Sarita, Texas

The Kenedy Ranch in Kenedy County is one of the largest and most private ranching operations in Texas. Mifflin Kenedy, partner and rival of Richard King, built a ranching empire that still operates largely unseen.

Antonio “Tony” De la Rosa, award-winning pioneer of conjunto music , was born in Sarita, Texas, on November 1, 1931, in a worker’s hacienda on the Kenedy Ranch. One of twelve children in a family of field laborers, De la Rosa began playing music as a child. At the age of six his mother taught him harmonica, and he later learned guitar. Soon afterward, he heard the accordion on the kitchen radio and decided he wanted to play that instrument. By the age of sixteen he had learned to play a two-row, button accordion, which he had ordered from a mail-order catalog. He played at family gatherings and other social events around the Kenedy Ranch and at a dance hall in nearby Riviera. Soon he performed publicly in nearby Kingsville. De la Rosa was inspired by some of the earlier conjunto pioneers such as Narciso Martínez and Santiago Jiménez , but western swing and honky-tonk music also had an impact on his professional career. In fact De la Rosa was so fond of country music that by the time he was a teenager, he was playing with country bands in small clubs around Kingsville. In later years he would borrow from country singer Red Foley’s popular song “Alabama Jubilee” to compose “El Circo,” one of his best-known polkas. In 1949 De la Rosa formed his own conjunto band which included himself on accordion and vocals, along with Abel Mendoza (vocals and bajo sexto ), Adán De la Rosa (drums, vocals, and bajo sexto ), Adan Pérez (bass, vocals), Amadeo Flores (vocals, bajo sexto ), Tony Chávez (vocals), and Isidro López (vocals). De la Rosa first signed with Rio Records, founded by Hymie Wolf, but eventually moved to Ideal Records in 1950, which would become one of the most influential Tejano record labels of the twentieth century. Founded in 1946 by Armando Marroquín of Alice, Texas, Ideal Records helped catapult De la Rosa to regional fame. During his career, De la Rosa introduced several important innovations into conjunto music, including the use of amplified bajo sexto and bass and the practice of slowing polka tempos down to 110–115 beats per minute, as opposed to the faster traditional polka tempo of 130–145 beats per minute. He also is credited with introducing a new dance step known as el tacuachito (“the possum”), which was very popular during the 1950s. He played with a number of notable performers including Carmen y Laura. In the 1960s he added horns to his repertoire. Throughout his career De la Rosa made more than 100 records and had numerous hits, including “Atotonilco,” “La Grulla,” “Los Frijoles Bailan,” “El Sube y Baja,” “Carmela,” “Paloma Sin Nido,” and “Una Cualquiera.” In 1982 De la Rosa was inducted into the Conjunto Music Hall of Fame, and in 1998 the National Endowment for the Arts presented him with a National Heritage Fellowship Award, considered to be one of the highest honors given to a cultural artist. De la Rosa also received recognition from other organizations, including induction into the Hispanic American Entertainment/Pura Vida Hall of Fame in San Antonio, Texas. On June 2, 2004, Tony De la Rosa died at the age of seventy-two during heart surgery in Corpus Christi, Texas. He was survived by his wife, Lucia, three sons, a daughter, two stepsons, and numerous other family members. He was inducted posthumously into the Texas Conjunto Music Hall of Fame in San Benito in 2006.

