles of combat advance, the 2nd won 7 French Croix de Guerres, 19 Distinguished Unit citations, and was first foreign division ever given the Fourragere of Belgium. The 2nd provided Honor Guard for President Harry S. Truman at the Potsdam peace conference. Since 1945 Fort Hood has been 2nd's permanent base. (1975)

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Fort Hood

1942

Fort Hood (formerly known as Fort Cavazos) is located in southwestern Bell and southeastern Coryell counties in Central Texas. Most of the 218,000 acres owned by the United States Army is located in Coryell County. On January 14, 1942, at the beginning of United States involvement in World War II , it was announced that a tank destroyer tactical and firing center would be established near Killeen, Texas. Gen. Andrew D. Bruce was selected as the first commander. The first major unit, the 893d Tank Destroyer Battalion, arrived from Fort Meade, Maryland, on April 2, 1942. As other troops began arriving, some 300 farming and ranching families were required, on very short notice, to give up their land. Camp Hood was officially opened on September 18, 1942, and has been continuously used for armored training ever since. The installation was named in honor of Gen. John Bell Hood . The mission at Camp Hood was almost immediately expanded to include a replacement and basic training center at North Fort Hood. At times as many as 100,000 soldiers were being trained for the war effort. During the later part of the war some 4,000 German prisoners of war were interned at Camp Hood. The postwar years saw a significant reduction of activity, and the post's population dropped to about 1,700. By 1950 the temporary camp was designated the permanent status of Fort Hood. Basic facilities for a permanent army installation were constructed. The demands for training brought about by the Korean War accelerated military activities. The installation acquired an additional 49,578 acres in 1953 and former United States Air Force and Department of Defense landholdings in the 1950s and 1960s. Major army units stationed at one time or another at the installation included the First, Second, and Fourth Armored divisions. In 1954 Fort Hood was the nation's only two-division installation, and the Third Corps was transferred from Camp Roberts, California. In 1990 the installation was the home of the headquarters of the III Corps under United States Army Forces command and was located in the Fifth United States Army area. The two active army divisions, the Second Armored Division ("Hell on Wheels") and the First Cavalry Division, were stationed there. Other commands included the Sixth Cavalry Brigade (Air Combat), Corps Support Command, the Third Signal Brigade, and several tenant organizations including MEDDAC (Medical Department Activity), Test and Experimentation Command, and more than a dozen other smaller support or tenant commands including two major airfields. Reserve units such as the Forty-ninth and Fiftieth Armored divisions and the Thirty-sixth Airborne Brigade of the Texas National Guard and other smaller regular and reserve units of the army, air force, and marine corps used the facility. Fort Hood is one of the largest federally owned Texas landholdings and has taken an initiative in the stewardship of cultural resources on public lands. More than 2,000 archeological sites dating from the Ice Age to historic times have been recorded. The archeological record there contains a diversity of resources including more than 1,000 sites of hunting and gathering people from all major time periods in Texas prehistory and the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. More than fifty historic communities, most of them now extinct, are represented in the Fort Hood archeological inventory. In November 1973 the skeletal remains of forty-five Indians were reinterred at the facility. Archeological sites are protected by federal law from unauthorized damage, destruction, collecting, or excavation, and records provide resources for anthropological research and public appreciation. Fort Hood is one of the largest military installations in the world. Its primary mission is to maintain a state of readiness for combat missions, and the dominant activity is the training of III Corps. A significant portion of the combat-ready air and ground forces of the United States Army i

