In 1999 Bryan Woolley of The Dallas Morning News set out to 
record the stories of ordinary people in North Texas, to tell about 
their lives, especially their past, and how they became who they 
became. These stories were published in a column titled “Where I 
Come From,” which ran in the Sunday newspaper from May 1999 
to December 2000, to great reader acclaim. Now, for the first time 
in book form, the best of those stories is gathered herein with 
photos of each storyteller.

    Among the people featured are a refugee who traveled a long 
road to Texas after the fall of Saigon; a ballet teacher who as a 
teenager joined the French Resistance against the Nazis; a rabbi 
who is also a country-music disc jockey; a survivor of Auschwitz; a 
woman who spends her life saving abandoned dogs; a South 
Dallas blues singer; a one-man band from Denton; and a shoe 
salesman who is also a minister. Each story is told in the teller’s 
words, making this collection a valuable resource for oral historians 
as well as for all those who enjoy a good story.

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BRYAN WOOLLEY is a native Texan and a senior writer on the 
staff of The Dallas Morning News. Among his many books are Sam 
Bass (Spur Award winner), We Be Here When the Morning Comes 
(W. D. Weatherford Award winner), Mythic Texas, and Final 
Destinations (UNT Press). He lives in Dallas.


Number Two: A. C. Greene Series