Mission, Texas

Everything Mission is known for

2 songs mention this city 0 artists from here

Music in Mission

Songs About Mission

heard it all before
bob wayne
24%
leavin' texas
jerry jeff walker
10%

Artists From Mission

No artists from Mission in the database yet.

Rivers & Roads in Song near Mission

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

Rio Grande / Río Bravo 83 songs Rio Grande / Río Bravo 144 songs

History of Mission

Mission, TX RoadyGoat

Mission is a community in Texas.

Palmview, TX RoadyGoat

Palmview isn't a sprawling metropolis, but it has a quiet pride. You feel it in the air, especially on Friday nights when the roar of the high school football game carries for blocks. The rivalries down here are legendary, passed down through generations.

3.1 mi away

Palmview, TX RoadyGoat

Palmview’s story is a story of adaptation. You can’t understand it without understanding the river. The Rio Grande giveth and the Rio Grande taketh away – that’s a saying you’ll hear a lot around here. This land, so fertile for the citrus groves that once defined the area, has always been at the river’s mercy. Route 83 became a lifeline, drawing commerce and connecting Palmview to the rest of the Valley. But the real secret to Palmview's character isn’t just location or agriculture; it’s the spirit of the people who chose to stay, to rebuild after the floods, to make a life rooted in this challenging land. Ask anyone who lives here, and they'll probably tell you it’s the slow pace that keeps people around. Life moves a little slower here than in McAllen or Mission, but there's also a deep sense of community. Friday nights under the lights at the football stadium are practically sacred. But really, people stay because of the shared history, the familiar faces, and that feeling of being part of something that’s weathered a lot of storms together. It's a place where the palm trees, despite everything, still stand tall.

3.1 mi away

Lopez, Jose Mendoza

1944

Jose Mendoza Lopez, Medal of Honor recipient, was born on July 10, 1910, the son of Cayetano and Candida Mendoza de Lopez. Although military records list his birthplace as Mission, Texas, he was born in Santiago Atitlán, Mexico. In 1935 he purchased a false birth certificate in order to join the United States Merchant Marine. His early years were difficult. Lopez never knew his father and had been told by his mother that he had drowned. After his mother's death from tuberculosis when he was eight and with no way to support himself, the boy headed to the Rio Grande Valley. As a youngster, Lopez attended little school and worked in the cotton fields around Brownsville to support himself while living with an uncle or other friends. In his teens, Lopez hitched a ride on a freight train and ended up in Atlanta, Georgia. A local boxing promoter, impressed with Lopez's athleticism, arranged some amateur fights for the youngster. Needing shoes, Lopez turned professional. From 1927 to 1934 Lopez, billed as "Kid Mendoza," compiled a record of fifty-two wins and three losses in the lightweight division. Years later, he stated that the highlight of his boxing career was when he shook hands with Babe Ruth in Atlanta before a bout. From 1935 through 1941 Lopez found employment in the Merchant Marine working on ships and traveling the world. After a period of employment in Hawaii, he was on a ship headed to the United States when he heard of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. After his arrival in California, authorities wanted to arrest him until he convinced them he was Mexican not Japanese. In 1942 Lopez returned to Brownsville and married his girlfriend, Emilia Herrera; she was his wife of sixty-two years until her death in 2004. Together they had four daughters and a stepson from his wife's previous marriage. With his wife's support, he enlisted in the United States Army and spent a brief time at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio before going to Camp Roberts (California) for basic training. Assigned to Company K of the Twenty-third Infantry Regiment, Second Infantry Division, Lopez's unit trained in Northern Ireland where it prepared for the Allied invasion of Nazi-occupied Europe-D-Day. Described as short and stocky, the five-foot-five, 130-pound Lopez excelled in combat. Assigned to a weapons platoon, he set foot in Normandy on June 7, 1944. Although wounded on D-Day plus 1, Lopez refused treatment and evacuation and was determined to remain with his unit. He participated in the hedgerow action near Saint-Lô, the fight to take Brest, and was involved in steady combat in France and Belgium for the rest of 1944. For his efforts, Lopez was awarded a Purple Heart and a Bronze Star. On December 17, 1944, Sergeant Lopez witnessed the Germans launch their offensive in the Ardennes against Allied forces in the Battle of the Bulge. Situated with Company K near Krinkelt, Belgium, Lopez took action on his own. Holding a heavy machine gun, Lopez found cover in a shallow hole and positioned himself. Taking aim at the soldiers surrounding a German Tiger tank, he immediately fired and killed ten of the enemy. Despite enemy fire from the tank, Lopez held firm and killed twenty-five additional Germans who were attempting to outflank him. He avoided blasts from the tank until one landed close enough for the concussion to lift him off the ground and throw him backward. Lopez recovered quickly, avoided being outflanked by the Germans again, reset his weapon, and fired to protect Company K. Then, using the dense forest for cover and constantly on the move, Lopez continued to fire and kill Germans. Eventually he met up with a few of his fellow soldiers to establish another defense point, where he continued fire until his ammunition was exhausted. In an operation that lasted from 11:30 a.m. until 6:00 p.m., Lopez killed more than 100 enemy soldiers-more than any other American serviceman during World War II. His efforts stabilized t

