The Jules Verne of Dallas

Jean Lafitte’s last rival WRR, the first licensed radio station in Texas and the second in the entire nation, began broadcasting in August 1921 thanks to a genius inventor named Henry Garrett that everyone called “Dad.”

The Garretts emigrated from Ireland in the early 1860’s but rather than settling in America as planned they put down temporary roots in Canada to wait out the Civil War.  That was where Henry, their second youngest son, was born in 1861.

After abbreviated stops in California and Nebraska, the Garretts made Dallas their permanent home in 1874.  Henry’s father, an Episcopal clergyman, rapidly rose to the prestigious position of archbishop.