Breckenridge, Colorado

The Vibe:
Whether you are a seasoned skier or it’s your first time to weave down a bunny slope, the mountain at Breckenridge, Colo., has something for you. For many years, Breckenridge has been the ski location of choice (especially for those lucky enough to live less than two hours away in Denver). The great news for Houstonians is there are many direct flights to Denver each day – and it’s an easy drive to Breckenridge from there.

This sleepy mountain town is picturesque in an over-commercialized kind of way; so if you’re looking for the comforts of home, such as Subway, Pizza Hut and Starbucks, it’s all here. The quaint Victorian town boasts 249 historic structures, 79 restaurants and bars, and 180 shops. There is a Main Street, and there are also many side streets with important places to see, making a car almost a necessity. And since you’ve got a car, you are merely miles from other ski resorts, such as Keystone (home to night skiing), Arapaho Basin and Vail.

With slopes for skiers of every skill level, the wide-open terrain makes this the perfect place to improve your skills and move up from green to blue slopes. There are four peaks here, each connected by lifts and accessible to most intermediate and advanced skiers.

New this season is the Imperial Express, connecting the top of Chair Six to the summit of Peak Eight – topping out at 12,840 feet. This addition opens up more than 400 acres of steep, treeless chutes and bowls. Now, Breckenridge is sure to top the list for advanced skiers.

Eat
Breakfast: The Blue Moose serves up substantial, quality comfort food in a very efficient manner. The granola is crunchy and homemade; and the green chili in the huevos rancheros gives it a welcome kick.
Dinner: Café Alpine dishes out American food, such as venison and beef tenderloin. It claims to have great tapas, but since it’s not a Spanish restaurant, we didn’t risk it. Looking for romance, the Hearthstone Restaurant delivers in full tilt with two levels of a restored Victorian home-turned high-end eatery. While in Colorado, try a local special, a granola-encrusted elk chop. The batter is a little thick (similar to chicken-fried steak), but it’s not fried – it’s pan-seared to perfection. Add a side of truffle oil mashed potatoes, and this is a meat lover’s paradise. The St. Bernard is a tiny establishment right on Main Street – be sure to make a reservation. The brie salad was so good they ran out; and the pasta actually had just a tad too much truffle oil – is that possible? So, just head straight for the osso bucco, and you won’t be disappointed.

Drink
Après ski: Après ski (skiers’ lingo for “happy hour”) is the reward for working hard on the slopes all day. Lifts close at 4 p.m., which means most après ski specials start before then. At the base of Lift Nine is Maggie’s. Specials abound here, and the live band is a welcome respite. Quandary Grille has both indoor and outdoor seating and is right at the foot of Main Street Station (lots of people stay here). If you’re lucky, you’ll see some ice skaters on Maggie Pond, or just enjoy watching skiers come in from a long day. The Breckenridge Brewery serves light appetizers and many flavors of homemade brew and is a great place to meet up with locals.

Sleep:
There are many independently owned condos and townhomes here, but if you’re looking for one-stop shopping for essentials, dining and skiing, you really have it made at the Main Street Station. Our rustic and homey condo came complete with its own garage and was just a few freezing steps to the Jacuzzi. Comfortable and roomy with all the modern luxuries, it’s a thrill to look out the window and see people skiing.

Essentials:
The Blue Moose 540 S. Main St.,
?(970) 453-4859
Café Alpine 106 E. Adams Ave.,
?(970) 453-8218, www.cafealpine.com
Hearthstone Restaurant 130 S. Ridge St.,
?(970) 453-1148, www.hearthstonerestaurant.biz
St. Bernard 103 S. Main St., (970) 453-2572, www.thestbernard.com
Maggie?s 605 S. Park Ave., (970) 453-2000
Quandary Grille 505 Main St., (970) 547-5969,
?www.quandarygrille.com
The Breckenridge Brewery 600 S. Main St.,
?(970) 453-1550, www.breckenridgebrewery.com
Main Street Station 505 S. Main St., (970) 547-2700,
?www.hyattmainstreetstation.hyatt.com

Home Away From Home

It is a parent’s worst nightmare. The doctor tells you that your child is seriously ill and will require lengthy hospital stays and outpatient treatments. Numerous questions race through your mind: Will my child be all right? Where will I stay while my child is hospitalized? Will the hospital let me stay in the room? What will the rest of my family do? Can I afford a hotel in the area?

In this time of desperation, Ronald McDonald House of Houston is here for you. Opening its doors in 1981, the house offers a “home away from home” to the families of seriously ill children being treated at Texas Medical Center institutions (namely Texas Children’s Hospital).

A home
Each year an average of more than 700 families spend more than 16,000 nights at the Ronald McDonald House on Holcombe Boulevard, dubbed “Holcombe House.” The 50-bedroom home is complete with an eight-station kitchen, special-needs kitchen, dining room, play areas and laundry facility, as well as a one-room school. This school room provides a quiet area for teachers from Houston ISD to study with school-age patients to ensure that they won’t fall behind in school work. There are also summer school programs for patients and their siblings. Every month, local organizations, including McDonald’s Restaurant Owners, Houston Junior Woman’s Club and Southwest Airlines, cook meals for the families staying at Holcombe House. These events offer the families a communal atmosphere that helps the house feel more like home.

In addition to providing a place to stay, the house also offers families a place to meet with others that are in similar circumstances. These families are there not only to console one another, but also to give each other the strength to make it through this difficult time. It is a comfort to the families at Holcombe House to know they are not alone and they are not the only ones coping with the heartbreak and devastation of childhood illness.

Break from typical waiting room
In 2001 and 2002, the Ronald McDonald House opened Family Rooms at Texas Children’s Hospital to give the loved ones of seriously ill children a more caring environment away from the typical hospital waiting rooms. Designed to group together families dealing with similar illnesses, one Family Room is for those with children being treated in-patient for cancer and blood diseases while another is in the Texas Children’s Cancer Center Outpatient Clinic and is designed for families of children receiving outpatient treatments. Inside Texas Children’s Hospital is the third Family Room, which is more like another Ronald McDonald House. It is complete with 20 bedrooms for families with children in the Intensive Care Units at Texas Children’s Hospital. The folks at Ronald McDonald House know how important it is to allow families to be surrounded by others who understand the emotions they are feeling.

Ronald’s friends
The Friends of the Ronald McDonald House of Houston consists of a group of volunteers that raise funds for the house through dues and fundraisers. They organize five holiday parties each year at the house and decorate, plan entertainment and cook meals for the children and families of Holcombe House.

A group of young professionals, The Young Friends of the Ronald McDonald House of Houston, provide monthly meals and activities for the families and children at the house. They coordinate activities, including trips to the zoo and bowling parties, as well as arts and crafts. For the teenagers at the house who desire more grown-up entertainment, Teens Night Out offers dinner at a restaurant or a movie at the theater.

