Others shaped Lubbock's future before Rushing's emergence as a leader, but his vision for the city's growth shaped development in the boom years of the 1950s and '60s.
Business friends knew him as "dub, " a shrewd investor with an eye for valuable land.
Rushing, a Plainview native and Texas Tech graduate, sold a five-stool burger stand, where he strung tennis rackets to open Varsity Bookstore in 1934.
He created the city's first shopping center at Avenue N and 19th Street. Rogers and Max Tidmore operated Tidmore Construction Co. and were heavily involved in commercial building projects, the last of which was Monterey Shopping Center. He also built and developed Briercroft Center, the Koko Inn and Koko Korner. He started Briercroft Savings and Loan and served as its chairman and was chairman of the board of Security National Bank.
Rushing served on the University Medical Center board of directors. He was an avid tennis player and sometimes coach. He played until he was 91, quitting only because he was concerned that if he was hurt he couldn't care for his wife. A municipal tennis complex bears his name.
His support for Tech ran into the millions, said Russ Gibbs, the system's associate vice chancellor for institutional advancement at the time of Rushing's death.
21
Mac Davis
1942-present
Successful singer, songwriter, television actor, Broadway performer and, recently, host of Lubbock's key centennial events.
Davis left Lubbock in 1958 searching for the stardom.
He broke into the business side of music in 1962 with a Georgia recording company. He moved to
Los Angeles in 1967, where he began writing his own songs and caught the attention of major artists.
In 1968, Elvis Presley recorded "A Little Less Conversation." The King requested more. Davis penned "Memories" and "In the Ghetto" for Presley. In 1970, he released his first chart single, "Whoever Finds This, I Love You."
Davis wrote and recorded, "Stop and Smell the Roses, " "Watching Scotty Grow, " "One Hell of a Woman, " "Hooked on Music, " "My Bestest Friend," "It's Hard to Be Humble" and "I Believe In Music."
He was the first Favorite Male Singer named at the People's Choice Awards. The Academy of Country Music named him Entertainer of the Year.
His film career was brief, but he earned rave reviews for his performance as quarterback Seth Mathews in "North Dallas Forty."
Davis starred in the Broadway production of "Will Rogers' Follies." He stayed with the show in New York for a full year and then toured with it for an additional 18 months.
From 1974 to 1976, he hosted a variety show called "The Mac Davis Show" on NBC.
Davis ruffled a few hometown feathers when he released "Texas In My Rear View Mirror" whose opening lines included "Happiness is Lubbock, Texas, in my rear view mirror." The song was the lament of an older man longing for the way things were during his youth. Those who complained overlooked the closing refrain which promised, "And when I die, you can bury me in Lubbock, Texas, in my jeans."
In 2004, his hometown honored him by naming a street for him. Mac Davis Lane begins in the Overton neighborhood where Davis played as a child, where he once spotted Buddy Holly driving a new convertible and promised himself, "If Buddy Holly can make it, I can, too."
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