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Penitas

1520

Possibly one of oldest towns in the United States. Established, according to tradition, in mid-1520s. Founders were a priest and five other Spaniards of the unsuccessful Panfilo de Narvaez Expedition into Mexico in 1520. Narvaez was sent to arrest or kill Hernando Cortez, conqueror of Mexico, who was accused of disloyalty to the king. Cortez, however, defeated Narvaez in battle, imprisoned him, and took most of Narvaez's army for his own. After Narvaez was released from prison (1521), he and the remnant of his men set out for Florida. But Father Zamora and five officers gave up further plans to travel with Narvaez, and settled at Penitas. The refugees were befriended by Indians living in huts and dugout-type homes in the vicinity. The Spaniards erected stone houses with whitewashed walls. Father Zamora brought the Catholic faith to the Indians, also teaching them weaving and better farming. The Indians taught cookery to their guests. Cabeza de Vaca, aide in a later Narvaez expedition, is famous for having written of his shipwreck and wanderings in Texas from 1528 to 1535. The founders of Penitas are recalled best by their descendants, some of whom still live in this area. (1970)

Historical Marker → · 4.0 mi away

Leo Najo

1899

(February 17, 1899 - April 25, 1978) 
 Leonardo Alaniz, better known as Leo Najo, was one of the first Mexican-Americans to play professional baseball in the United States. Born in the Mexican community of La Lajilla, Nuevo Leon, he moved to Mission with his mother, Rosario Alanis, in 1909. As a youth, he became interested in baseball and in 1918, he helped form a team called the Mission 30-30 Rifles (later Mission 30-30s). 
 During the early 1920s, Najo, whose nickname came from an alteration of conejo (rabbit), played for teams in Mexico and Laredo. He was known for his high batting average and baserunning speed. In 1924, Najo joined the San Antonio Bears minor league team and played for several others before the Chicago White Sox major league franchise acquired him in 1925. He did not make the lineup and was sent back to the minor leagues. Najo continued to play impressively but suffered a serious leg injury in a collision during a game, ending his major league possibilities. 
 Najo continued to play in the minors until 1933, when he returned to Mission. He helped operate his family's tavern on West 6th Street and invested in real estate. Najo managed the Mission 30-30s from 1933 to 1937, and played and managed in Mexico for two more seasons. By the early 1940s, he married Elida Garza; the two reared eleven children. Najo continued to teach and manage baseball. In 1973, "Leo Najo Day" was proclaimed, the street in Mission where he lived (7th Street) was renamed Leo Najo Street, and the high school baseball field was renamed in his honor. In 1973, he was the first player formally inducted into the Mexican Baseball Hall of Fame. Today, Leo Najo is remembered as a positive role model whose skills on the diamond were only surpassed by his character and class. (2009)

Historical Marker →

Bentsen, Lloyd Millard, Jr.

