Southwestern Collection

We had a nice letter recently from Dormán and Ruth Carolyn Winfrey, expressing their regret that they were unable to come to our Corpus meeting . We too wish they could have been there, especially for the honoring of the Fellows. Dormán was made a Fellow in ? g6 1 , and is currently our longest-tenured Fellow. As those ofyou who have read At theHeart ofTexas know, Dormán (president oftheTSHAin ig7i-ig72) has been appearing in the Collection pages of the Quarterly since ig43, when he won theJunior Historian Writing Contest . Now, 65 years later, we have another Dormán H. Winfrey footprint. On February 8, 2008, Dormán was recognized by the Texas State Library and Archives Commission for his contributions to the cultural heritage of Texas, and on February 1 2 the Festival-Institute at Round Top held a library benefit and concert in his honor. Winfrey has served on the institute's Board ofDirectors since ig75, and his personal collection is housed at the institute's Fine Arts and Humanities Library. Among the items from die Winfrey Library and Collections on display during the benefit were many signed first editions by Walter Prescott Webb andJ. Frank Dobie. The collection also has the traveling chestWebb took to England when he attended Cambridge and Webb's beloved set of dominos. Dormán Winfrey worked for the TSHA from 1 g46, when he returned from the war, to ig58, when he was appointed State Archivist of Texas, and a few years later began his twenty-five-year tenure as director and librarian of the Texas State Library. During his time with the Association, he was involved with the Quarterly, theJunior Historians, and the original Handbook ofTexas. Dormán and Ruth Carolyn have remained involved with the TSHA throughout the decades, and especially with ourJunior Historian program, which first peaked Dormán's interest in history and in the TSHA all those many years ago. We are so pleased at his recent recognition, and proud to have him appear in our pages again. Photograph: Dormán Winfrey honored by the Festival-Institute at Round Top, February 12, 2008. Sitting (left to right): Edward Seidenberg, assistant State Librarian; Dormán and Ruth Carolyn Winfrey. Standing, Lamar Lentz, director ofLibrary and Museum Collections at the Festival-Institute;James Dick, founder and artistic director at the Festival-Institute; and Ronald Seeliger, retired librarian, University ofTexas at Austin. Southwestern CoiUcäon 430Southwestern Historical QuarterlyApril Frances Brannen Vick, Association president for 20o8-2oog, is a Life Member of the TSHA, and has served on our Board of Directors since April of 2004. Fran has long been involved in the Texas history and literary communities and active with universities, scholarly organizations and presses around the state. She is currendy president of the Texas Institute of Letters, a Fellow of the Texas Folklore Society, and a member of the Philosophical Society of Texas. She serves on the development board of the University of Texas and on its College of Liberal Arts advisory board, on the advisory board for Texas A&M University Press, and on the president's council at the UniFrances Brannen Vick, TSHA president, versity of NoruS Texas. 2008-2009.Fran is the coauthor (with Jane Clements Monday) of Petra 's Legacy: The South Texas Ranching Empire of Petra Vela and Mifflin Kenedy (Texas A&M University Press), winner of our Coral Horton Tullis Memorial Prize for the best book on Texas in 2007, and is the author of Literary Dallas, due out from TCU Press this fall. She is the retired founder of ?-Heart Press and the University of North Texas Press. In her most recent work for the TSHA, Fran served as chair of the proposals committee that recommended the University of North Texas as our new host institution and also chairs the committee that is in the process of negotiating our contract with UNT. Below are Fran's thoughts about the Association as she enters her presidential year. My parents were both public-school history teachers at one time or another. My mother ended her career teaching Texas history at Lake Jackson Junior High School. My father was an administrator in the district , but history was...