79R10502 KO-D

By:  Gonzalez Toureilles                                          H.R. No. 855



R E S O L U T I O N
	WHEREAS, J. Frank Dobie, a writer and chronicler of the 
folklore of Texas and the Southwest, published some 25 books in his 
distinguished career, and it is indeed a pleasure to recognize his 
important role in Texas literature; and
	WHEREAS, Born in 1888 on a ranch in South Texas, Mr. Dobie 
earned his bachelor's degree from Southwestern University in 
Georgetown, where he also met Bertha McKee, a fellow student who 
would become his wife and lifelong companion; after college, he 
taught at a high school in Alpine and worked as a newspaper reporter 
during the summers, but soon felt a longing to teach poetry at a 
more advanced level and enrolled in graduate school at Columbia 
University in New York; and
	WHEREAS, After pursuing his master's degree at Columbia, Mr. 
Dobie returned to Texas and joined the English department at The 
University of Texas at Austin; his teaching career was temporarily 
interrupted by a stint in the U.S. Army at the end of World War I, 
but he returned to UT after his discharge; and
	WHEREAS, Remembering the stories of his uncle's vaqueros that 
he had enjoyed as a boy, he settled on a scholarly pursuit that 
would satisfy his interests both as a writer and as a student of 
Texas history; he decided that he would collect and tell the 
legendary tales of the Lone Star State much as the famed 
musicologist and fellow Texan John Lomax had collected the folk 
songs of the South; from that point on, Mr. Dobie actively pursued 
the folk legends of the Southwest in his travels, readings, and 
writings, and in 1921, he became editor of the Texas Folklore 
Society; and
	WHEREAS, His book Coronado's Children received national 
attention and significantly broadened the writer's audience; while 
continuing to teach, he traveled, lectured, published articles and 
books, including Apache Gold and Yaqui Silver and The Longhorns, 
and began a syndicated newspaper column called "My Texas"; in 1930, 
he introduced his course, Life and Literature of the Southwest, and 
it soon became the most popular offering on campus; he also enjoyed 
a two-year stint as a lecturer on American history in Cambridge, 
England; and
	WHEREAS, An ardent individualist, Mr. Dobie often spoke out 
on social issues and other causes that captured his attention; he 
argued against censorship and demagoguery and championed black 
voting rights and organized labor's right to strike; his formal 
teaching days ended when he resigned from the university in 1947, 
but he continued to meet with students and colleagues in informal 
literary salons held in the backyard of his home, which was adjacent 
to campus; and
	WHEREAS, After his death in 1964, his wife saw to the 
publication of two books under his name based on his notes; she and 
friends also established a most fitting memorial to him with the 
Dobie Paisano Fellowship, which provides money for writers and 
artists to work on their projects during a six-month stay on Mr. 
Dobie's Paisano Ranch in the Texas Hill Country; today, his Austin 
residence is home to the Michener Center for Writers, an 
interdisciplinary creative writing graduate program at UT; and
	WHEREAS, Although more than 40 years have passed since his 
death, J. Frank Dobie continues to enhance the lives of countless 
readers with the rich legacy of writings that he left behind, and we 
may consider ourselves fortunate that he chose to focus his 
extraordinary talent on the bountiful stories and traditions of our 
state; now, therefore, be it
	RESOLVED, That the House of Representatives of the 79th Texas 
Legislature hereby pay special tribute to the life of J. Frank Dobie 
and acknowledge his remarkable contributions to Texas letters.