About the Sam Houston Film – SAM HOUSTON PROJECT

The subject matter experts assembled here are the finest that have ever been brought together to discuss Sam Houston. Biographers, professors, authors, descendants, Native Americans, and governmental leaders who have held offices once occupied by Houston bring a variety of points of view to help understand this monumental figure of history.

Randolph B. Campbell

Ph.D., University of Virginia
Regents Professor
Department of History, University of North Texas
President, Texas State Historical Association, 1992-1994
Chief Historian, Texas State Historical Association, 2008-2017

Dr. Mike Campbell was the Chief Historian and past president of the Texas State Historical Association and Editor of the Southwestern Historical Quarterly. He authored a number of books including Gone to Texas: A History of the Lone Star State and An Empire for Slavery: The Peculiar Institution in Texas. Dr. Campbell also wrote a short biography of Sam Houston titled, Sam Houston and the American Southwest and had numerous scholarly articles to his credit. His many honors include the "Favorite Professor" award from the UNT Student Activities Union, the "Honor Professor" award from the UNT Student Government Association, and Phi Beta Kappa.

Jesus Francisco de la Teja

Ph.D., University of Texas at Austin
State Historian of Texas, 2007-2009
Chairman, Department of History
Texas State University

Dr. Frank de la Teja was appointed by Texas Governor Rick Perry to be the State Historian of Texas in February of 2007. Dr. de la Teja is a professor and chair of the Department of History at Texas State University in San Marcos. He previously served as Director of Archives and Records at the Texas General Land Office and assisted novelist James A. Michener with research. He is the editor of A Revolution Remembered: The Memoirs and Selected Correspondence of Juan N. Seguin and the author of a catalog of books, journal and reference articles. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin.

Gregg Cantrell

Ph.D., Texas A&M University
Erma and Ralph Lowe Chair in Texas History
Texas Christian University

Dr. Gregg Cantrell taught at Sam Houston State University, Hardin-Simmons University, and the University of North Texas before joining the History Department faculty at TCU. He is the biographer of Stephen F. Austin and has written and edited a number of other books, including: The History of Texas; Lone Star Pasts: Memory and History in Texas; and Feeding the Wolf: John B. Rayner and the Politics of Race, 1850-1918. Dr. Cantrell is a Member of the Board of the Texas State Historical Association and a Member of the TCU Press Editorial Advisory Board.

Patrick Nolan

Ph.D., University of Minnesota
Director, Sam Houston Memorial Museum, 1992-2011
Huntsville, TX

Dr. Pat Nolan was the Director of the Sam Houston Memorial Museum for 19 years and served on the Board of Directors of the Texas Council of Humanities. Established by the state in 1972 in partnership with the National Endowment for the Humanities, the 21-member TCH board is charged with creating opportunities that "engage the people of Texas in critical reflection of their individual and collective lives." Prior to coming to Texas, Dr. Nolan taught history at the University of Delaware and was a professor of history at Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio, where he served as the Director of the Center for the History of Early Flight and as Head of Archives and Special Collections. Among his many published works are two photographic histories of the Wright brothers' aviation exploits.

Sam Houston, IV

Great-Grandson of General Houston

Mr. Houston was the grandson of Sam and Margaret Houston's youngest child, Temple Lea Houston. He was an active member of the Sons of the Republic of Texas and a popular speaker on Texas History who dedicated a significant amount of his time toward educational efforts in public schools.

Madge Roberts

Great-great granddaughter of General Houston

Ms. Madge Roberts authored The Star of Destiny and was the editor of The Personal Correspondence of Sam Houston, a four-volume set of General Houston's letters and papers. She was active in the Daughters of the Republic of Texas and an authority on the domestic life of Sam and Margaret Lea Houston.

Elizabeth Crook

Author, The Raven's Bride

Ms. Crook is a graduate of Rice University and the author of three novels, The Raven's Bride, Promised Lands, and The Night Journal. Her first novel, The Raven's Bride, is a work of historical fiction about Sam Houston's first marriage to Eliza Allen in Tennessee. She has written for periodicals such as Texas Monthly and The Southwestern Historical Quarterly and served on the council of the Texas Institute of Letters. She is a member of Western Writers of America as well as The Texas Philosophical Society.

Rick Perry

47th Governor of Texas

Gov. Perry is a fifth-generation Texan who grew up on a tenant farm along the rolling hills of West Texas. He achieved the rank of Eagle Scout and served four and a half years as a C-130 pilot in the U.S. Air Force after graduating from Texas A&M University with a degree in Animal Science. He has served as a state representative, commissioner of agriculture, lieutenant governor, and now, first sworn in on December 21, 2000, is Texas' longest serving governor. He has a strong personal interest in Texas History.

