A lawmaker, and a feeder of the poor
78
Waggoner Carr
1918-2004
Texas Tech grad Waggoner Carr climbed the political ladder from Lubbock County attorney to state representative, speaker of the Texas House and, ultimately, Texas attorney general.
In his two terms as speaker, Carr focused on water, tourism, industrial development, and the establishment of a code of ethics for legislators and lobbyists. He was involved in the prosecution of Billie Sol Estes and Jack Ruby.
Carr led the state’s investigation of the assassination of John F. Kennedy and participated in the work of the Warren Commission. Carr testified Lee Harvey Oswald was working as an undercover agent for the Federal Bureau of Investigation and was receiving $200 a month from September 1962 until his death in 1963. However, the Warren Commission believed J. Edgar Hoover, who denied Carr’s affirmations.
He later made unsuccessful runs for the U.S. Senate and Texas lieutenant governor.
In 1970, Texas politics was rocked by the Sharpstown stock-fraud scandal and Carr was indicted on charges of fraud, conspiracy and filing false reports to the SEC. Acquitted of all charges in 1974, he went on to publish a memoir, “Waggoner Carr, Not Guilty,” in 1977.
77
Carolyn Lanier
1937 - present
She didn’t set out to feed the world, but Carolyn Lanier came awfully close.
The founding director of the South Plains Food Bank oversaw the facility’s startling growth, culminating with the opening of the Breedlove Dehydration Plaint. Lanier’s dream has touched numerous lives as the Food Bank has carved out a national reputation.
At the food bank’s inception in 1983, the National Network of Food Banks barely allowed the Lubbock facility to join because they considered it too small.
Just 10 years later, SPFB was nationally recognized as the best food bank in the country, serving hundreds of charitable agencies throughout West Texas and eastern New Mexico. Years later, it was her vision for a global mission for the SPFB that led to the creation of Breedlove Dehydrated Foods. It was the world’s first charitable dehydrated food processing plant, sending food throughout the United States and the world.
She retired from the food bank in 1997, but remains active in numerous civic organizations, such as the League of Women Voters and YWCA.
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