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Hall of Fame author: I have never gotten over Jacksboro

Thu, 07/13/2017 - 3:26 pm
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    Joyce Gibson Roach, center, was joined by fellow Jacksboro High School alumnus Sam Akins, left, and Jack McCoy at the ceremony for her induction in the Texas Literary Hall of Fame at the Grand Hall of the Fort Worth Botanical Gardens last fall.

Author Joyce Gibson Roach loves Jacksboro. Though she was not born here, she got here as soon as she could. “There’s never been a place that’s charmed me more than Jacksboro or Jack County,” Roach said. “When I came as a baby, I was soon introduced to Fort Richardson and the legend and lore. I played softball and camped out with the Girl Scouts; all of that embedded itself in my mind and my soul.” Roach, 81, left Jacksboro “50 some odd years” ago, to attend Texas Christian University. A few years after she married in 1958, she and her husband moved from Fort Worth to some land near Keller. “Jacksboro is the dearest place to me in all the world and always has been and always will be. I’ve never gotten too far away from Jacksboro and visit every chance I get,” she said. “I never ever start a speech regardless of what I’m talking about without saying I’m from Jacksboro and I’ve never gotten over and I’ve never tried.” Roach spent 12 years as an adjunct English professor at TCU. Her specialty was Life and Literature of the Southwest. “I was able to teach that a number of years and also taught the Western Novel which was right down my alley, too,” she said. As the author of several books and short stories, Roach was honored most recently with induction into the Texas Literary Hall of Fame in November. Roach is also a three-time Spur Award winner from the Western Writers of America for her non-fiction book “The Cowgirls,” short non-fiction, “A High Toned Woman,” and short story “Just as I Am.” To read the complete article, see the July 7 edition of the Herald-Gazette.