Amarillo

Chase Tower is a 374-foot, 31-story building located in Amarillo, Texas, United States. Formerly known as SPS Tower and Bank One Center, it is the... tallest building in Amarillo and the West Texas region. The building used to be the home of the Amarillo branch of American National Bank. The building also housed the offices of the city's electric power service provider, Southwestern Public Service . On July 2006, the Chase logo was installed on the Chase Tower. In October 2008, the West Texas A&M University letters was install on the Chase tower as part of the agreement to have university classes there. Aaron Emerson, took over the leasing of the Chase Tower in early 2006. Since then Emerson has successfully increased the occupancy of the Chase Tower from 60 percent to roughly 96 percent and still climbing. Though the tower was originally built in 1971, it was refurbished in 2007; several upgrades are still underway.
more

John David Souther is an American musician, singer-songwriter, and actor. He has written and co-written numerous hits songs recorded by artists such... as Linda Ronstadt and Glenn Frey of the Eagles. Souther was born in Detroit, Michigan, and raised in Amarillo, Texas. As a musician and songwriter, he was greatly influenced in his formative years by fellow Texas rock and roll icon, Roy Orbison. After moving to Los Angeles, California, in the late 1960s, he met Detroit musician and songwriter, Glenn Frey, and the two became roommates and musical collaborators; their downstairs neighbor was Jackson Browne with whom both Souther and Frey would collaborate on numerous projects. Shortly after meeting, Souther and Frey formed a folk duo called Longbranch Pennywhistle. Their lone album, released in 1970 on Jimmy Bowen's Amos Records, featured significant contributions from guitarists James Burton and Ry Cooder, fiddler Doug Kershaw, drummer Jim Gordon, pianist Larry Knechtel and bassist Joe Osborn.
more

Evan Loyd Tanner was an American professional mixed martial arts fighter. He was a former UFC Middleweight and USWF Heavyweight champion with a... professional record of 32 wins and 8 losses. He was also the first American to win the Pancrase Neo-Blood tournament in Tokyo, Japan. Tanner won his first championship when he defeated Heath Herring at USWF 7, and went on to successfully defend that title five times. Tanner then won the UFC Middleweight title at UFC 51, stopping David Terrell with strikes in the first round. Tanner held notable wins over Phil Baroni, David Terrell, Robbie Lawler, Heath Herring, Paul Buentello, Elvis Sinosic, Ikuhisa Minowa and Travis Fulton. Tanner was born in Amarillo, Texas and graduated from Caprock High School in 1989 where he won the Texas State Championships in wrestling as a junior and senior despite only entering the sport in his sophomore year of high school. Tanner attended college but dropped out because he felt that he was not receiving a "real world" education that he was searching for.
more

Carolyn Sue Jones was an American actress. Jones began her film career in the early 1950s, and by the end of the decade had achieved recognition... with a nomination for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for The Bachelor Party and a Golden Globe Award as one of the most promising actresses of 1959. Her film career continued for a few years, and in 1964 she began playing the role of Morticia Addams in the television series The Addams Family, receiving a Golden Globe Award nomination for her work. Jones was born in Amarillo, Texas, the daughter of Julius Alfred and Cloe Jeanette Jones. She had some Native American ancestry. In 1934 her father abandoned the family and her mother moved herself and her two children to her parents' home in Amarillo. Carolyn suffered from severe asthma that often restricted her from childhood activities. She was an avid reader, and loved Hollywood magazines. When her condition permitted she loved to go to the movies. After her graduation, her grandfather agreed to pay her tuition to the Pasadena Playhouse. Therefore, she moved to California in 1947 to pursue her acting career.
more

Cyd Charisse was an American actress and dancer. After recovering from polio as a child, and studying ballet, Charisse entered films in the 1940s.... Her roles usually focused on her abilities as a dancer, and she was paired with Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly; her films include Singin' in the Rain , The Band Wagon and Silk Stockings . She stopped dancing in films in the late 1950s, but continued acting in film and television, and in 1992 made her Broadway debut. In her later years, she discussed the history of the Hollywood musical in documentaries, and participated in That's Entertainment! III in 1994. She was awarded the National Medal of the Arts and Humanities in 2006. Charisse was born as Tula Ellice Finklea in Amarillo, Texas, the daughter of Lela and Ernest Enos Finklea, Sr., who was a jeweler. Her nickname "Sid" was taken from a sibling trying to say "Sis". She was a sickly girl who started dancing lessons at six to build up her strength after a bout with polio.
more