Donating to the cause
Since families only pay a small portion of the actual amount it takes to run the house, the Ronald McDonald House of Houston relies on generous contributions from individuals, corporations and foundations. The house always accepts monetary donations, which can be made in a loved one’s honor or memory if desired. In fact, many employers match the contributions made by their employees – so you might check and see what your company’s policy is.

Through the pull tab (or soda can tab) program, the Ronald McDonald House of Houston collects pull tabs and recycles them to raise money for the house’s operating budget. Since the tabs are pure aluminum, they are worth more at recycling centers. You can also help the house when you shop at Kroger or Randalls. The Kroger Share Card and the Randalls Remarkable Card can be used to have a percentage of your purchases donated to the Ronald McDonald House of Houston.

Lend a helping hand
The gift of time is always appreciated at the Ronald McDonald House of Houston. With a variety of volunteer opportunities and time commitments, you are sure to find an opportunity that suits your talents and schedule. Shift volunteers are asked to volunteer for six hours a month and must be at least 18 years old. Shifts are organized in three-hour blocks. (Volunteers for the business office, development, special activities and family activities are not considered shift volunteers.) Opportunities range from greeting and registering families to filing or helping at special events. H

Ronald McDonald House of Houston, (713) 795-3500, www.ronaldmcdonaldhousehouston.org

Writers in Training

In the day of video games and internet chat rooms, one local organization strives to pass on the enjoyment of reading and writing to children around Houston. With American students reading and writing skills declining in all age groups, Writers in the Schools “focuses on this problem, one child at a time.” Though at-risk inner-city students are its focus, WITS also has workshops in art museums, hospitals, community centers, private schools and juvenile detention centers.

School days
Since 1983, WITS has sought to bring the joy and sense of accomplishment from writing to Houston-area students with in-school programs. The WITS professional writers work in more than 350 classrooms to help students develop the skills to become effective writers. Students in this program are taught the writing process and key objectives of language arts so that they are able to write successfully. This long-term program allows students to develop a relationship with professional writers who provide the instruction and time to practice new techniques.

This program recognizes that art and writing go hand in hand, so students are taken for a field trip to The Menil Collection, or another art venue, for inspiration. The student’s writing is even published in an anthology and celebrated at public events, adding to the sense of accomplishment for the students. This program offers the students an encouraging atmosphere in which to develop their written voice and improve their skills.

After the bell rings
WITS believes that “everyone has a personal story to tell” and provides the skills needed for students to be able to tell their stories. This program not only offers a safe environment after school, but also nurtures the growth of their imaginations. Often the participating students’ academic performance improves, as well as their self-confidence, due to the skills they learn and the supportive environment. These after-school workshops aim to make writing enjoyable and relevant to all students through active learning and interdisciplinary techniques.

Teacher time
Writers in the Schools doesn’t only help students, it also aid teachers. To help teachers encourage writing and the joys of the writing process, WITS provides in-services to share innovative teaching ideas and strategies. Teachers and writers work together to transform the way writing is taught so that they reach more students and make writing more enjoyable for their students. The in-services are valuable tools that provide teachers with inspiration for classroom activities.

Summer of creativity
To encourage reading and writing for fun during the summer months, WITS offers Summer Creative Writing Workshops. Here, children write stories, poetry, essays and plays, as well as engage in reading for pleasure. Children are able to discover the joys of writing, the diversity of language and the self-confidence that comes with authorship in a supportive environment. With a low student-teacher ratio, each child gets the individual attention he/she need.

Helping around Houston
In an effort to reach troubled children, six of WITS writers work with the Harris County Juvenile Probation Department to give these children a new outlet to the world. The goal of this program is to replace the cycles of misbehavior and punishment with a world of words and imagination.

For the children and their siblings being treated at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, WITS’ twice-weekly program helps children “draw windows out of a hospital room” through their writing. This is one of the most rewarding projects in which the writers of WITS participate. One writer from WITS works year-round with the patients at Texas Children’s Hospital to give them one-on-one writing instruction. A quarterly newsletter with the children’s writing, “The Splendid Review,” is distributed to patients and siblings from the hospital as part of the Arts in Medicine Program.

In collaboration with the Community Family Center, one writer works with neighborhood elementary school children in an after-school writing workshop. This helps them to “develop a sense of self as part of a real community and to deal with challenges” facing their communities.

Through these and other programs, Writers in the Schools aims to bring the enjoyment of writing to children around Houston. The participating children are given a creative outlet that benefits them in many aspects of their lives. H

Get Away to Breckenridge

The Vibe:
Whether you are a seasoned skier or it’s your first time to weave down a bunny slope, the mountain at Breckenridge, Colo., has something for you. For many years, Breckenridge has been the ski location of choice (especially for those lucky enough to live less than two hours away in Denver). The great news for Houstonians is there are many direct flights to Denver each day – and it’s an easy drive to Breckenridge from there.

This sleepy mountain town is picturesque in an over-commercialized kind of way; so if you’re looking for the comforts of home, such as Subway, Pizza Hut and Starbucks, it’s all here. The quaint Victorian town boasts 249 historic structures, 79 restaurants and bars, and 180 shops. There is a Main Street, and there are also many side streets with important places to see, making a car almost a necessity. And since you’ve got a car, you are merely miles from other ski resorts, such as Keystone (home to night skiing), Arapaho Basin and Vail.

With slopes for skiers of every skill level, the wide-open terrain makes this the perfect place to improve your skills and move up from green to blue slopes. There are four peaks here, each connected by lifts and accessible to most intermediate and advanced skiers.

New this season is the Imperial Express, connecting the top of Chair Six to the summit of Peak Eight – topping out at 12,840 feet. This addition opens up more than 400 acres of steep, treeless chutes and bowls. Now, Breckenridge is sure to top the list for advanced skiers.

Eat
Breakfast: The Blue Moose serves up substantial, quality comfort food in a very efficient manner. The granola is crunchy and homemade; and the green chili in the huevos rancheros gives it a welcome kick.
Dinner: Café Alpine dishes out American food, such as venison and beef tenderloin. It claims to have great tapas, but since it’s not a Spanish restaurant, we didn’t risk it. Looking for romance, the Hearthstone Restaurant delivers in full tilt with two levels of a restored Victorian home-turned high-end eatery. While in Colorado, try a local special, a granola-encrusted elk chop. The batter is a little thick (similar to chicken-fried steak), but it’s not fried – it’s pan-seared to perfection. Add a side of truffle oil mashed potatoes, and this is a meat lover’s paradise. The St. Bernard is a tiny establishment right on Main Street – be sure to make a reservation. The brie salad was so good they ran out; and the pasta actually had just a tad too much truffle oil – is that possible? So, just head straight for the osso bucco, and you won’t be disappointed.

