Daily Texan veteran Gaylon Finklea Hecker and co-author Marianne Odom have been honored with the Yellow Rose of Texas Award for their contribution to the pereservation of Texas history.
The award was presented at the Capitol by state Reps. Donna Howard and Steve Allison.
Finklea Hecker and Odom are co-authors of Growing Up in the Lone Star State: Notable Texans Remember Their Childhoods, a series of interviews with 47 notable Texans between 1981 and 2018.
Their efforts were awarded in the category of significant contribution to the preservation of Texas history.
Gaylon Finklea Hecker and journalist and former UT journalism professor Griff Singer
Published by the Briscoe Center for American History at UT is publisher (Tower Press), UT Press is the distributor. The book is already in its second printing.
The Yellow Rose of Texas award is given only through the Office of the Governor to recognize women for their significant contributions to their communities and to Texas in the preservation of our history, the accomplishments of our present, and the building of our future.
Governor Allan Shivers before his term ended in 1957, inaugurated the gubernatorial “Yellow Rose of Texas Award” given in honor of Texas women who have demonstrated outstanding volunteer and community service.
Finklea Hecker and Marianne Odom began the interviews for this book in 1981 and devoted a professional lifetime to collecting the memories of accomplished Texans to determine what, if anything, about growing up in the Lone Star State prepared them for success.
The resulting forty-seven oral history interviews begin with tales from the early 1900s, when Texas was an agrarian state, and continue through the growth of major cities and the country’s race to the moon. Interviewees recalled life in former slave colonies; on gigantic ranches, tiny farms, and sharecropper fields; and in one-horse towns and big-city neighborhoods, with relatable stories as diverse as the state’s geography.
The oldest interviewees witnessed women earning the right to vote and weathered the Great Depression. Many remembered two world wars, while others recalled the Texas City explosion of 1947 and the tornado that devastated Waco in 1953. They witnessed the advent of television and the nightly news, which helped many come to terms with the assassination of a president that took place too close to home.
Sharing a good time at the Capitol are, L to R, Gaylon Finklea Hecker, S. Griffin Singer, and state Rep. Donna Howard, Austin, who bestowed the governor’s highest award for Texas women, the Yellow Rose of Texas, to Gaylon on June 30. Photo by Vaughn Arledge
S. Griffin Singer visits with S.C. “Sam” Gwynne, runner-up to the Pulitzer Prize and foreword writer for “Growing Up in the Lone Star State,” and Gaylon at her Yellow Rose of Texas award ceremony. Photo by Vaughn Aldredge
Gathered at the state Capitol to honor co-authors Gaylon Finklea Hecker and Marianne Odom with the Yellow Rose of Texas award are, L to R, former state Rep. Elliott Naishtat, Austin, state Rep. Donna Howard, Austin, the two honorees, and state Rep. Steve Allison, San Antonio. Photo by Marvin Hecker
L to R: Gaylon Finklea Hecker is congratulated by S.C. “Sam” Gwynne, runner-up to the Pulitzer Prize and foreword writer for “Growing Up in the Lone Star State”; Katie Gwynne; and Erin Purdy, communication director for the Briscoe Center for American History. Photo by Vaughn Aldredge