Yesterday evening I was terribly saddened to learn of the death of Ron Stone. If you grew up in the Houston area in the 1970s and 1980s, you listened to him deliver the news on KPRC-channel 2. His voice personified so many things for me - childhood memories of all that is good, all that means "Texas". He had a folksy commentary, a friendly neighborly approach. For years I listened to him on the news and on his television show "The Eyes of Texas." When I was in college his crew did some taping at the Mount Zion Baptist Barbeque in Huntsville. This was one of those church BBQ that is just lip-smacking good, where the smell gets all into your clothes and when you come back from lunch people raise their heads, sniff, and say, "Awww, you went to Baptist BBQ and didn't invite me!" My friends on the LSC Program Council were there that day and appeared in some of the B-roll footage a few weeks later.
I met Ron Stone in the late 1990s when he came to the Rosenberg Library to do research. I remember being at my desk in the back of the room when I heard THAT VOICE. It was a great pleasure helping him that day and I still have his business card in my card file in my office.
Some time later, he endorsed our book. While the original letter is in the book files at GTHC, I can't express the feeling that welled up inside me when I read his words. "...a marvelous job of research...what was 'Isaac's Storm' is now Martin's and Alice's and Ida's storm. The book is proof once again that fact can be as readable as fiction." (TAMU press put this quote on the back of the hardcover edition.)
The last time I saw him was at the George R. Brown Convention Center. I can't remember the event, but Bryan and I were walking in from the parking garage, and he and his son - who also did research occasionally - were walking out. I recognized him instantly, but of course didn't say anything.
May God bless his family in their sadness and grief. He may never know how much he truly touched the people of Houston, of Texas. How much we loved to hear his voice. How much our love for Texas grew while watching The Eyes of Texas. (The link is supposed to take you to the show's theme song, "Travelin' Texas" by Shake Russell.) Then again, maybe he did.
