RIP News

These notable figures from Dallas passed away in 2023

Former Dallas District Attorney Craig Watkins

Dallas South News

As 2023 comes to a close, we take a look back at some of the notable figures in Dallas who died this year. This year's list includes musicians, animal advocates, and figures from local politics.

Here's the 2023 list of notable deaths, in chronological order:

Gregg Hudson. President and CEO of the Dallas Zoo died in early April, following a bout with cancer; he was 64. Hudson joined the Dallas Zoo in 2006, and led the organization through the creation of a public/private partnership with the city of Dallas in 2009. He also orchestrated the Dallas Zoo's 2016 removal of 18 wild elephants from Swaziland, in partnership with the Sedgwick County Zoo in Kansas, and Omaha's Henry Doorly Zoo in Nebraska — a move that drew condemnation from conservationists around the world. One elephant died in the process.

Kathy Rogers. Major figure in Dallas' animal rescue world who rescued and rehabitated thousands of birds passed away on April 9; she was 73. Rogers founded The Rogers Wildlife Rehabilitation Center, an animal facility at Samuel Farm in Mesquite, which she built into the largest not-for-profit avian rehabilitation center in North Texas, providing care for more than 5000 wounded and abandoned birds brought there every year. The Center figured prominently in a 2022 documentary called Honk - A True Story, about a goose that was abandoned at Turtle Creek.

Seth Davidow. Co-founder of Dallas art gallery Site131 died on June 16, from complications related to Amyotrophi Lateral Sclerosis (Lou Gehrig's disease); he was 58. Davidow was a businessman and father with an appreciation for the arts - leading him to cofound Site131 with his mother, art curator Joan Davidow. The gallery became a platform for artists to share their visions and inspire the community.

David Kunkle. Former Chief of the Dallas Police Department died on July 14 at age 72, following a diagnosis of Lewy body dementia, a brain disease. Kunkle was a longtime and highly respected law enforcement officer who held the distinction of serving as chief of police in three North Texas cities: Grand Prairie, Arlington, and Dallas. He also ran for mayor of Dallas in 2011.

Frank X. Tolbert 2. Texas artist from Dallas and a member of Texas' legendary Tolbert family died on July 13;. he was at 77. Known for his vivid portraits of birds and other naturalistic subjects, his work was exhibited in the Dallas Museum of Art, Fort Worth Museum of Modern Art, and San Antonio Museum of Art.

Brad Houser. Bass player and co-founder of Dallas rock band New Bohemians died on July 24, following a stroke; he was 62. The New Bohemians, later named Edie Brickell & New Bohemians, rocketed to fame following their 1988 hit "What I Am." Houser went on to form other bands such as Critters Buggin and Dead Kenny G’s, and was an instructor at the New School of Music in Austin. Friends called him "a rare human with the most beautiful heart and soul," "a team player," and "a musician's musician."

Bucks Burnett Colorful Dallas record store owner passed away on October 2 at age 64; according to a statement from his partner, he took his own life. Burnett founded Dallas' Eight Track Museum, a tribute to the 8-track tape, which was written up in the Wall Street Journal and No Depression; and served as manager and producer for Tiny Tim, for whom he founded a fan club and produced three Tiny Tim CD releases.

Craig Watkins. Former Dallas District Attorney died at his home on December 12, cause of death unknown; he was 56. Watkins was elected in 2006 and served as District Attorney until 2015. After he left office, he opened his own law firm on MLK Boulevard in South Dallas. Beyond his history-making status as the first Black DA for Dallas, Watkins created a Conviction Integrity Unit that earned national praise for its exoneration of inmates who'd been imprisoned for crimes they did not commit. He was also the first elected official in Dallas to take the animal cruelty issue seriously, creating an Animal Cruelty unit in the DA's office.

Laura Lynch. Founding member of Texas band The Chicks died in a head-on collision in West Texas on December 22; she was 65. Lynch founded the then-Dixie Chicks with sisters Emily Strayer and Martie Maguire in 1989, then left the group in 1995, when she was replaced by Natalie Maines.