Sarita Kenedy East, South Texas rancher and philanthropist, daughter of John G. and Marie Stella (Turcotte) Kenedy, was born on September 19, 1889, in Corpus Christi, Texas. Her grandfather was Mifflin Kenedy , founder of the vast La Parra Ranch in what was then Cameron County (now Kenedy County). She spent much of her childhood at La Parra, and her father named the new town of Sarita, located on the Kenedy ranch, for his daughter upon the town's founding around 1904. Sarita attended Incarnate Word Academy in Corpus Christi and then H. Sophie Newcomb Memorial College in New Orleans. She also made her debut in New Orleans. She did not complete college, but instead returned to La Parra. On December 8, 1910, she married Arthur Lee East, a South Texas rancher. They did not have any children. After Arthur East died in 1944, Mrs East and her brother John G. Kenedy, Jr., were in charge of the 400,000-acre Kenedy ranch. Upon her brother's death in 1948, Sarita and her sister-in-law Elena Suess Kenedy became the sole heirs to the ranch. Sarita East also owned the San Pablo Ranch near Hebbronville and Twin Peaks Ranch in Colorado. She served as a county commissioner of Kenedy County and was on the board of directors of Alice National Bank. In addition to her business dealings she engaged in philanthropy especially to Catholic charities. In 1952 she received the Ecclesia et Pontifice medal and membership in the Ladies of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem from Pope Pius XII for her service to the church. She was also named an honorary member of the Franciscans and the Oblates of Mary Immaculate . In her 1948 will she bequeathed La Parra ranch headquarters and 10,000 acres of land to the Oblate fathers and 13,000 acres to the Diocese of Corpus Christi . The rest of her vast estate was divided among relatives and ranch kin. In 1948 Mrs. East met Christopher Gregory, a Trappist monk who had taken the name Brother Leo. Two years earlier Brother Leo had been released from his vow of silence and assigned to raise funds for new Trappist monasteries. He was on a fund-raising trip through South Texas when he met Sarita East, and over the next few years he became her advisor and traveling companion. In the 1950s Mrs. East allowed oil and gas exploration on her ranch, which up to that time had largely been an untapped resource. During that time she gave money to the Trappist monks and visited monasteries throughout the world. In 1959, with other family members and Brother Leo, she went on a South American tour, one of several trips she made, and donated $300,000 to build a mission in Chile. That same year Brother Leo introduced her to J. Peter Grace, chairman of the board of W. R. Grace and Company, in New York. The three began the work of forming a charitable foundation. On January 21, 1960, they established the John G. and Marie Stella Kenedy Memorial Foundation, with Sarita Kenedy East as sole member. Mrs. East also wrote another will leaving the bulk of her estate to the foundation. Over the next few months she wrote a series of codicils to her will that increasingly gave more control of the foundation to Brother Leo and Grace. Just before her death she named Brother Leo sole member of the foundation. Sarita Kenedy East died of cancer on February 11, 1961, in New York City and was buried at La Parra Ranch. Within months after her death a group of South Texans, including Elena Suess Kenedy, members of the Turcotte family, and the Diocese of Corpus Christi, filed a lawsuit disputing Brother Leo's control of the foundation, charging that Leo and Grace exerted undue influence over Mrs. East while she was disoriented by medication. Other relatives also contested her 1960 will and wished to reinstate her 1948 will dividing the estate among various beneficiaries. Over the course of the battle more than 200 people claimed to be legitimate heirs. In 1964 a settlement regarding the foundation resulted in the splitting of assets. Grace and the New York group