Drink
Après ski: Après ski (skiers’ lingo for “happy hour”) is the reward for working hard on the slopes all day. Lifts close at 4 p.m., which means most après ski specials start before then. At the base of Lift Nine is Maggie’s. Specials abound here, and the live band is a welcome respite. Quandary Grille has both indoor and outdoor seating and is right at the foot of Main Street Station (lots of people stay here). If you’re lucky, you’ll see some ice skaters on Maggie Pond, or just enjoy watching skiers come in from a long day. The Breckenridge Brewery serves light appetizers and many flavors of homemade brew and is a great place to meet up with locals.

Sleep:
There are many independently owned condos and townhomes here, but if you’re looking for one-stop shopping for essentials, dining and skiing, you really have it made at the Main Street Station. Our rustic and homey condo came complete with its own garage and was just a few freezing steps to the Jacuzzi. Comfortable and roomy with all the modern luxuries, it’s a thrill to look out the window and see people skiing. H

?Essentials:
The Blue Moose 540 S. Main St.,
?(970) 453-4859
Café Alpine 106 E. Adams Ave.,
?(970) 453-8218, www.cafealpine.com
Hearthstone Restaurant 130 S. Ridge St.,
?(970) 453-1148, www.hearthstonerestaurant.biz
St. Bernard 103 S. Main St., (970) 453-2572, www.thestbernard.com
Maggie?s 605 S. Park Ave., (970) 453-2000
Quandary Grille 505 Main St., (970) 547-5969,
?www.quandarygrille.com
The Breckenridge Brewery 600 S. Main St.,
?(970) 453-1550, www.breckenridgebrewery.com
Main Street Station 505 S. Main St., (970) 547-2700,
?www.hyattmainstreetstation.hyatt.com

Houston’s Leaders and Legends

Houston is filled will leaders and legendary people. Those listed here are the extraordinary ones who have exemplified the meaning of giving back, service to others, volunteerism and philanthropy. There are those who have served not only the city, but who have served the country and, in so doing, have added to Houston’s international stature throughout the world. There are those whose lives are defined by giving: When presented with a need, they use their energy, creativity and determination to meet the challenge and provide amazing results, whether for health, education or the arts. – For the awesome and arduous task of selecting a mere 25 to spotlight in this issue, I asked for opinions from many “leaders and legends” themselves. They agree with me that to narrow this field of thousands who do beautiful works for the city to such a small number is laughable and ludicrous. Additionally, my colleagues at H Texas and I are cognizant of the fact that there are many among us who go unrecognized and unsung as they venture out into the world, making a difference every day. I am reminded of a favorite saying I once read, “The world knows nothing of its greatest men.” – However, herein we humbly offer but a glimmer into the heart of Houston, into its can-do, spirited, open-hearted, dynamic and talented citizens who have earned Houston its reputation as one of the most charitable cities in the world.

1. Lauren Anderson, the principal ballerina with the Houston Ballet, is a native of Houston and trained exclusively at Houston Ballet’s Ben Stevenson Academy from the age of seven. In 1983, she joined Houston Ballet and by 1990 became the first African-American to be promoted to principal dancer. She has danced leading roles in numerous classical ballets and has performed as a guest artist with many ballet companies in this country and around the world. On innumerable occasions she shares her exquisite talent by teaching schoolchildren across the city the art of dance.

2. The Honorable James A. Baker III is a native Houstonian who has served in senior positions for three United States presidents. He was Under Secretary of State for Gerald Ford, Treasury Secretary for Ronald Reagan and Secretary of State for George H. W. Bush. Currently he is Honorary Chairman of the James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy at Rice University. He also serves on the board of Rice University and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

3. Sen. Lloyd Bentsen received the Medal of Freedom from President Clinton on Aug. 9, 1999. The award read in part: “As a decorated World War II bomber pilot, he risked his life to defend freedom. In the House of Representatives and the Senate, he promoted fiscal responsibility and free trade while supporting civil rights of minorities and women and protections for children and older Americans. As Secretary of the Treasury, he helped bring greater opportunities and unprecedented prosperity to the country.” The new medical building, the Institute of Molecular Medicine for the Prevention of Human Disease, will include a Stroke Research Center named for Senator Bentsen. The senator’s family, friends and admirers are contributing to this effort.

4. Georgio Borlenghi is the president of Interfin, a real-estate development company that developed Four Leaf Towers in the Galleria and Uptown Park and currently is developing a residential hotel, the Granduca. Borlenghi serves on the board of directors of Italy-America Chamber of Commerce and The University of St. Thomas. He has served on the board of Duchesne Academy, Wortham Theater, Museum of Fine Arts and the The Regis School for Boys. He is past chairman of the Texas Heart Institute Associates and co-chaired the Mayor’s Gala.

5. Former President George H. W. Bush, the 41st president of the United States, has raised millions of dollars for various charitable organizations. He currently serves on the board of M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, is honorary chairman of the Points of Light Foundation and has twice joined former president Bill Clinton to raise millions for the tsunami relief effort and the hurricane disaster fund. There is hardly a charitable organization in the city that has not benefited from the deep concern and caring that both President Bush and his wife, Barbara, have demonstrated throughout their lives.

6. Capt. Eugene Cernan, former NASA astronaut and one of the few who has walked on the moon, has said that he believes “most definitely” that there is life on other planets. He continues his efforts for NASA as chairman of Johnson Engineering Corporation, which provides NASA, Johnson Space Center with engineering, design and development services in support of space shuttle, space station and future space flight projects.

7. Dr. Paul Chu is both a professor of physics and T.L.L. Temple Chair of Science at the University of Houston. He and his research team gained worldwide attention when they discovered the first high temperature superconductor that worked above the liquid nitrogen temperature, making applications more practical and changing the way the world looks at the physics of solids. Dr. Chu established The Texas Center for Superconductivity at the University of Houston in 1987. One of the leading scientists in the United States, he has participated in activities of many civic organizations to promote the importance of education, culture, science and technology.

8. Dr. Michael DeBakey, the internationally acclaimed cardiovascular surgeon, is an ingenious medical inventor, innovator and dedicated teacher. Because of his unique ability to bring professional knowledge to bear on public policy worldwide, Dr. DeBakey is known as an international medical statesman. He has served as advisor to virtually every U.S. president in the past 50 years. Dr. DeBakey performed the first successful carotid endarterectomy for stroke, the first coronary artery bypass and the first use of a left ventricle bypass pump for heart failure. His lifelong scholarship is reflected in more than 1,600 published medical articles and books. He is a co-author of “The Living Heart” series of popular books for the public.