1942

Lloyd Millard Bentsen, Jr., businessman, United States representative and senator, and secretary of the treasury, was born on February 11, 1921, in Mission, Texas. He was the son of Lloyd Millard Bentsen, Sr. (informally known as Big Lloyd), and Edna Ruth Colbath (informally known as Dolly). Bentsen grew up on the Arrowhead Ranch, one of the largest ranches in the Rio Grande Valley, where his father was in the ranching, oil, and banking businesses. The younger Bentsen graduated from Sharyland High School and later earned a law degree in 1942 at the University of Texas at Austin. He married Beryl Ann Longino (informally known as B. A.) of Lufkin in 1943. Bentsen served as a B-24 pilot in the U.S. Army Air Forces and flew combat missions over Europe during World War II . He earned the rank of colonel and received the Distinguished Flying Cross. A Democrat, Bentsen was elected Hildago county judge and served in that role from 1946 to 1948. In 1948 Bentsen was elected to serve in the U. S. House of Representatives, where he was a protégé of Speaker of the House Sam Rayburn . (Rayburn would autograph a photo of himself to Bentsen with the inscription, "For Lloyd Bentsen, who likes ugly things." The keepsake photo was eventually given to the Sam Rayburn Library in Rayburn's hometown of Bonham.) In 1955 Bentsen stood down from elective politics and moved his family to Houston, where he worked in the financial industry and solidified his financial position. During this time he founded Consolidated American Life Insurance Company. By the late 1960s he was chairman of Lincoln Consolidated Inc., a financial holdings company. While Bentsen was not seeking office during these years, he remained in touch with Democratic Party politics. In 1970 Bentsen decided to reenter politics, this time as a candidate for the United States Senate. He won an upset victory over incumbent U.S. Sen. Ralph Yarborough in the Democratic primary and then went on to win the general election over the Republican nominee, U. S. Rep. George H.W. Bush. Bentsen was reelected to the Senate in 1976, 1982, and 1988, eventually serving as chairman of the Senate Finance Committee. He campaigned for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1976 but lost. In the Senate, he was known for his pro-business stance and was a supporter of the oil and gas industry, free trade, and the real estate industry. In 1988 Massachusetts Gov. Michael Dukakis won the Democratic Party nomination for the presidency. Dukakis chose Bentsen to be his vice presidential running mate in the general election. Thanks to Texas election law, Bentsen was able to seek both the vice presidency and his Senate seat, which was up for reelection, that year. Bentsen was easily reelected to his Senate seat. However, the Republican ticket of Vice President George H.W. Bush and U.S. Sen. Dan Quayle of Indiana won the presidential election. Despite the loss of the Dukakis–Bentsen ticket, Bentsen received notoriety for his performance in the nationally-broadcast vice presidential debate. When Quayle compared his political experience to that of President John F. Kennedy, a Democrat, Bentsen replied, "Senator, I served with Jack Kennedy, I knew Jack Kennedy, Jack Kennedy was a friend of mine. Senator, you are no Jack Kennedy." In 1992 Bentsen was urged to seek the presidency but chose not to make the race. The Democratic nominee, Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton, won the election. Clinton asked Bentsen to serve as secretary of the treasury. The Senate confirmed Bentsen to that post, and he resigned his Senate seat. As secretary, Bentsen played an important role in the formation of the Clinton Administration's early fiscal policies. Bentsen served as secretary from 1993 to 1994, and left, he said, because he had planned to retire from politics in 1994, upon the conclusion of what would have been his fourth Senate term. Clinton recalled Bentsen as a "conservative Democrat, a fiscal conservative who thought more prosperous peop

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Bentsen, Lloyd Millard, Sr.

