Texas Day by Day

On this day in 1936, rock and roll singer Roy Orbison was born in Vernon, Texas. He grew up in Wink, and while attending Wink High School he formed a country music group called the Wink Westerners. Later, while attending North Texas State College, he transformed the Wink Westerners into his first rock and roll band, the Teen Kings. The group played throughout West Texas and recorded "Ooby Dooby," which brought him to the attention of the Sun record label in Memphis. Orbison rerecorded "Ooby Dooby" for Sun, and in 1956 it became his first chart hit. In 1959 Orbison joined the small Monument label in Nashville, for which he recorded a string of international hit records, including "Only the Lonely" (1960), "Blue Angel" (1960), "Running Scared" (1961), "Blue Bayou" (1963), "It's Over" (1964), and "Oh, Pretty Woman" (1964). He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987 and died the following year.

On this day in 1892, a group of Fort Worth women received from the state of Texas a charter establishing the Fort Worth Public Library Association, a part of whose stated purpose was "the accumulation of paintings and artistic work of every character for the enjoyment and cultivation of our people. " The resulting gallery was named the Art Gallery of the Carnegie Public Library in 1901, the Fort Worth Museum of Art in 1910, the Forth Worth Art Center in 1954, the Fort Worth Art Center Museum in 1971, and the Fort Worth Art Museum in 1974. The current name was adopted in 1987. The museum, located in the Fort Worth Cultural District, houses the collection of the Fort Worth Art Association. It maintains a well-defined relationship with its two neighbors, the Amon Carter Museum and the Kimbell Art Museum. The Carter focuses on the art of the American West and American art in general until 1940, the Kimbell covers non-Western art and European art up to 1920, and the Modern Art Museum concentrates on European art since 1920 and American art since 1940.

On this day in 1984, jazz pianist William M. (Red) Garland died in Dallas, where he had been born in 1923. Garland played the clarinet and alto saxophone as a child and learned piano from other servicemen at Fort Huachuca, Sierra Vista, Arizona. After leaving the army in 1944 he joined a band led by Henry (Buster) Smith, and by 1946 was playing in nightclubs in New York City. He was part of one of the most exciting periods of jazz evolution. Much of the 1950s jazz now regarded as classic was built upon Garland's characteristic block chords. He achieved his greatest fame as a member of Miles Davis's Quintet from 1955 to 1958. After leaving that group, Garland started his own trio. He returned to Dallas in 1965 because of his mother's illness and made few public appearances until the late 1970s, when he performed several times in New York and cut a new album. His last performance was at the Park Central Jazz Festival in Dallas in 1981.