9. Tilman Fertitta started Landry’s in 1986 with two restaurants. He took the company public in 1993, and Landry’s has been one of the best-performing restaurant stocks on Wall Street ever since. In late 2004, Fertitta led Landry’s to the largest bond offering in U.S. restaurant history, raising $850 million dollars. Forbes magazine named Landry’s “one of the best companies in America” for three consecutive years. He serves as vice president and board member of the Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo and vice president of Houston Children’s Charity. He serves as a board member of the Better Business Bureau, Conrad Hilton College of Hotel and Restaurant Management, Texas Business Hall of Fame, Greater Houston Convention & Visitors Bureau, Museum of Fine Arts, Sam Houston Area Council of the Boy Scouts of America, Central Houston Inc. and the Houston Police Foundation.

10. Rudy Festari was born in Rome; he was barely 16 and unable to speak English when he left home to move to New York. Following his dream of pursuing a career in the fashion industry, he made his way to Texas when a retail opportunity arose in Houston’s Galleria. Fourteen years ago, his dream of having his own store materialized, and the Festari for Men store was born. Throughout his career, Festari has been a strong believer in giving back; and many organizations have benefited from the annual event he and wife, Debbie, started. Festari Celebrity Men’s Fashion Show has helped Child Advocates, M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston Grand Opera, Unicef, Baylor College of Medicine Breast Cancer Center and Family Services of Greater Houston.

11. Sharon Graham is the owner of one of the oldest catering companies in Houston: Sharon Graham Catering was established in 1970. She has always had a passion for “making magic, making people happy and using her God-given gift of creativity to provide memorable events.” Sharon created a company, Empathy, to assist families who are faced with having to be a host at the time of a death in the family. A wedding coordinator, as well, she developed Event Sites to provide an updated list of event sites. Graham believes in giving back to her “beloved” community and has chaired events for Baylor 10, as well as served on the boards of the Alley Theater, Baylor Partnership and Houston Council on Drug Abuse and Alcoholism. Additionally, she is a member of the Friends of the Stehlin Foundation and many other organizations.

12. Walter Kase is a Holocaust survivor who spends much of his time speaking to high school and college students, businesses and organizations about the harrowing experiences he suffered under Nazi tyranny. During his experiences, he endured forced labor camps and five separate concentration camps, including Auschwitz. When liberated at age 15, he weighed 65 pounds and learned that most of his family had been exterminated. Kase says, “I am a walking American dream, and I love, cherish and appreciate the U.S.A. All of us are witnesses to the most tragic chapter in human history, and we must never, never allow a Holocaust again.” The Anti Defamation League established The Walter Kase Teacher Excellence Award to honor four teachers each year “who help create an ethic and atmosphere inside their schools that rejects prejudice, questions stereotypes, promotes diversity and confronts hate in all its forms.”

13. Rev. William Lawson began his career in Houston as the Baptist chaplain at Texas Southern University. Quickly, he and a small group saw the need for a church in the Third Ward; and, in 1962, they founded Wheeler Avenue Baptist Church. Rev. Lawson became its minister. The church emphasized ministries to children, youth, seniors and the poor and responded to the minority community’s suffering with social services. Rev. Lawson and the church also gave leadership to the Civil Rights Movement in Houston. Since his “retirement,” he and his wife, Audrey, have established a foundation called WALIPP – the William A. Lawson Institute for Peace and Prosperity, an advocacy agency for the poor, minorities, women and other excluded people.

14. Marcello Marini is the programming/public affairs director of Channel 47 KTMD, Television. In 1968, he was forced to flee Argentina when the government took control of the television station where he worked. Coming to Houston with $13.65 in his pocket and unable to speak English, he found that he loved the city and decided to stay. Starting as a waiter, he worked up to maitre’d of a restaurant and eventually owned restaurants of his own. In 1987, Marini opened Channel 47 KTMD, which was the first Spanish station to do a telethon with Jerry Lewis for Muscular Dystrophy, the first to promote voter registration, the first to promote a health fair and blood drive for Hispanic viewers, and the first to conduct a census drive. Quarterly, he conducts forums with INS to answer questions for those in the Latino community. Marini also serves on the Board of the United Way. (photo unavailable)

15. Robert McNair came to Houston in 1960 with his wife, two children and $700. He started a trucking company that was forced into chapter 11, paid off creditors and started over. After selling his company, Cogen Technologies became the largest privately owned cogeneration company in the world; and he became chairman and CEO of The McNair Group. Committed to bringing a National Football League team to Houston, he formed Houston NFL Holdings in 1998. A year later, the NFL announced that the 32nd NFL franchise had been awarded to McNair, returning football to the City of Houston in 2002 and the Super Bowl in 2004. He has served on the boards of Rice University, Baylor College of Medicine, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston Grand Opera, Greater Houston Partnership and Greater Houston Convention & Visitors Bureau.

16. Lois Moore, B.S.N., M.Ed., L.H.D., F.A.C.H.E., is the chief administrator for the Harris County Psychiatric Center, a 250-bed acute psychiatric care facility operated by the University of Texas-Houston Health Science Center. Previously Dr. Moore served as president and CEO of the Harris County Hospital District, the largest inpatient health-care system in the U.S. Dr. Moore is very active in the community, serving on numerous boards, including the American Red Cross, March of Dimes, United Way, Texas Association of Public and Non-Profit Hospitals, and National Association of Public Hospitals. She is on the Advisory Board for the Health Care Administration Program at the University of Houston-Clear Lake and is a board member of St. James School and the East Side Village Community Learning Center.

17. John Maurice O’Quinn, the famous trial attorney, worked in his father’s auto mechanic garage every day after school, on the weekends and during the summers, starting when he was 9 years old. In 1994, when he was named to the National Law Journal’s list of most influential attorneys in the country, O’Quinn said, “I think it is a great honor, and I wish my father were alive to see this.” The founder of O’Quinn, Laminack & Pirtle, he was named among the five best Texas Trial lawyers of the past century by the Houston Chronicle, listed as one of the 100 Legal Legends of Texas by Texas Lawyer and recognized in Harvard Law’s “Best Lawyers in America.” He is a past member of the Board of Regents of his alma mater, the University of Houston, and has contributed generously to the law school library, facilities in the Alumni Center and renovations to Robertson Stadium. O’Quinn was instrumental in the creation of the new Children’s Assessment Center, and his foundation focuses on children, education and the environment.

18. Regina Rogers is an attorney who spends much of her life in the service of others. She is a past chairman of the Anti Defamation League and member of the Board of Visitors of the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, Children’s Defense Fund Texas Advisory Board, Holocaust Museum Houston and the Texas Southern University Foundation. Rogers was the first female regent of Lamar University and for six years served on the Texas College and University System Coordinating Board. She is co-founder of the Ben Rogers/Lamar University/Beaumont Public School “I Have a Dream” program, and she established the Julie Rogers “Gift of Life” program. In 1994, as chairman of the Southwest Regional Board of the Anti Defamation League, Rogers helped found the Coalition for Mutual Respect, a group of 20 religious and lay leaders whose purpose it is to promote positive inter-group relations.

