Tweed Scott ’74 is a born storyteller. He grabs a yarn by the tail and just won’t let go.
Born Arthur Donald Chouinard, Scott grew up in New England, and joined the Navy the morning after high school graduation. He was stationed at an auxiliary air station in Kingsville. “Coming from New Hampshire to Kingsville, it was culture shock,” he said.
After his military tour, Scott returned to Keene, N.H., to attend Keene State College. When he learned it would cost him less to attend Lamar University even while paying out-of-state fees, he made the move.
Scott earned a bachelor’s degree in marketing from Lamar. He attended school on the GI Bill, he said, and worked his way through as a radio personality for Beaumont’s KTRM radio. When the station turned country, he thought it was time to move on, but it didn’t take long before he was hooked. During his stint in radio, Scott worked with some of the best. “I actually worked with old Gordon Baxter,” he said, a local radio personality noted for his quick wit and tall tales.
He was a member of the business fraternity Delta Sigma Pi. As his radio career began, his supervisor suggested he “get a last name for radio.” One of his best fraternity brothers at the time was John Scott, and he had an uncle with a friend named Tweed, so he combined the two for an easy-to-remember, on-air name, and Tweed Scott was born. Eventually, he legally changed his name.
Scott started school at Lamar the first year it was known as Lamar University, rather than Lamar Tech. At age 23, he was working a full-time radio job while taking classes. After graduation, Scott moved to Seymour, outside of Wichita Falls, where he learned more about the craft of radio in a career that would take him around the state and give him a love of Texas.
Scott worked in country radio most of his career. “I met a lot of people involved in country music,” Scott said. In July 2001, Scott walked away from the radio business. “I don’t miss the business. I miss the people. I miss the energy.”
More than a year ago, he started Tejas Communications, a company that specializes in creating and producing writing projects and public relations. The company develops website content, marketing material and other types of writing for large or small businesses.
Throughout his life and work, he has always loved the written word. But it was an odd set of circumstances that led him to write Texas in Her Own Words.
The idea was sparked several years ago when he was at the dinner table with his wife, Zady, and his son, Tyler. “Tyler, understand, that you have something your father will never have,” she quipped. At his incredulous look, Zady explained that Tyler was born in Austin and would always
be a full-blooded Texan. His father, no matter what, would never be a true Texan. Scott was a transplant.
“It (the book) was a result of a throwaway comment at the dinner table,” Scott said. After thinking about it for a while, he said, he started to realize Texans are made a little different. “I believe Texans are born with an extra gene. I believe there is a T chromosome. I’ve lived in six different states, and this place is different. There are similarities (to all Texans), a commonality. When I got to the end of the book I realized, ‘Yes, there are Texas traits.’”
The ultimate goal was to learn what it is like to be a Texan. To get that information, he went right to the source – Texans. During his research, he interviewed 100 people. Sixty interviews ended up in the book, with a forward by humorist and writer Kinky Freedman. “I talked to old pioneers, and even General George Patton's personal tank driver. That was one of the greatest joys of this book.”
Scott made the criteria simple: He would interview folks who were native Texans, both blue- and white-collar workers, and transplants. He said, that having lived all over the state, including the Panhandle, the Gulf Coast, East Texas and West Texas, he had a hunch the people would share many similarities and some differences.
What he started on a lark became an obsession. “I did the work, trusted in the process, then started to understand where all this began,” he said.
From concept to completion, he said, the book took about three years. “I went from having a love of Texas to having an absolute passion.” He discovered one factor that makes Texas stand apart from other U.S. states: It was once its own country. And, of course, the Alamo also plays an important
role behind the Texas psyche, he said. “I believe Texans are spiritually connected to those men (who died at the Alamo). Texans admire them.”
Overall, the book is about the people of Texas and the pride they have for their state. “I would sit down and talk, and people would open up and let me inside their heads. They instinctively knew they were part of something special,” he said.
“I feel more like a Texan after writing the book,” Scott said. Now, the author says he’ll go anywhere to talk about his book and share his love of the Lone Star State. He and his wife put about 4,000 miles on their car while doing research for the book. Zady also took more than 50 pictures that appear in it, as well as the cover photo.
Liz Carpenter is among those quoted in the book. Possibly best known as Lady Bird Johnson’s press secretary and chief of staff during LBJ’s presidency, Carpenter has roots that go deep into the beginnings of Texas. “She had a relative who died on the sixth day of the Alamo siege and two others who fought in the battle of San Jacinto,” Scott said.
Other notable Texans quoted in the book include singer-songwriter Bobby
Boyd, University of Texas legendary head football coach Darrell Royal and singer-songwriter Willie Nelson. Getting a quote from Nelson was the most difficult, which included rescheduling more than once, a stomach virus, waiting by the phone and getting cut off in the middle of an interview after losing a cell phone signal, Scott said. The duo finished the interview just in time to make it in the book.
“One great thing about Texas is if you become tired of the town you call home, all you have to do is move 200 miles and you’ll be in a totally different place,” Scott said. “You don’t even have to change your license plates.”
Scott learned a lot by writing the book. “I am better because of the experience. Texas has personality, and, in a way, it’s still its own country. For many people, we are Texans first.”
And Texas natives never have a hard time giving directions to their home state, he said. “It’s located at the intersection of the heart and soul.”
On June 25th Scott will host Texas Trivia Day at the Bob Bullock Museum,
where his new book is on sale. The book is also on sale at the Alamo.
