Billy Porterfield, Writer
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Words and Stories

Clips and culls, words and stories by and about Billy Porterfield. (Photo at left, Billy and wife, Jo Brans in their salad days. Family file photo)

Images and Memories:
Jim Bones photography
narrated by Billy Porterfield
01. Images And Memories Of The Earth 

02. Images And Memories Of Water 

03. Images And Memories Of The Sea 

04. Images And Memories Of Autumn 

05. Images AndMemories Of Winter 

06. Images And Memories Of Spring 

07. Images And Memories Of Summer 

08. Images And Memories Of The Desert 

A Tribute to Molly Ivins (The Texas Observer)  B. Porterfield
Molly and I had been friends for years. I was up in Dallas, writing a column for the Times-Herald, when into the city room strode longtime, no-see Molly, back in Texas after years of slaving for The New York Times in the Big Apple and as a roving correspondent in the West. It wasn’t long before Molly was writing for the Times-Herald as well. After deadline, we would sneak off to a bar just a block away. One afternoon, after one too many shots of Jack Daniels, we headed back to work. Molly stepped boldly into the street. I remember she wore a sparkling dress as tight as anything Marilyn Monroe ever wore.... (More)
JO’S STORY Relationships, like people, change with the passing years; sometimes a ’good’ divorce is the best thing that can happen to a couple By JO BRANS From D Magazine October 1981
During 1973, the fifteenth and last year of my marriage to Bill Porterfield, Bill, wanting out, wrote me a letter that began, "Jose, why fight it? After all, everything in nature changes, nothing is permanent."
I, wanting to stay in, answered with a reversal: "Bill, how can you say that? Nothing in nature changes, everything is permanent."
As usual in our arguments, then and now, we were both right. Our divorce, when it came, was a no-fault divorce.
During lunch at The Grape last week, Bill and I laugh over the desperate sophistry in that exchange at the end of our marriage. "You could always make everything you wanted to do so-so literary," I complain....
(More)

A sampling of Texas Monthly articles - B. Porterfield
In Search of the Modern Cowboy - Oct 1975
H.L. Hunt's Long Goodbye - Mar 1975
The Lonely Search for Oil - Nov 1974
Ross Perot: A Hero for our Time - April 1974
Sam Houston: Warts and All - July 1973

This book project began as a memoir of a writer and her mentor. It has grown  from a poignant, quirky biography of one  writer  to a coming of age of those legendary journalists who helped to created the Texas literary mystique in the mid-20th century.  Today, as I work to complete  a  book-length manuscript  that tells the story  of  Texas writers in the 1960s, I am honored to share a few bits and pieces with readers who venture onto this tribute site for Billy Porterfield.    Thank you for stopping by.  
Note to the writers and players of that era: tell me a story. - Diana Finlay Hendricks
  Diana Finlay Hendricks 
dianahendricks@me.com
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