19. Becca Cason Thrash started a public relations, special events production and marketing firm in 1984. Soon, she and Holly Moore joined forces, and together created the publication now known as PaperCity. For the past six years, Cason Thrash has chaired events for Best Buddies International, whose mission is to enhance the lives of persons with neuro-developmental disabilities. She has chaired or hosted fundraising events for the Houston Grand Opera, Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, Stages Repertory Theatre, Harris County Medical Society, Houston Ballet, March of Dimes, Houston Symphony and the Blaffer Gallery. She serves on the boards of Best Buddies International, Houston Grand Opera, Contemporary Art Museum, After-School All Stars and the Houston Ballet.

20. Dave Ward has been the anchor that Houstonians have grown accustomed to for the past 39 years on KTRK-TV Channel 13 Eyewitness nightly news. He has covered a multitude of news events: interviewed heads of state and people of every walk of life, traveled the world, covered national political conventions and worked extensively with NASA. Also, his is the face most often seen serving as master of ceremonies at innumerable charitable events throughout the year. Ward was one of the founding members of the Houston Crime Stoppers program, which has become the model of excellence for similar programs across the country. He served as president of the Easter Seals Society, chaired the public affairs advisory board of the Houston Business Council and worked with the American Cancer Society. In addition, he served as a board member of the Leukemia Society and the Houston Press Club.

21. Margaret Alkek Williams gives back to the city she loves by chairing events and serving on non-profit boards, organizations and committees. Included in the many organizations Alkek Williams works with is the Houston Symphony, Museum of Fine Arts Houston, St. Joseph Hospital Foundation, Texas Heart Institute, Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy, Baylor College of Medicine, Cancer Fighters of Houston, Cancer League, Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation and Friends of the Texas Medical Center Library. Other local organizations benefiting from her services are the Houston Ballet, Hospice at the Texas Medical Center, Houston Grand Opera, Special Olympics, University of Houston Moores School of Music, University of Texas-Houston Health Science Center, University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, University of Texas System-Austin and innumerable others. Along with her mother, she endowed the Alkek-Williams Distinguished Professor at UT Health Science Center.

22. Francie Willis started her professional career by coaching nearly 6,000 young women at the Wendy Ward Charm School – and then she took a visionary step and opened Urban Retreat. Now one of the leading day spas in Texas, Urban Retreat has been heralded in almost every national magazine, and Willis has been named one of the Top 50 Women Business Owners by the Houston Business Journal every year since 1996. She has maintained a leading role in community service for the past 20 years. Since 1986, she has chaired 15 galas for worthwhile causes. Most recently she chaired the Houston Grand Opera Ball; Ann B. Norris Gala for Sickle Cell; and Mediterranean Magic, benefiting the University of Houston.

23. Lynn Wyatt is internationally recognized for her donation of time, energy, creativity and resources to cultural foundations, boards and events. She serves as vice chairman of the board of directors of the Houston Grand Opera, executive committee member of Houston Ballet and is a trustee for the Alley Theatre and Museum of Fine Arts. She is a founding trustee of the Princess Grace Foundation and has been named to the International Best Dressed List Hall of Fame. Wyatt is active with the Star of Hope Mission, which addresses the needs of the homeless, and recently chaired the Houston Grand Opera’s 50th anniversary Golden Jubilee gala and celebration.

24. Frank Young founded Theatre Under The Stars (TUTS) in 1968. (The name originated from its first venue, the Miller Outdoor Theatre in Hermann Park.) Since producing, directing and conducting TUTS first production, “Bells Are Ringing,” Young has guided the non-profit musical theater company to national acclaim through 37 seasons of more than 275 productions. The longest-running head of any major arts organization in Houston, Young now serves as TUTS’ president and CEO. He is the founder and first president of the National Alliance for Musical Theatre and created TUTS’ Tommy Tune Awards and the American Musical Theatre Awards.

25. Marvin Zindler is the KTRK-TV Channel 13 newsman who receives 100,000 letters a year, requesting help with medical problems, food stamps, Social Security, the IRS, housing or even immigration issues. His office answers each and every request. A part of Houston’s media industry for more than 50 years, his Action 13 work has helped thousands of people who otherwise would not have had a voice to have their needs heard. Zindler made local, national and international headlines when he closed the infamous “Chicken Ranch” in LaGrange, Texas, inspiring the hit Broadway musical, “Best Little Whorehouse in Texas.” At age 84, Zindler is still working every day and flying all over the world to help people. To our Leaders and Legends, we simply say, “Thank you – we are grateful to you for making this community a better place for us all.” H

For Love of the Game

At the time, Willis Wilson wasn’t piloting the Rice Owl basketball fortunes as the primary bench boss, but merely serving as the on-the-floor point guard with the ever-alert eye for the open teammate or the opportune jump shot. However, one game night his junior season, something else caught his eye. Rather, someone else.

“I remember sitting on the bench as a player and saying to myself, “That’s the kind of girl I want to marry,”” reminisces Willis with total recall of the initial glimpse of his future wife, Vicki, in the crowd that evening at Autry Court. “She had a lot of personality – just a presence.”

This team captain was accustomed to orchestrating the Owls offense, clock-working the orange, dishing and distributing – and he soon devised an off-the-court plan that would deliver nothing less than a large dose of destiny.

“My senior year (1982), it was homecoming, and I knew she was going to be at this party,” remembers Willis. “I told my friend, ‘I’m going to go find that girl.’ To this day, she doesn’t believe me that I went over there to find her.” Believe this. What Willis eventually found was a lifelong love – for the gal and, soon thereafter, the game. Now a near quarter-century later both remain at the bedrock of much more than merely his professional success.

Love and basketball
“It’s different, in the sense of what I thought my life would be,” Vicki says now, as she and Willis prepare for their 20th year of marriage. “I don’t mean that in a negative way. There are no regrets. My life is very fulfilling, but in a different way than if you had asked me when I was 17 or 18 years old what I thought it would be.” Vicki and Willis had only begun dating in 1982. His first taste of the marketplace following graduation – a stint in human resourses – was sour. Willis redirected his sights on law school and was preparing for the LSAT when he accepted a part-time coaching position at Strake Jesuit High School. Fate had hit absolutely, positively nothing but the bottom of the net.

“I was varsity assistant,” Willis says. “And fell in love with it. High school was the best experience I ever had in coaching. It was so rewarding – just the opportunity to work with kids who were so hungry and just soaked everything up.”

Not so rewarding were the initial financial stakes. This Will Rice College Fellow with a bachelor of arts degree in political science was soon selling women’s shoes at Foley’s to make the month-to-month ends meet – and also working at an auto parts warehouse as a staff of one. Willis soon returned to the Rice campus as the basketball program’s graduate assistant coach, in order to qualify for the monetary stipend. But Vicki could see then that law school was forever scratched from the to-do list.