Ann Richards

45th Governor of Texas

A Distinguished Alumnus of Baylor University, Gov. Richards earned a teaching certificate from the University of Texas and taught government in junior high school before seeking elected office. She rose from Travis County Commissioner to State Treasurer of Texas and finally was elected as Governor in 1991. Gov. Richards was instrumental in building the film industry in Texas and strongly believed that a thorough knowledge of history is critical to understanding who we are as a people and for charting our direction into the future. She was diagnosed with esophageal cancer four months after her interview for this documentary and passed away on September 13, 2006.

Lamar Alexander

U.S. Senator from Tennessee
45th Governor of Tennessee

A native of Sam Houston's hometown of Maryville, Tennessee, Senator Alexander grew up surrounded by the landscape that shaped Sam Houston's life. He married the former Leslee "Honey" Buhler from Victoria, TX, which was an important town in early Texas history. His knowledge of Sam Houston is well known and he considers Houston to be his favorite figure from American history. Senator Alexander graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Vanderbilt University in 1962 and from the New York University School of Law in 1965. After serving as the Governor of Tennessee Alexander became the president of the University of Tennessee and then served as the U.S. Secretary of Education under George H.W. Bush. He made two unsuccessful runs for President of the United States and was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2002.

John Cornyn

15th Holder of Sam Houston's Senate Seat

Senator Cornyn is a graduate of St. Mary's School of Law in San Antonio, TX where upon graduation he joined the firm of Groce, Locke & Hebdon. Elected as a state district judge at age thirty-two he served six years before rising to the Texas Supreme Court in 1990. He earned a Masters of Law from the University of Virginia in 1995 and was elected Texas Attorney General in 1997. In 2001 Mr. Cornyn was presented with the James Madison Award by the Freedom of Information Foundation of Texas for his efforts to promote open government, and he was elected to the United States Senate on November 5, 2002.

Kay Bailey Hutchison

U.S. Senator from Texas, 1993-2023
Direct Descendent of Charles S. Taylor

Senator Hutchison grew up in La Marque, TX and graduated from the University of Texas and UT Law School. She was twice elected to the Texas House of Representatives and in 1990 was elected as Texas State Treasurer. In 1993 she was elected to be the first and only woman to represent Texas in the U.S. Senate. Thomas J. Rusk of Nacogdoches was the first Texan to hold the seat she currently occupies when he came to the Senate with Sam Houston in 1846. Senator Hutchison's great-great grandfather, Charles S. Taylor, was friends with both Rusk and Houston and signed the Texas Declaration of Independence. He also funneled money to the Texas Army to purchase weapons during the Texas Revolution and his first four children died during the rigors of the Runaway Scrape. Senator Hutchison is the author of three books, Nine and Counting: The Women of the Senate; American Heroines: The Spirited Women Who Shaped our Country; and in October 2007 released her best seller, Leading Ladies: American Trailblazers. She lives in Dallas with her husband, Ray, and their two children, Bailey and Houston.

Gene Pipes

Curator of Education, 2000-2009
Sam Houston Memorial Museum

Mr. Pipes graduated from Sam Houston State University in 1967 and taught school for seven years in the Brazosport Independent School District. Upon returning to Huntsville he worked as an administrator for the city, ultimately serving as Huntsville's city manager for nineteen years. Passionate about Texas History, he has been the Curator of Education for the Sam Houston Memorial Museum in Huntsville since the year 2000 and oversees its educational outreach to some 80,000 visitors each year. He portrays Huntsville's founder, Pleasant Gray, in the popular play Gone To Texas.

Clayton Sylestine

Chief of the Alabama-Coushatta Tribe, 1995-2013

A retired Forest Service technician, Chief Clayton Marion Sylestine was inaugurated as the Chief of the Alabama-Coushatta Tribe on January 1, 1995. In the early 1800s the Alabama Indians who relocated to Texas supported Texas Independence, and in gratitude Governor Sam Houston recommended that Texas purchase land for the tribe when their existing land was overtaken by settlers. They merged with the Coushatta to become the present day Alabama-Coushatta Tribe of Texas and live on over 4,600 acres of beautiful forest land in eastern Polk County, Texas.

James L. Haley

Biographer of Sam Houston

Mr. James Haley is an independent scholar living in Austin, TX. He is the author of several books, including The Buffalo War: The History of the Red River Indian Uprising of 1874; Apaches: A History and Culture Portrait; and most recently, a history of Texas titled Passionate Nation. He is the winner of numerous awards including the T.R. Fehrenbach Book Award from the Texas Historical Commission, the Coral Horton Tullis Memorial Prize from the Texas State Historical Association, and the Spur Award for Biography from the Western Writers of America.