Ann Lee Doran was an American character actress. Born in Amarillo, Texas, Doran began acting at the age of four. She appeared in hundreds of silent... films under assumed names to keep her father's family from finding out about her work. Rarely in a featured role and James Dean's dominating mother in Rebel Without a Cause , Doran appeared in more than 500 motion pictures and 1,000 episodes of television shows, including the American Civil War drama Gray Ghost. Doran worked as a stand-in, then bit player, then incidental supporting player. By 1938 she was under contract to Columbia Pictures, where the company policy was to use the members of its stock company as often as possible. Thus, Doran appears in Columbia's serials , short subjects , B features , and major feature films. She became a favorite of Columbia director Frank Capra and appears in many of his productions.
more

George Saunders is a New York Times bestselling American writer of short stories, essays, novellas and children's books. His writing has appeared in... The New Yorker, Harper's, McSweeney's and GQ, among other publications. He also contributed a weekly column, American Psyche, to the weekend magazine of The Guardian’s Saturday edition until October, 2008. A professor at Syracuse University, Saunders won the National Magazine Award for fiction in 1994, 1996, 2000, and 2004, and second prize in the O. Henry Awards in 1997. His first story collection, CivilWarLand in Bad Decline, was a finalist for the 1996 PEN/Hemingway Award. In 2006 Saunders received a MacArthur Fellowship. In 2007 he won the World Fantasy Award for his short story "CommComm". His story collection In Persuasion Nation was a finalist for The Story Prize in 2007. Saunders was born in Amarillo, Texas, and grew up on the south side of Chicago. He is a graduate of Oak Forest High School in Oak Forest, Illinois, a southern suburb of Chicago. In 1981 Saunders received a B.S. in geophysical engineering from Colorado School of Mines in Golden, Colorado.
more

Bobby Duncum, Jr. was an American professional wrestler. He was best known for his stint in World Championship Wrestling as a member of the West... Texas Rednecks. After playing collegiate football for the University of Texas, Duncum debuted in September 1992 and began wrestling for the Texas-based Global Wrestling Federation. Only two months after his debut, he and Johnny Hawk, collectively known as the Texas Mustangs, won the Tag Team Championship from the Rough Riders . After a little over two months, the Mustangs lost the title to the Bad Breed on January 29, 1993. The Mustangs disbanded shortly after the title loss. After a two year hiatus, Duncum returned to wrestling and made his All Japan Pro Wrestling debut on January 8, 1995, where he, Gary Albright and Joel Deaton defeated Eagle, Lacrosse and The Patriot. Throughout the next few years, Duncum would wrestle in several singles and six-man tag team matches while in AJPW, while also making appearances in the Dallas-based Continental Wrestling Alliance.
more

Erik Watts is an American professional wrestler. He is best known for his appearances with World Championship Wrestling in the early 1990s. He is... the son of legendary wrestler "Cowboy" Bill Watts. Watts attended the University of Louisville, where he was a quarterback for the Louisville Cardinals. Watts later trained as a wrestler under his father, Bill Watts, and debuted in 1992. After wrestling for three months, he was hired by World Championship Wrestling. While in WCW, Watts feuded with Arn Anderson. His constant pushes were controversial in that his father was WCW's booker at the time, leading to accusations of nepotism. In 1995, Watts followed his father to the World Wrestling Federation. In the WWF, Watts was renamed "Troy" while Chad Fortune was renamed "Travis" and put in a tag team known as Tekno Team 2000. Wearing silver smocks and tight zubaz, their gimmick was that they represented the cutting edge of cyberculture. Their tag team made its debut on the May 27, 1995 episode of Superstars in a victorious effort against The Brooklyn Brawler and Barry Horowitz.
more