“He found his passion,” Vicki says, “and that’s very important when you’re out there trying to figure out what you want to do with your life. He was making all those sacrifices just to find something he truly loved; and he was lucky because not everybody gets that.”

A different passion was consummated when the two were married in August 1986. Soon, they began Willis’s less than arduous climb up the coaching ladder: five years as a Rice assistant, one year away on the staff at Stanford. Then, he received the quick call in 1992 to return to his alma mater and a first-time opportunity to front a program. For the last 13 years, the head coaching chair at Rice has afforded the Wilsons with a luxury rarely found in the profession – stability that so many in the nomadic lifestyle never experience.

“I have friends that have moved every three or four years,” says Vicki. “We have friends we talk with all over the country – Oklahoma and Missouri and California – who have paraded from one coaching post to another. We were prepared to do the same. You just have to learn to trust – and trust your own instincts.”

Often times, the truest form of trust is that the home front is secure while hours and hours and weeks and days and months are invested in the win/loss livelihood of college hoops. Vicki soon discovered the routine that so many wives in the coaching world relate as routine: that Thanksgiving and Christmas are not occasions reserved for family, but team travel and tournaments; that spring breaks are not so much March getaways, but potential runs to March Madness and the basketball post season; that summers are not built for recreation, but recruiting windows.

“With Willis’ job, the family can’t always do the regular things that others take for granted,” says Vicki. “You can’t leave at drop of a hat on a Friday night. You can’t just meet friends for dinner or have them come over for a weekend cookout. It’s been long enough now that my family and friends are finally starting to understand that Willis isn’t going to be around.”

In Willis’s absence, Vicki wears enough hats to rival a Hedda Hopper review. Mother to daughter Kristin, now a junior at Clements High School; and seventh grade twins, Zachary and Keenan. Tutor. Advisor. Chauffeur. Cook. Household Financial Planner. Disciplinarian. Organizer Supreme.

“At first, you’re a little frustrated by it,” she says about performing solo duties due to the demands made by Willis’s profession. “Then you’re a little mad about it, but it all just has to get done, so you just do it. Just move on. And the kids just had to learn that everyone has to pitch in, and everyone has to learn to work together.”

“I’m often asked, ‘What does your wife do?'” says Willis. “It would be hard to detail and describe all the things that Vicki does. It’s hard for people to understand how productive she is every day. She probably accomplishes more than I do.”

Yet this fall, Vicki also found the time within the daily grind and demands to reach out to a family of nine from New Orleans and help them deal with the strains of evacuating in the wake of Hurricane Katrina and relocating to Houston.

“I am the glue,” admits Vicki. “Willis and I discuss things, certainly, but the household routine, the bills and the weekly organization all fall under my umbrella. I don’t know what you do to prepare for it. It’s such a learning experience. Different things come up, and you just have to deal with them.”

“Vicki is very driven,” says Willis. “When I really got into this coaching thing, I think it was very difficult for her to relate and see how she was going to be productive and successful. But, I think, over time she’s gotten accustomed to it.”

Being the wife of a coach is unsung and unheralded. There are no cameras demanding TV close-ups or day-to-day accounts of a job well done.

“In a lot of jobs, you go to your job; you perform your job; and you reap the rewards of that job,” says Willis. “When you’re very independent, it’s easy to say, ‘No, I can’t lie in the wings. I want to be productive, and I can be productive.’ That was the biggest challenge for Vicki, to discover that compromise.”

The challenges for Willis are immense: establishing and maintaining a program at Rice, given the strict academic rigors and the absence of a winning tradition. Yet, he stands as the school’s all-time winningest coach, having just tutored the school’s all-time leading scorer and rebounder. He has navigated the Owls to 60 wins the last three seasons, Rice’s most successful stretch since the FDR administration.

And behind the scenes is a surrogate mom to the program who is much more than mere cheerleader. “I’ll get many (of the players) who will just pick up the phone and call just to talk,” says Vicki, “just to discuss a problem or an issue they’re trying to sift through. It’s been very fulfilling watching so many come in as boys and leave as men.” Not unlike a certain guard from the early ’80s who cast an unknowing glance to the crowd and hit the biggest winner of his life. H

The Day Jeff Davis Came to Town

© Clifford Crouch, 2006

TO PARAPHRASE KARL MARX, a specter is haunting Houston – the specter of Jefferson Davis. All the powers of Houston have entered into an alliance to exorcise this specter of the old Confederacy: city officials, business leaders, nonprofit groups, real-estate developers.

The city of Houston has struck some observers as a place virtually without a history – at least not one worth preserving. In 2000, filmmaker Woody Allen, defending the integrity of his old Manhattan neighborhood, shrugged to a journalist: “I’m not against skyscrapers and development … But there’s got to be … places like Jane Street in the Village, or you have Houston, Texas.” In 2003, New York Times architecture critic Herbert Muschamp wrote disdainfully of post-9/11 designs for “glitzy, structurally inept towers” that “would look at home … [housing] energy companies in Space City U.S.A.”

For many people, living here or elsewhere, Texas history surely must be at a mysterious “someplace else:” The Alamo in San Antonio, say, or The Strand in Galveston, or perhaps Dealey Plaza in Dallas. But this city – founded by two ex-New Yorkers (brothers named Allen; no relation to Woody) in 1836 – blossomed long before the energy and aerospace industries ever existed. And while many modern-day Houstonians insist on dressing in faux-cowpoke style and ceremonially attending the rodeo at Reliant Stadium once a year, their hometown became a major hub of commerce not with horses and cattle, but through the confluence of the cotton trade and the railroad industry.

Nineteenth-century Houston – together with its elder sister, Galveston – was a brasher version of more venerable cities to the east, such as New Orleans, Jackson, Biloxi, Montgomery, Savannah and Charleston. (Trivia question: Which is the older city, Houston or Atlanta? Not the one you saw ablaze in “Gone with the Wind.”) Like those cities, Houston suffered epidemics of tropical, mosquito-borne diseases, such as yellow fever and malaria, and thrived by trade in crops, such as cotton and sugar cane. It was populated largely by Southerners moving westward with the frontier.

After Texas seceded from the Union in 1861, Houston became a significant military, economic and social outpost of the western Confederacy. For much of the Civil War, Houston served as army headquarters – under Maj. Gen. John Bankhead Magruder – for the entire CSA Military District of Texas, New Mexico and Arizona. And it continued to serve as a center of trade and of refuge long after other Southern cities to the east were embattled and captured.

