February 16, 2016 - The M.P. Baker Library of Panola College will host The Life and Times of Sam Houston with special speaker Bill O’Neal on Tuesday, March 1, 2016 in the Murphy-Payne Community Rooms of the Library. This lecture will accompany the premiere book release of Mr. O’Neal’s latest book, Sam Houston, A Study in Leadership. Sam Houston is a Texas icon. He served as general of the spectacular victory at San Jacinto, he was a signer of the Texas Declaration of Independence, and he served as governor of Texas and Tennessee. Houston lived a turbulent and controversial life filled with drama, conflict, and superlative achievements. This lunchbox lecture is the inaugural event that begins two weeks of programs and signings by O’Neal across the Lone Star State. Following the lecture books will be available for the public to purchase and have signed.
Bill O’Neal is serving his second term as State Historian of Texas. He is the author of more than 40 books, as well as 300 articles and book reviews. Last September, at the West Texas Book Festival in Abilene, Bill was presented the A.C. Greene Distinguished Author Award of 2015. In 2012 Bill received the Lifetime Achievement Award of the Wild West History Association, and in 2007 he was named True West Magazine’s Best Living Nonfiction Writer.
Mr. O’Neal has appeared on TV documentaries on TBS, The History Channel, The Learning Channel, CMT, A&E, and currently on the American Heroes Channel series “Gunslingers.” During a long career at Panola College, Bill’s most prestigious teaching award was a Piper Professorship, presented in 2000. In 2013 Panola’s new dormitory was named Bill O’Neal Hall. That same year Bill was awarded an honorary Doctor of Letters degree at his alma mater, Texas A&M University at Commerce.
Doors will open at noon, and the lecture will begin at 12:15PM. The community is welcome to this free event, and lunch will be served for the first 50 attendees to arrive. In honor of Sam Houston’s birthday and Texas Independence Day both being celebrated on March 2nd, lunch will be chili, cornbread, and birthday cake.
In conjunction with the lecture a gallery exhibit by the same title will be on display in the Fay Allison Gallery from March 1st – April 15th. This photo exhibit is on loan from Bill and Karon O’Neal from their personal collection. It creates a timeline of the places significant to Sam Houston throughout his life. The exhibit is also free to the community. For additional information please call 903-693-2091 or email cferguson@panola.edu.
