With two Miss Americas, several successful movie stars, a few popular singers and a train robber, Denton has had more than its share of famous people in the past.
Not many cities can claim a Miss America. Perhaps none came claim two.
Pat Boone was a student at what is now the University of North Texas, but Denton can claim him since he built and owned Pat Boone's Country Inn at University Drive and Malone Street starting in 1958.
He sold more than 45 million albums, had 38 hits on the Top 40 and was in 12 Hollywood movies. He still holds the record for having one or more songs on the Billboard charts for 220 weeks.
His Pat Boone Chevy Showroom on ABC ran for 115 episodes.
Boone married Shirley Lee Foley, daughter of country music great Red Foley. They had four daughters, including Debby Boone, who had her own career. The Boones live in Los Angeles.
At least three movie stars have called Denton home.
Joan Blondell, known in Denton as Rosebud Blondell, was the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Edward Blondell, who lived at 1215 Oakland St. In 1926 she was chosen Miss Dallas and came in fourth at the Miss America pageant.
She attended what is now UNT in Denton, where her mother was a local stage actress. The family returned to New York, and in 1930 she starred with James Cagney in Penny Arcade on Broadway. Warner Brothers bought the film rights with the provision that it had to star Cagney and Blondell.
She was paired with Cagney in other films, and during the Depression she was one of the highest-paid individuals in the United States. By the end of the 1930s, she had made nearly 50 films. She was married to Dick Powell. She also was on a number of TV shows. Blondell has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Joan Blondell died of leukemia in Santa Monica on Christmas Day 1979.
Ann Sheridan was born Clara Lou Sheridan, the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. George B. Sheridan, who lived at 313 S. Locust St. Her father ran Sheridan's Garage. In the 1933 Denton Kiwanis Minstrels show, she sang "Minnie the Moocher."
She was a student at North Texas when her sister sent a photograph of her to Paramount Pictures. Sheridan won a beauty contest, and part of the prize was a bit part with Paramount. She made her film debut in 1934 at the age of 19.
In 1936 she left Paramount and signed with Warner Bros., changing her name to Ann Sheridan. Tagged "The Oomph Girl," she was a popular pinup girl in the early 1940s. She received positive reaction in such films as Angels with Dirty Faces in 1938 opposite James Cagney and Humphrey Bogart, Dodge City in 1939 with Errol Flynn, and other films with Cagney, George Raft and Bogart.
In Kings Row in 1942, she was top-billed alongside Ronald Reagan and Robert Cummings. A good singer, she also starred in several musicals in the '40s. During the filming of a new TV series in 1966, she died of esophageal and liver cancer in Los Angeles.
Nancy Jane Gates was born in Denton in 1926 to Mr. and Mrs. Virgil Gates. Floyd Graham, director of a dance band at North Texas, recognized her talent when she was 3. She made hundreds of stage appearances, entertaining and was the North Texas band's sweetheart for years. At the age of 5 she appeared in the Denton Kiwanis Minstrels. By 12, she had made her eighth appearance on the show. At 13, she was featured with the Crazy Radio Gang on the stage of the Orpheum Theater.
In 1941, 15-year-old Nancy Jane left Denton for Hollywood and had a farewell dinner at the Southern Hotel, now the Pecan Place Apartments on South Locust Street. She did a screen test for MGM but signed with RKO. Her first film was The Magnificent Ambersons in 1942. In the 1940s she made 14 films, 22 in the 1950s. She made dozens of guest appearances on TV.
In 1948 she married Bill Hayes, an American Airlines captain. They had five children.
In another era and another field was Sam Bass. Bass came to Denton in 1870 at the age of 19. He worked for and lived with W.F. "Dad" Egan, who became the sheriff. Bass worked in the wagon yard behind what is now the Texas Building on the Square.
Bass got interested in horse racing and acquired what became known as the Denton Mare, a very fast horse. Bass and friends raced horses in American Indian territory and stole horses from the Indians. Bass fled to San Antonio and was hired to drive cattle to Colorado. He and four others in the bunch of cowboys decided to rob a train. They held up a Union Pacific train and got $60,000 in $20 gold coins. Bass' share was $19,000.
They became famous in the press as the Bass Gang of Denton. They eventually did three more train robberies around the Dallas area and were finally done in by one member of the gang who squealed on them.
They were planning to rob a bank in Round Rock near Austin. Gang members were in a saloon preparing for the robbery when they were confronted by lawmen. Bass was wounded but got away. He died the next day, on July 20, 1877.
Some others who were famous in their field who were from Denton:
Cathy Muirhead of Denton was chosen as the national Maid of Cotton in 1969.
Brenda Marshall was a movie actress who married William Holden. She also started out at the Denton Kiwanis Club Minstrels.
O'Neil Ford became famous as an architect. He designed, among other buildings, the TWU Little Chapel-in-the-Woods, the Denton Civic Center, buildings at Selwyn College Preparatory School, the Tower of the Americas in San Antonio and buildings at Rice University.
Alvin M. Owsley of Denton was part of a group that organized the American Legion in Paris. He was national commander and served as U.S. ambassador to Romania, Ireland and Denmark.
John S. Chisum came to Denton County in 1854. Steve Foster of New Orleans bought 3,000 head of cattle and hired Chisum to bring them to Denton County. He got half the herd for the work. He originated the Chisum Trail, which became famous as a route for cattle drives.
The Lincoln County War in New Mexico was started by one of Chisum's cowhands, Billy the Kid.
In 1865-66, Chisum moved 100,000 head of cattle from Denton County to the Concho River. He left at least 30,000 here.
John B. Denton was famous, of course, but he never set foot in Denton. He was killed by Indians before there was a Denton.
KEITH SHELTON is retired from the journalism faculty at the University of North Texas and is a former editor of the Denton Record-Chronicle.