Little exists in today’s Houston to mark this era. (In a typical example of civic boosterism, the antebellum mansion used by Gen. Magruder as his center of operations was torn down in 1927 to make way for an auto-repair shop.) A handful of period buildings somehow escaped demolition in the downtown area, now belatedly designated as the Main Street-Market Square Historic District. Another handful of wooden and brick houses has been rescued, restored and relocated to tiny Sam Houston Park, where they stand, shadowed by skyscrapers, under the protection of the Harris County Heritage Society. A few scant bronze and stone monuments commemorating the combatants are cloistered away in scattered pockets of urban greenery. Otherwise, the only enduring vestiges of the time are headstones in the city’s oldest cemeteries – the weatherworn grave markers of those veterans who came westward in the aftermath of the war.

An unknown number of veterans, in fact, were buried here without tombstones to mark their final resting place. Many Southerners who migrated to Houston (both during and after the war) to make a new start had been left utterly destitute by the northern policy, under Union generals Sherman and Sheridan, of “total warfare” – the intentional destruction by the military of civilian supplies, livestock and crops. To such refugees, struggling to survive and rebuild in new and uncertain circumstances, the purchase of a marble tombstone for a deceased family member would have been an impossible extravagance.

Over the closing years of the 19th century, untold thousands of Houstonians were buried in the old city cemetery. (Estimates have ranged from roughly 3,000 to 10,000.) The dead included black and white alike, civilian and military – from the North, as well as the South. (U.S. troops first occupied Houston on June 20, 1865, one day after their “Juneteenth” landing in Galveston. When the next yellow fever epidemic swept the populace, it did not distinguish between the blue and the gray.) Some graves were marked with wooden crosses or tablets that disintegrated within a few years. Many of the dead were buried with no markers at all. And so, by a circuitous route, came to exist the city’s last and most controversial Civil War relic: Jefferson Davis Hospital.

IN 1924, HOUSTON (in cooperation with Harris County) built its first hospital dedicated to the care of the poor. Historian Marguerite Johnston Barnes records that it was erected “at Elder and Girard streets, on land that had been given to Houston more than 80 years before by [city founders] Augustus and John K. Allen.” Unfortunately, as the public eventually discovered, that site also happened to include a portion of the old city cemetery, which had fallen into disuse and neglect by the start of the 20th century.

In the outcry that followed, construction continued (as it usually does in Houston), but something had to be done. The descendants and heirs of the Confederate dead – as well as aged survivors of the great conflict itself – were hardly the only parties outraged by the graveyard’s desecration, but they were the most fervent, tenacious and well organized. Mayor Oscar F. Holcombe ultimately presided over the placement of a small, hazily worded plaque on the hospital grounds, inscribed to unnamed “Confederate Soldiers.” (Today the memorial stone is virtually inaccessible to the public, as it is surrounded by what is now Houston Fire Department property.) The new hospital itself became the Jefferson Davis City-County Charity Hospital, named after the onetime president of the Confederacy: a man who was born in Kentucky, lived in Mississippi and governed from Virginia.

To modern sensibilities, the connection seems remote if not tenuous, and the tribute correspondingly quaint. It was hardly so to the people of the day. For decades after the fight had been lost, generations of parents across the South continued to name infant sons for their fallen heroes – giving America such distinguished 20th century figures as Robert E. Lee Saner, a prominent Texas lawyer; Jefferson Davis Sandefer, a university president; John Robert E. Lee, another college president (one who began life as a slave); and Jefferson Davis McKissack, creator of Houston’s unique “The Orange Show.” (Infant girls, meanwhile, tended to be christened with such evocative first names as Georgia, Carolina, Alabama, and even Louisiana and Texana.) The people of that time and place could still hear faintly the music that President Lincoln himself had evoked in 1860 as “the mystic chords of memory,” sounding “from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land.”

And perhaps the connection was not, after all, so tenuous as we might assume. For in the living memory of many of those men and women of 1924, Houston would have been an event entirely forgotten today, but extraordinary and indelible to them nearly 50 years afterward: the time Jeff Davis came to town.

IN 1875, JEFFERSON DAVIS was living, like many of his fellow citizens across the South, in reduced circumstances. Once a hero of the Mexican-American War, a U.S. senator and the Secretary of War under President Pierce, Davis had spent two years in a military prison after the Civil War’s end (although he was never convicted of any crimes). After his release, he had traveled extensively in Europe, then returned home in an attempt to make his way in a radically changed world. Up until 1878 – when, at the age of 70, he settled into a home in Biloxi called “Beauvior,” the gift of a devoted friend – Davis would struggle, with limited success, at various business enterprises such as insurance and international trade. On one such business trip, Davis found himself in New Orleans, and on Saturday, May 8, 1875, he sent a cable to a friend, conveying what seems to have been a nearly spur-of-the-moment decision: TO GOV. F.R. LUBBOCK:STARTED FOR HOUSTON, VIA GALVESTON, THIS MORNING.

Davis had been invited to speak at the sixth annual Texas State Fair, then held in Houston. (The current state fair, in Dallas, was instituted in 1886, after Houston had allowed its own event to lapse for several years.) His message was addressed to former Texas Governor Frank Lubbock, an old friend; and it seems to have set off frantic activity throughout the entire state, as the visit was apparently Davis’ first. (It appears – the historical records are sketchy – that he may have set foot on south Texas soil, at a camp called Fort Ringgold, during the Mexican-American War.)

The old man arrived via steamship early Sunday morning, to be met by Lubbock (a former Houstonian who had become Galveston’s tax assessor) and Galveston Mayor R.L. Fulton. He was immediately swarmed by friends, reported the Houston Daily Telegraph, and after church services and “a short drive” through the city, he left by train for Houston.

Arriving at the depot that evening, he was met by Houston Mayor I.C. Lord, a military unit called the Houston Light Guards and “a large and enthusiastic crowd of citizens.” Davis, “being fatigued from travel,” spoke only his brief thanks, to which the crowd responded with “a Texas cheer.” The Telegraph editorialized in that same day’s issue:
We do not welcome him now as a leader … but we hail him as a citizen of the United States … He comes to talk to the old and young, to say cheering words to those who, with him, have had to encounter defeat and misfortune … He comes … to look upon the faces and take the hands of many who fought through the war with bravery and are not ashamed of the record on every battle-field.

Davis was, in fact, to visit Houston for a week, staying at the homes of private citizens, receiving visitors and making a handful of public appearances. A reporter for the Galveston Daily News, however, noted with apparent disappointment: “He has courteously but firmly set his face against all interviews … [and] all effort at conversation on national or political topics was a waste of breath.”

Davis’ first formal address came at the opening of the State Fair on Tuesday afternoon, May 11. His horse-drawn carriage was the head of a stellar political procession that included the then governor of Texas, Richard Coke; U.S. Senator S.B. Maxey; at least one Congressman, John H. Reagan; three former Texas governors (Pease, Clark and Lubbock); the mayors of Houston, Galveston and Austin; and other prominent citizens. Attendance was in the thousands, wrote a “special correspondent” for the Dallas Weekly Herald, who described the speaker thus: “Mr. Davis’s hair is quite gray and beard almost white. He looks thin but is in good health …”

The Galveston Daily News set the larger scene vividly: His reception was boisterous as the roar of many waters, the music of the band was drowned in the screeching of the steam engines and the shouts of the multitude … The bands played, the people shouted, while the venerable man stood, with beaming eyes, and flushing at the fervency and ardor of his reception.