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Hobby, Oveta Culp

1905

Oveta Culp Hobby, first secretary of the Department of Health, Education and Welfare, first commanding officer of the Women's Army Corps, and chairman of the board of the Houston Post , second of seven children of Ike W. and Emma Elizabeth (Hoover) Culp, was born in Killeen, Texas, on January 19, 1905. Her father was a lawyer and state legislator. Oveta attended the public schools of Killeen and learned from her family the tradition of service to the community, to neighbors, to the state, and to the nation. Her mother, for instance, collected food, clothing, and money for the poor and sent her to deliver baskets of goods to neighbors who were going through hard times. She was only five or six when a temperance campaign swept Killeen, and at Sunday school all the small children were invited to sign the pledge and receive a Woman's Christian Temperance Union white ribbon to wear. Oveta thought it over and refused. She had no particular desire to drink liquor, she granted, but she might wish to when she grew up and thought it best not to give her word unless she was sure she was prepared to keep it. From her father she acquired an early love for the law, horses, and the intricate workings of government. She stopped in his office every afternoon on her way home from school to listen to the talk and to read books far beyond her years or vocabulary. By age ten she had read the Congressional Record . At thirteen she had read the Bible three times. In the sixth grade she won a Bible as the best speller in her class. When Culp was elected to the state legislature in 1919, he took the fourteen-year-old Oveta with him to Austin, and she became a serious and interested observer of each day's sessions. Even though she missed many school days during her father's term in Austin, she graduated from Temple High School high in her class. In this period she took up elocution and recited "Alaska, the Brave Cowgirl" so dramatically that a visiting Chautauqua manager offered her a touring contract. Disappointed when her parents refused to consider the glittering offer, she turned her surplus energies to organizing the "Jolly Entertainers," a group of half a dozen teenage musicians. They toured neighboring towns and gave benefit performances to raise money to buy church organs. In the next two years, Oveta Culp studied at Mary Hardin Baylor College in Belton, taught elocution, put on school plays, and became a cub reporter on the Austin Statesman . At nineteen, she had her own library of 750 volumes studded with such items as Cases of Common Law Reading , Revised Civil Statutes , Jefferson and Hamilton , The Private Papers of Colonel House , and the poetry of Edna St. Vincent Millay. In 1925, at the age of twenty, she was asked by the speaker of the Texas House of Representatives to act as legislative parliamentarian. She served in that capacity until 1931, while continuing her education with tutors and classes at the University of Texas. She became a clerk of the State Banking Commission and codified the banking laws of the state of Texas. Later she became a clerk in the legislature's judiciary committee. The National Democratic Convention was held in Houston in 1928, and Oveta Culp was released from her work as secretary of the Democratic Club to help with convention plans. When the campaign for Al Smith had gone its losing way, she was called to work in Tom (Thomas T.) Connally 's campaign for United States senator against Earle B. Mayfield , the Ku Klux Klan candidate. She next worked on a Houston mayoral campaign, after which the new mayor offered her a post as assistant to the city attorney. She accepted, with the understanding that she would be released to return to Austin as parliamentarian when the next legislative session opened. At twenty-five she was persuaded to run for the state legislature from Houston, but was beaten by a candidate who whispered darkly that she was "a parliamentarian and a Unitarian." That ended her quest for elected

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Bruce, Lt. Gen. Andrew Davis

1916

Lt. Gen. Andrew Davis Bruce (September 14, 1894-July 27, 1969) Originator of tank destroyer corps; "Father of Fort Hood." Brilliant battlefield leader and educator. Born in St. Louis, Mo.; graduated 1916 from Texas A. and M.; in 1917, began 37 years of active military duty. In France with 2nd Infantry Division, World War I, attained (at 24) temporary rank of Lieutenant Colonel. Served in German occupation, 1919. In 1920s-30s, taught and wrote texts in military science and tactics; and served with 33rd Infantry Division, Panama Canal Zone. When assigned to start tank destroyer center, he situated it at Killeen, Feb. 1942, because of terrain and climate, naming the camp (now a fort) for Gen. John Bell Hood (1831-79), "Whose enemies never saw his back." Made a Major General, Sept. 9, 1942, Bruce commanded 77th Infantry Division in World War II battles of Guam, Leyte, Kerama Rotto, Ie Shima, and Okinawa. As in World War I, he won many decorations, including two awards of the Distinguished Service Cross. He was Governor of Hokkaido, Japan, 1945-46; Deputy Commander, 4th Army, 1947-51; commandant of Armed Forces Staff College from 1951 until his retirement in 1954. (1972) In distinguished civilian career, served University of Houston as president, 1954-56; chancellor, 1956-61. He and wife Roberta (Kennedy) had three children.

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Everything Near Killeen

224 stories, landmarks & places within ~20 miles — the same local lore RoadyGoat plays as you drive through.

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