Tex Ritter Museum and Texas Country Music Hall of Fame

The Tex Ritter Museum shares a building at 310 West Panola Street in Carthage with the Texas Country Music Hall of Fame. Texas Highways describes the Ritter exhibit as a space designed to look like a movie theater, with his boots, shirts, guitars and saddles, movie posters and a timeline. The museum also represents 55 other country music stars, including Jim Reeves.

Ritter was born Woodward Maurice Ritter on January 12, 1905, in Murvaul, Panola County, according to the Handbook of Texas. He signed his first movie contract in 1936 and appeared in 85 films, 78 of them Westerns. His recording of "High Noon" won the 1953 Academy Award for Best Original Song, and in 1964 he became the fifth person elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame. He died in Nashville on January 2, 1974, and is buried in Port Neches. The Handbook says the Texas Ritter Museum opened on October 18, 1992, and by 2003 shared a building with the Hall of Fame, whose inaugural class of 1998 included him.

The Hall of Fame says its present building, 13,000 square feet with exhibit space, a gift shop and a banquet room, opened in August 2002. Texas Highways lists hours of Monday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., and admission of $10 for adults and $5 for children; confirm both before visiting. The Hall of Fame holds a Classic Country Music Festival weekend each August, with shows at the Carthage Civic Center.