Texas is home to many different voices

AUSTIN (KXAN) - Anyone who has spent any time at all in the Lone Star State knows there is no one Texas accent.

We've pulled several examples of the way Texans -- past and present -- speak. We start with former President Lyndon B. Johnson, who was arguably the first person to put an authentic, unvarnished Texas voice before the American public.

 

 

While Johnson was raised in the Texas Hill Country and came of age before the Great Depression, former President George W. Bush was the New England-born son of of Yankee parents who moved their young family to West Texas in the years after World War II. Bush, a former Texas governor, sent his Texas accent through a bullhorn to rally the nation after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

 

 

Waco-born Ann Richards, who was ousted as governor by Bush in 1994, used her own Texas accent to score political points both at home and across the nation. Here she is talking about the Bush administration's record heading into the 2004 Democratic National Convention.

 

 

Country singer Willie Nelson, also born in the Waco area around then same time as Richards, has a more mellow twang both when he sings, and wen he talks. here, he pays homage to the late Johnny Cash, who was not a Texan.

 

The Hispanic roots of former San Antonio Mayor Henry Cisneros are evident in his speaking style and offer a contrast to rural-born Anglo Texans.

 

Former Congresswoman Barbara Jordan, who represented part of the Houston area starting in the 1970s, used her distinctive voice to galvanize much of the nation as a member of the congressional committee that voted to impeach then-President Richard Nixon. In 1976, she delivered the keynote speech at the Democratic National Convention.