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255 CONTRIBUTORS’ VITAS Jim H. Ainsworth authored three business books and coauthored a fourth (all published by John Wiley & Sons) before leaving the profession that had chosen him. At fifty-three, he planned to pursue the abandoned dreams of his childhood—to be a cowboy and an author. He made a trip by covered wagon and horseback across Texas to retrace the journey his ancestors had made two generations earlier, and wrote Biscuits Across the Brazos to chronicle the trip. He traveled the team roping circuit as an amateur and worked roundups on big ranches. Working beside real cowboys sent him back to writing. Using lessons he learned from more than 10,000 client interviews over thirty years and memories from his rural Texas roots, In the Rivers’ Flow, his first novel, was published in 2003. Rivers Crossing followed in 2005. Rivers Ebb, a Writers League of Texas contest finalist and Writers Digest International Book Competition finalist, is the third novel in his Follow the Rivers trilogy. Carolyn Arrington willfully admits to being a songwriter, poet, substitute school teacher, mother (grandmother), and wife. She enjoys playing all the stringed instruments, as well as others: guitar, banjo, mandolin, fiddle, mountain dulcimer, hammer dulcimer, dobro, mouth bow, penny whistle, saxophone, harmonica, and probably some others she just can’t think of right now. Her musical preference is Old Timey music, bluegrass, and folk, but she also plays alto sax in the local community band. She writes a lot of songs about other historical events and whatever else comes into lyrical play. She says she is an ethnohistoricalmusicologist. Mary Margaret Dougherty Campbell holds a B.A. and an M.A. in English from Texas Tech University and an M.S. in Educational Administration from Texas A&M University, Corpus Christi. She has published articles in English in Texas, South Texas Traveler, 256 Contributors’ Vitas South Texas Catholic, and Cowboy Magazine, as well as The Family Saga and Folklore: In All of Us, In All We Do. Her poems have appeared in English in Texas, American Cowboy, Rope Burns, and three volumes of the Texas Poetry Calendar. In November 2008, she will become the Executive Director of George West Storyfest. Currently, she serves TFS as a Director. Margaret A. Cox of Austin grew up in Eden, Texas, fourth generation of 1886 Concho County pioneers. She maintained close ties to Eden while working for thirty-five years with the University of Texas library. Besides the Texas Folklore Society, Margaret’s memberships include the Texas State Historical Association and the Society for Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators. She’s presently busy compiling dozens of untold stories. Jennifer O. Curtis moved to Texas in 1979 with her husband and six children. She has taught English at San Jacinto College in Houston. She enjoys writing, history and storytelling, and has told stories for local schools and groups for many years. She is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Composition and TESOL at Indiana University of Pennsylvania. Kenneth W. Davis, a professor emeritus of English at Texas Tech University, is a past-President of the Texas Folklore Society and of the Texas/Southwest Popular Culture Association, the American Studies Association of Texas, and of the West Texas Historical Association, of which he was named Honorary Life Member in 2007. He has also been Sheriff of the Lubbock Corral of Westerners International, and is currently a member of the Lubbock Country Historical Commission. He remains interested in traditional oral narratives in Texas and the Southwest. Robert J. (Jack) Duncan was born in Pilot Point on Pearl Harbor Day 1941, the seventh grandchild on each side of his family. He grew up in McKinney and has lived there most of his life. Jack is a Contributors’ Vitas 257 writer/editor/researcher for Retractable Technologies, Inc., a manufacturer of safety needle medical devices in Little Elm. He is also a widely published freelance writer, in both scholarly and popular periodicals, including Reader’s Digest. He has written several hundred newspaper and magazine articles over the past quarter century. He helped write and edit the screenplay for a major motion picture, Lethal Alliance, soon to be filmed in Shreveport. Author Bill Porterfield calls him “a root hog who digs up the damnedest truffles!” Jack has taught at Collin County Community College and Grayson County College, and has worked for Richland College as well as Collin. As a lifelong learner, he continues to take graduate courses in a variety of disciplines. Jack was President of the...

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