Allowed to speak at last, Davis thanked his audience for “the hospitality … shown to one who led you in your suffering, but on whom in his distress you were not prepared to turn your back.” Describing his presidency as being “but the instrument in your hands,” he added, “A people less noble than those of the south would have held me responsible for their misfortunes.”

After discussing free trade and immigration (which he supported as a boon to the entire state), Davis turned to the topic of Buffalo Bayou, then in the earliest stages of its gradual development into the Houston Ship Channel:
There is your Ship Channel, which will open up your city as a port of entry. Some say, or have said, that is chimerical. Well, your bayou is about as big as the river Clyde in Scotland. It was so small once that only little sloops could ascend it. But they dredged it, and improved it, until now … the largest and finest war ships are built and taken out on the Clyde.

Drawing to a close, Davis thanked Texans as those “who never turn their backs upon a friend … As long as I may live, and wherever I may live, I shall remember that “Texan” is another name for chivalric generosity and bravery, and my thoughts shall go out to you and endure as long as life lasts.”

The following day, Davis visited briefly on the fairgrounds with aged veterans of Texas’ 1836 war for national independence from Mexico. Referring to the old Lone Star flag, reported the Houston Daily Telegraph, he “exhorted his hearers to be now as loyal to the Stars and Stripes as they had been zealous and heroic in their defense of their first flag.” That same evening he met visitors from across the state at a reception, described by the Galveston Daily News as “an affair as representative as it was brilliant.” He ended Wednesday night by attending a public musical event called “The Old Folks Concert,” held at Houston’s Perkins Hall, a theater ?literally packed and jammed with the wealth and fashion of the city.”

Thursday, May 13, was “Military Day” at the state fair, and Davis attended an event at which two military companies, the Houston Light Guards and the Travis Rifles of Austin, competed for the prize of best-drilled company. After the Travis Rifles were awarded the prize, observed the “special correspondent” of the Dallas Weekly Herald, the combined body of troops, headed by the band of the tenth infantry, United States Army, and the Galveston artillery, passed in review before Mr. Davis, who stood bareheaded in the grand stand. The officers presented swords and the troops carried arms and dipped the colors as they passed. The drum major of the band of the tenth infantry, United States Army, also saluted as they passed. Mr. Davis returned the salute by bowing and raising his hand. He then addressed the troops, and was loudly cheered … In fact, the fair has been one grand ovation to the ex-president from beginning to end …

On his final day in Houston (Saturday, May 15), Davis was guest of honor at a banquet held at the mayor’s office, and attended by (among others) the city’s elected officials, judges and representatives of the local railroad and shipping interests, as well as the mayor of Galveston. Upon being toasted, the Galveston Daily News wrote, Davis responded:
Your attentions will remain forever in my memory. I claim no credit for all this, but to you the credit belongs. It is something new in the history of the world to find a people who will crowd around a fallen man to show him the respect you have extended to me … This kindness to me no one had a right to expect, except one of God’s chosen people …

The next toast, reported the newspaper, was: “To the United States.” Davis subsequently went on to make brief visits by train to Austin (Monday, May 17), and then Dallas (Wednesday, May 19). There he again referred repeatedly to his impressions of Houston – particularly to the deepening of Buffalo Bayou into a channel for large, commercial ships. When the whirlwind state tour had concluded, and Davis was en route back to his home (then in Memphis), the Houston Daily Telegraph exulted on Friday, May 21, 1875:
Everywhere in this State where Jefferson Davis has been, the people have, with one accord, paid a tribute … He was the especial guest of Houston … Jefferson Davis believes the war is over, and tells the boys who wore the gray, as well as those who wore the blue, to rally around the old flag, and forget the animosities of the past. During his visit here, Davis was made a verbal offer of the presidency of what is today Texas A&M University in College Station. Texas Governor Richard Coke formally asked him to accept the position in a letter dated June 14, 1875. It took him a month to decline the offer. Scholars suggest that Davis’ wife persuaded him to remain in the cradle of the deep South, far from the isolation of what was then a frontier state: Varina Davis looked “with dread,” she had written him during his visit, upon any future “Texas hegira.” Nonetheless, writes biographer William E. Dodd, the old man “always felt a peculiar attachment” for “the people of Texas.” Having completed his memoirs, Davis died in 1889 while in New Orleans, and now lies buried in Richmond, Virginia. JEFFERSON DAVIS HOSPITAL served Houston as a medical institution for some 15 years. It was succeeded by a second, larger hospital located on Allen Parkway (but bearing the same name), which has since been demolished. After years of serving various other functions – psychiatric hospital, drug rehabilitation center, records warehouse – “old Jeff Davis” was essentially abandoned by the Harris County Hospital District and sank into complete decay for some two decades.

In 2003, a consortium of non-profit groups began renovating the building with government and private funding and in partnership with the National Trust for Historic Preservation. These groups included a local organization called Avenue Community Development Corporation, or Avenue CDC, and another called Artspace Projects, Incorporated. Today the four-story, red brick edifice in Classical Revival style is an officially designated landmark, its historic hallways and terrazzo floors beautifully restored – only now housing loft-style apartments. It seems somehow appropriate that the site has changed, over the course of a century, from a place for burial, into a place for healing, and at last (after a period of rest) into a place for living. It is apparently not yet, however, a place for remembrance – even conciliatory remembrance. One web page belonging to Artspace even today refers to the building as the “Jefferson Davis Artist Lofts.” Upon its actual re-opening, however, that had been rehabilitated into the “Elder Street Artist Lofts.” The name of Jefferson Davis, a spokesman for Artspace informed the Houston Chronicle, was not retained because of its unfortunate historical associations. Artspace Projects, Incorporated, has its headquarters in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

THE SPECTER OF Jefferson Davis nonetheless continues to haunt Houston, after a fashion. The specter is actually a bronze statue, created by sculptor Louis Amateis in 1907, of a heroic winged angel bearing a sword and a palm leaf. The statue is titled “The Spirit of the Confederacy” – having not yet been renamed by a progressive-minded nonprofit organization – and the angel stands amid cypress trees (the traditional symbol of mourning) by a pond in Sam Houston Park, with his back turned to the Elder Street Artist Lofts and his face toward the relentless skyscrapers of downtown Houston. The statue does not bear any sort of didactic epigraph, but if it did I would suggest an oddly fitting one, not by Davis but by Abraham Lincoln.

“Fellow citizens,” Lincoln told us in 1862, “we cannot escape history.” H