PANOLA COLLEGE TO CELEBRATE TEXAS CULTURE
2/25/08

On March 13, Panola College and the B.F. and Mary Payne Fund for the Preservation of Texas Culture will present, “An Evening with Tumbleweed Smith.” The program will begin at 7:00 pm, in the Q.M. Martin Auditorium. There will be no admission charge for this event.

On August 1, 1969, Tumbleweed Smith (AKA Bob Lewis) started the series, THE SOUND OF TEXAS. Tumbleweed started his series while employed as news director at KHEM radio in Big Spring. “We had just put a man on the moon,” says Tumbleweed, “and Texans had a lot to do with that undertaking. I wanted to delve into the Texas spirit, travel the State, interview all kinds of people and report my findings on a daily statewide radio program.”

He sent out 65 sample programs and one station, KZZN in Littlefield, signed up for the series. “Man, I thought that was great. I had a network. Two stations.” Within a month, five stations had signed up for the series, and Tumbleweed quit his job at the radio station. “I knew what I wanted to do and was going to do it.”

He drove 200,000 miles over Texas the next couple of years, dropping into radio stations, selling his program and getting interviews. He says the series doesn’t seem like work because he has so much fun doing it. He has never considered retirement. The series became the State’s most widely syndicated Texas feature program. Tumbleweed has taught broadcast production and speech at the University of Texas of the Permian Basin in Odessa since 1974. He also does a statewide syndicated newspaper column.

Tumbleweed does a lot of public speaking and uses the recorded voices of some of his most humorous interviews in his presentations. Texas Highways Magazine said Tumbleweed has probably recorded more Texas characters than anyone else. His collection of more than 10,000 programs, featuring the sounds and nuances of the Texas mystique, has been called the largest private collection of oral history in the US. The series will celebrate 40 years in 2009. The Texas House of Representatives has recognized Tumbleweed “for creating a priceless resource of Texas folk tales, lore and wisdom.”

This event has been made possible through the generosity of Mr. and Mrs. Foster Murphy who established the B.F. and Mary Payne Fund for the Preservation of Texas Culture. For additional information please call 903-693-2000.