Hugh Aynesworth. Texas journalist known for his coverage of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, died on December 23 at his home in northwest Dallas. He was 92. Aynesworth, who worked for The Dallas Morning News, Dallas Times Herald, Newsweek , and ABC’s 20/20, published a book in 2003 called JFK: Breaking the News.

Winter weather warning

Forecasters warn of 'potentially catastrophic' winter storm in Texas

Photo by Uliana Sova on Unsplash

This weekend could bring ice to Dallas-Fort Worth and beyond.

With many Americans still recovering from multiple blasts of snow and unrelenting freezing temperatures in the nation’s northern tier, a new storm is set to emerge this weekend that could coat roads, trees and power lines with devastating ice across a wide expanse of the South, including Texas.

The storm arriving late this week and into the weekend is shaping up to be a “widespread potentially catastrophic event from Texas to the Carolinas,” said Ryan Maue, a former chief scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

“I don’t know how people are going to deal with it,” he said.

Forecasters on Tuesday, January 20 warned that the ice could weigh down trees and power lines, triggering widespread outages.

“If you get a half of an inch of ice — or heaven forbid an inch of ice — that could be catastrophic,” said Keith Avery, CEO of the Newberry Electric Cooperative in South Carolina.

The National Weather Service warned of "great swaths of heavy snow, sleet, and treacherous freezing rain” starting Friday in much of the nation’s midsection and then shifting toward the East Coast through Sunday.

Temperatures will be slow to warm in many areas, meaning ice that forms on roads and sidewalks might stick around, forecasters say.

The exact timing of the approaching storm — and where it is headed — remained uncertain on Tuesday. Forecasters say it can be challenging to predict precisely which areas could see rain and which ones could be punished with ice.

Meteorologists at WFAA say it's too early for an exact forecast across Dallas-Fort Worth. But it's good to start being weather aware.

Here’s what to know:

Cold air clashing with rain to fuel a 'major winter storm’
An extremely cold arctic air mass is set to dive south from Canada, setting up a clash with the cold temperatures and rain that will be streaming eastward across the southern U.S.

“This is extreme, even for this being the peak of winter,” National Weather Service meteorologist Bryan Jackson said of the cold temperatures.

When the cold air meets the rain, the likely result will be “a major winter storm with very impactful weather, with all the moisture coming up from the Gulf and encountering all this particularly cold air that’s spilling in,” Jackson said.

Texas could be a harbinger for other parts of the South
Some of the storm’s earliest impacts could be in Texas on Friday, as the arctic air mass slides south through much of the state, National Weather Service forecaster Sam Shamburger said in a briefing on the storm.

“At the same time, we’re expecting rain to move into much of the state,” Shamburger said.

Low temperatures could fall into the 20s or even the teens in parts of Texas by Saturday, with the potential for a wintery mix of weather in the northern part of the state.

Forecasters cautioned that significant uncertainty remains, particularly over how much ice or snow could fall across north and central Texas.

“It’s going to be a very difficult forecast,” Shamburger said.

An atmospheric river could set up across the Southern U.S.
An atmospheric river of moisture could be in place by the weekend, pulling precipitation across Texas and other states along the Gulf Coast and continuing across Georgia and the Carolinas, forecasters said.

“Global models are painting a concerning picture of what this weekend could look like, with an increasingly strong signal for ice storm potential across North Georgia and portions of central Georgia,” according to the National Weather Service's Atlanta office.

Highway and air travel could be tangled by the storm
Travel is a major concern, as Southern states have less equipment to remove snow and ice from roads, and extremely cold temperatures expected after the storm could prevent ice from melting for several days.

The storm is also expected to impact many of the nation’s major hub airports, including those in Dallas-Fort Worth; Atlanta; Memphis, Tennessee; and Charlotte, North Carolina.

Polar air from Canada to keep northern states in a deep freeze
Unusually cold temperatures are already in place across much of the northern tier of the U.S., but the blast of arctic air expected later this week is “will be the coldest yet,” Jackson said.

“There’s a large sprawling vortex of low pressure centered over Hudson Bay,” Jackson said of the sea in northern Canada that’s connected to the Arctic Ocean. “And this is dominating the weather over all of North America.”

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