Greene, A. C.

Alvin Carl Greene was born in 1923 in Abilene, Texas, the son of Alvin Carl and Marie Cole Greene. According to family tradition, when born, Greene was taken for dead and tossed onto a pile of newspapers in the make-shift delivery room. The rest is, of course, history. Committing Greene to a specific occupation is difficult at best. He has served as a Marine, a Navy corpsman, a newspaper columnist, newspaper editor, writer, bookstore owner, professor, musician, and poet.

Greene spent his childhood in Abilene. During his formative years he came under the influence of his maternal grandmother, Maude Cole, who was not only the librarian at the Carnegie Public Library in Abilene, but also a published author. Greene, in fact, called the library his "babysitter." After serving in the navy during World War II, where Greene ran a Chinese brothel for the U.S. Marines in Tsing-tao, Shantung Province, he worked as Entertainment Editor and sports writer for the Abilene Reporter-News . In 1950 he married Hardin-Simmons graduate, Betty Dozier, a writer for the Living section of the Reporter-News . Three years later Greene left the Reporter-News and bought a bookstore in Abilene. By 1960 he and his growing family moved to Dallas where he became book editor and, eventually, editor of the editorial page for the Dallas Times Herald . As editor of Dallas' "liberal" newspaper, Greene received correspondence from a diverse group of individuals, including members of the John Birch Society and even Lee Harvey Oswald.

In 1968 Greene left the newspaper business, enrolled in the American Civilization Program at UT-Austin, and began writing. Winning the prestigious Dobie-Paisano Fellowship from the University of Texas in 1968, Greene completed and published his first book, A Personal Country . Since then, more than 27 other books have followed, including Living Texas, The Last Captive, The Santa Claus Bank Robbery, Dallas: The Deciding Years, A Christmas Tree, Views in Texas, A Place Called Dallas, The 50 Best Books on Texas, The Highland Park Woman, Dallas USA, A Town Called Cedar Springs, Texas Sketches, Taking Heart, Joy to the World, 50+ Best Books on Texas, 900 Miles on the Butterfield Trail, and The Five States of Texas . Often called the "Dean of Texas Letters," Greene, who never finished his Ph.D., is a fellow of both the Texas State Historical Association and the Texas Institute of Letters and is one of the most respected authorities on Texas in the nation.

Although Greene left the full-time newspaper business, he began writing his column, Texas Sketches, for the Dallas Morning News in 1983. In addition, he has written and hosted programs such as Historic Moments on KAAM/KAFM in Dallas and served as essayist/book reviewer for PBS's MacNeil/Lehrer Newshour.

To many in Texas, however, Greene is more than author or media personality. Since the 1960s he has been called the authority on Dallas. By his own admission, he "learned Dallas first, right after World War II, by driving a Coca Cola truck." His books on Dallas, Dallas: The Deciding Years, A Place Called Dallas, and Dallas USA, are regarded by some as the definitive works dealing with the history and culture of the city. His personal collection, in fact, includes a document with the signature of Dallas founder John Neely Bryan, as well as other early documents from the city's past.

One of the constants in all of Greene's work is the personal element. Whether writing about his youth in Abilene, his experiences in the Far East during World War II, his reflections on the Kennedy assassination, or his own life and death encounters, there is always a personal perspective. For example, in 1988 Greene was the first successful heart transplant patient at St. Paul's Medical Center in Dallas. His 1989 book, Taking Heart, is not only the story of a transplant patient, it is also the story of Greene's new life. He writes, "It is almost a rebirth. The life you lived before seems to be someone else's life. And you seem to have lost a great deal of interest in him and it."

The year after his heart transplant, Greene's wife of 39 years, Betty, died of cancer. According to a family friend, Greene "was terribly lonesome …. He was going around the house still talking to her." Greene's four children, Geoffrey, Elliot, Mark, and Meridith, had already left home. In 1990 he married Judy Dalton Hyland, who had been a friend of the family. Greene writes, "I had seen her with this one guy several times, getting in and out of his Cadillac. And so when I found out she was no longer getting in and out of his Cadillac, I thought, "Hey, this is my opportunity."

Shortly thereafter Greene retired as professor and Co-Director of the Center for Texas Studies at the University of North Texas. In 1992, Greene and his wife, Judy, left Dallas and moved to Salado, Texas, where he continued to write. Greene died on April 5, 2002.

Sources:

From the guide to the A. C. Greene Papers AR409., 1848-1998, 1925-1997, (Special Collections, The University of Texas at Arlington Library)