Tex Ritter

Tex Ritter moved to Nederland as a child and grew up in Southeast Texas. He sang 'High Noon' on the first televised Academy Awards broadcast in 1953, and the song went on to win the Oscar for Best Original Song. He was a founding member of the Country Music Association, helped establish the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, and was inducted into it in 1964. He was the father of actor John Ritter. Though he lived in New York, Los Angeles and Nashville, he chose burial at Oak Bluff in Port Neches.

What the plaque says

Tex Ritter (January 12, 1905 - January 2, 1974) Western singing star Woodward Maurice ("Tex") Ritter was born in Panola County, Texas. After attending college, he began singing cowboy ballads on a Houston radio station in 1928. He advanced to broadway, where he was nicknamed "Tex," and in 1936 began a series of popular western movies. Ritter performed later for television and the Grand Ole Opry and was named to the Country Music Hall of fame. His best-know recording is the title song from the film "High Noon." (1976)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Spindletop-Gladys City Boomtown Museum — 7.3 mi
  A re-created oil boomtown on the Lamar University campus, with a derrick, period shops, a 1941 granite monument and an optional re-enactment of the January 1901 Lucas gusher.
• Museum of the Gulf Coast — 9.1 mi
  Port Arthur's regional museum in a former bank building: fossils, Native Americans, the petroleum story, a 125-foot history mural and Halls of Fame for musicians, athletes and artists.
• McFaddin-Ward House — 11 mi
  A Beaux-Arts Colonial Revival mansion finished in 1906 and lived in by one family for 75 years, with free guided tours of three furnished floors, the carriage house and gardens.
• Shangri La Botanical Gardens and Nature Center — 14 mi
  More than 250 acres on Adams Bayou, begun by H. J. Lutcher Stark in 1937, with garden rooms, a cypress-tupelo swamp, a heronry blind and free pontoon tours in season.

More markers nearby

• Grigsby's Bluff — 0.9 mi
• First United Methodist Church of Port Neches — 1.1 mi
• First Baptist Church of Port Neches — 1.2 mi
• Site of First Mercantile Building — 2.5 mi