Kenedy County, on U.S. Highway 77 south of Corpus Christi in the Rio Grande Plain region of South Texas, was named for pioneer rancher Mifflin Kenedy . It is bordered by Kleberg County on the north, the Gulf of Mexico on the east, Willacy County on the south, and Hidalgo and Brooks counties on the west. The center point of the county is 26°55' north latitude and 97°40' west longitude. Sarita, in northern Kenedy County, is the county seat and largest town. Other communities include Armstrong, Turcotte, Norias, and Rudolph. The county comprises 1,389 square miles, with elevations ranging from sea level to 100 feet. The soils are generally sandy with areas of light-colored loamy surfaces over very deep reddish or mottled clayey subsoils. Along the Gulf Coast the soils are sandy and salty, with areas of gray to black, cracking clay. Less than 1 percent of the county is considered prime farmland. Most of Kenedy County is covered with brush and scrubby mesquite, with some huisache, acacia, post oak, and live oak. Tall bunchgrasses, such as the seacoast bluestem, are found along the coast, as well as cordgrasses, saltgrass, and marsh millet. Temperatures range from an average low of 47° F in January to an average high of 96° in July; the average annual temperature is 73°. Rainfall averages twenty-six inches a year, and the average growing season is 319 days. Mineral resources include oil and natural gas. The area has been the site of human habitation for perhaps 11,000 years. Among the oldest artifacts found in the county are stone implements and human remains dating from the Paleo-Indian period (9200 to 6000 B.C.). During the Archaic period (6000 B.C. to A.D. 1000) the local Indian population seems to have increased, and small bands of hunter-gatherers apparently frequented the area, subsisting on game, wild fruits, seeds, and roots. These early peoples carved tools from wood and stone, wove baskets, and made rabbitskin clothing. The hunting and gathering way of life persisted into the Late Prehistoric period (A.D. 1000 to the arrival of the Spanish), though during this time the Indians in the area, who belonged to the Coahuiltecan linguistic group, learned to make pottery and hunted with bows and arrows. By the early 1800s the local Coahuiltecans had succumbed to disease, intermarried with the Spanish, or been driven out by the Lipan Apaches. Though occasional Spanish expeditions crossed the area during the early eighteenth century, the region remained uninhabited by Europeans until the late colonial period. Between the mid-1740s and the early 1750s José de Escandón made several excursions to the lower Rio Grande valley and introduced settlers to the area along the river, but the closest settlement, Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe de Reynosa, was about fifty miles to the southwest in Tamaulipas. About sixteen land grants were made in the Kenedy County area by the Spanish and Mexican governments. The earliest, Agostadero de San Juan de Carricitos, made to José Nicolás Cabazos in February 1792, comprised more than a half million acres, including parts of the future Willacy, Hidalgo, and Kenedy counties. Cabazos established a ranch and stocked it with 900 cattle. Another early grant was San Salvador del Tule, made to Juan José Ballí in November 1797. During the Mexican period the number of ranches in the area grew, but hostile Indians and the political turmoil that followed the Texas Revolution forced many families to abandon their ranches. American settlement in the region was slow but increased after the Mexican War . New settlers were generally welcomed by the Mexican rancheros, and a number of the newcomers married into prominent local families.Ethnic relations began to change during the second half of the nineteenth century, however, when steadily growing numbers of Anglo-Americans began to settle in South Texas. Increasingly, Mexican landholding families found their titles in jeopardy in the courts or were subjec

Centuries old, this burial ground was once used by the primitive Karankawa Indians. A little-known group, this coastal tribe cared for Spanish explorer Cabeza de Vaca when he was shipwrecked in Texas in 1528. Although previously looted, the site produced over 20 skeletons when excavated by archeologists in 1927 and later. Also found were large quantities of burned human bones (suggesting ritual cannibalism), potsherds, arrowpoints, flint tools, fire implements, and shells. European explorers found the Karankawas unusually tall and muscular, but were repelled by their habits of tattooing and painting their bodies and smearing themselves with alligator grease to keep off insects. Much ritual attended Karankawa death, especially that of boys and young men, who were mourned for an entire year. Three times a day the family wept for the departed youth. After a year, the mourners purified themselves with smoke in a special rite. Ordinary persons were buried in shallow graves with some tools and ornaments, but shamans (medicine men) were cremated during a ceremonial dance. Never very numerous, the Karankawas drifted into Mexico after the white man's diseases and enmity reduced them to a handful of survivors.

Battle road of General Zachary Taylor and largest U.S. Army fielded in first half of the 19th century. After annexation of former Republic of Texas was approved in 1845, the United States sent Taylor to occupy area below the Nueces-- to support claim to all land east of the Rio Grande. In August 1845 he reached Corpus Christi where he waited while U.S. and Mexico tried to reach boundary agreement. He also sent out engineers to map a road parallel to the Gulf, where the U.S. Navy watched the crisis. His army-- including on its rosters two later U.S. presidents and later many statesmen and generals-- drilled throughout a rainy winter. On orders from Washington, it moved toward Rio Grande in March 1846. Along its path were few people but much game-- wild cattle, antelope, deer, mustang horses, wild turkeys. Although challenged about 70 miles south of here by a Mexican patrol, Taylor proceeded to occupy Rio Grande Valley. April attacks and may battles of Palo Alto and Resaca de la Palma caused the United States to declare war. Afterward many troops took this road and joined the fighting, which fixed the Rio Grande as boundary and gained for U.S. lands now in Arizona, California, Nevada and New Mexico.