1918

Lloyd M. Bentsen, Sr., businessman, one of six children born in a 7½-year period to Niels Peter and Tena (Peterson) Bentsen, was born on November 24, 1894, in Argo Township, near White and Brookings, South Dakota, just west of the Minnesota state line. His father had immigrated from Denmark to farm. The family experienced many typical adversities of homesteading on the prairie frontier–fire, which destroyed their first dwelling and belongings, crop failure, harsh winters, sparse medical care, and hostility against Scandinavian immigrants. Lloyd Bentsen lived on the family homestead until World War I . He ceased schooling at thirteen years and worked for local farmers at harvesting and roping and taming mustangs . He also cultivated a youthful dedication to motorcycles and high-speed adventure thereon. He survived a cycle accident on a muddy farm road that left him with a partially severed foot and severe body lacerations, but sufficiently well to enlist at the beginning of World War I in the United States Signal Corps for aviator training at Kelly Field, San Antonio. His brother Elmer enlisted in the navy and went through the war on the second battleship Texas . In Texas during training Lloyd met and married Edna Ruth Colbath, known thereafter as Dolly. Bentsen and his wife joined his parents, who heeded medical advice and moved from South Dakota to Sharyland, Texas, an irrigated citrus and vegetable utopia envisioned by John H. Shary and developed by him near Mission. On November 5, 1918, the Bentsens left their homestead and began driving the 1,675 miles to the Rio Grande valley by car. They drove for seventeen days. The family arrived penniless. Peter Bentsen rented a place in Mission and began working as a land agent for John Shary. He also began a nursery-seedling business and sent out a call to the family for help. Lloyd, Sr., and Elmer mustered out of the military after the Armistice and responded to that message. A Bentsen beachhead was thus established in Texas. All saved diligently and invested in Valley land as soon as they could. Lloyd and Elmer Bentsen became the premier colonizers and developers of Hidalgo County, which led all counties of the United States in cotton production and raised a good part of the Valley's 1948 $100 million citrus and vegetable crop. In 1952 the county centennial program described the contribution of Lloyd and Elmer's stake in the county's economic development. The Pride O Texas citrus trademark contributed substantially to the fortune that the Bentsen family began amassing. Elmer and Lloyd were principals in the Elsa State Bank, Elmer a president and director and Lloyd on the board of directors. Lloyd was also a principal in the First National banks of McAllen, Mission, Edinburg, Raymondville, and Brownsville. He served as president of the Rio Grande Valley Chamber of Commerce from 1944 to 1946 and was instrumental in uniting and developing Cameron, Hidalgo, Starr, and Willacy counties. Later in life he became sensitive to preserving the natural environment of the Valley and donated land that became the Bentsen-Rio Grande Valley State Scenic Park . Bentsen did not accumulate land and monetary fortunes without problems. In 1952–55 he had courtroom difficulties in Texas and Washington, D.C., over land sales. He was accused by five plaintiffs of conspiracy and fraud in the sale of Ramsmeyer Gardens, supposedly irrigated land fit for citrus, and one plaintiff wanted back acreage in Minnesota that he had traded to Bentsen for his share in the land venture. Bentsen himself testified that he had sold the land in question to Homer F. Ramsmeyer, and that all sales thereafter were not of his doing. Federal district judge James Allred ruled that the Bentsen Group, consisting of the Bentsen Brothers, G. F. Dorn, Bentsen Brothers, Incorporated, and the Rio Grande Development Company, having been cleared by jury of a conspiracy, were derivatively clear of fraud. In another land dispute, buyers of Va

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John H. Shary Home

1917

Built 1917 by Father of the Texas citrus industry, pioneer developer of Rio Grande Valley, and the Intercoastal Canal. For 20 years chairman Sharyland School Board. Here in 1953, Mrs. Shary, her daughter, Mrs. Allen Shivers, and Governor Shivers entertained President Dwight D. Eisenhower during Falcon Dam dedication. Shivers, 1949-1957 Governor, was chief executive longer than any other; headed one of state's most progressive administrations. A major event of his regime was the restoration of the tidelands to Texas. (1964)

Historical Marker → · 4.3 mi away

Things to Do in Mission

spooky 6.0 mi away
La Lechuza

In the Rio Grande Valley a giant owl-witch called La Lechuza hunts at night. She is said to be the ghost of a mother whose children were killed by a drunk…
quirky 8.8 mi away
World's Largest Killer Bee

A 2000-pound steel-and-fiberglass killer bee statue stands outside Hidalgo City Hall. It commemorates the first U.S. arrival of Africanized honey bees near the…
historical 21.1 mi away
Weslaco, Texas (c. 1939, Russell Lee)

Sports in Mission

⭐ HOMETOWN LEGENDS Class 5A · Baseball

Sharyland — Sharyland — a college & pro athletic pipeline

3 alumni who reached major-college or pro sports

Sharyland High School in Mission, Texas, has a proud tradition of developing athletes who go on to compete at high levels. The Rattlers' athletic programs have helped prepare several alumni for careers in major college and professional sports. These former students represent the dedication and talent cultivated within the school's athletic community.

Among Sharyland's notable alumni are Tres Barrera, an MLB player, and former MLB players Jorge Cantu and Jaime García. These individuals have taken their skills from the fields and courts of Sharyland to professional arenas, showcasing the caliber of athletes who have come through the school.

Pro/D1 alumni
3
Class
5A
Founded
1921
Key Players
  • Tres Barrera — MLB player
  • Jorge Cantu — former Major League Baseball (MLB) player
  • Jaime García — former MLB player
The moment

Jorge Cantu was a former Major League Baseball player.

Sources: Wikipedia · SI High School (ScoreBook Live)

Everything Near Mission

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

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