FilioScotia Posted November 26, 2009 Share Posted November 26, 2009 (edited) I stumbled across an old article in the Houston Press archives, about Sigman "Sig" Byrd. He was one of the best of those old school newspaper reporters with the low flat-brim hat, cheap suit and worn out shoes, who smelled of cheap cigars and straight whiskey back in the days of yore. Sig Byrd knew Houston as few people knew it and he wrote some of the finest prose ever written to describe it. David Theis's article -- written in 1994 -- will have some of the old gray heads around here flashing back to our misspent youth. Here's a link. http://www.houstonpress.com/1994-11-10/news/the-lost-houston-of-sig-byrd/1 Edited November 26, 2009 by FilioScotia Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sevfiv Posted November 26, 2009 Share Posted November 26, 2009 Neat article. I think I have a paper copy of it somewhere...but where?! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marmer Posted November 26, 2009 Share Posted November 26, 2009 (edited) I found a copy of the book "Sig Byrd's Houston" in a used book store shortly after that came out. Actually, now that I think about it, it might have been before that came out. Maybe Douglas Milburn or someone mentioned it. It was great, but I bought it as a birthday gift for a friend (who really appreciated it) so I don't have it anymore.Doesn't JR Gonzales occasionally post a Sig Byrd story on his Bayou City History blog? Edited November 26, 2009 by marmer 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gonzo1976 Posted November 26, 2009 Share Posted November 26, 2009 Sure do! You can find them all over here. http://blogs.chron.com/bayoucityhistory/sigman_byrd/ One thing I haven't been able to find is a photograph of the guy. Chron and Press files don't have pictures of him. The best I could do was this scan from an article that appeared in the Press after the Texas City explosion. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FilioScotia Posted November 26, 2009 Author Share Posted November 26, 2009 I'm fascinated at learning that the name "Sigman Byrd" lives on, in the form of a teacher and poet at the University of Colorado. He just has to be related to Houston's Sig Byrd. The Houston Press article mentions Sig's son Sigman Byrd Junior, who was a Houston banker when the article was written in 1994. This guy in Colorado must be Sig's grandson, Sigman Byrd III. He even has his own website.http://sigmanbyrd.com/Site/Home.htmlThe odds that two men could have the name Sigman Byrd and not be related are impossible to calculate. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
readam Posted November 26, 2009 Share Posted November 26, 2009 I'm fascinated at learning that the name "Sigman Byrd" lives on, in the form of a teacher and poet at the University of Colorado. He just has to be related to Houston's Sig Byrd. The Houston Press article mentions Sig's son Sigman Byrd Junior, who was a Houston banker when the article was written in 1994. This guy in Colorado must be Sig's grandson, Sigman Byrd III. He even has his own website.http://sigmanbyrd.com/Site/Home.htmlThe odds that two men could have the name Sigman Byrd and not be related are impossible to calculate.The Colorado prof's picture and Mr. Byrd's are too spookingy close ...great article in the modern Press Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mkultra25 Posted November 26, 2009 Share Posted November 26, 2009 (edited) I'm fascinated at learning that the name "Sigman Byrd" lives on, in the form of a teacher and poet at the University of Colorado. He just has to be related to Houston's Sig Byrd. The Houston Press article mentions Sig's son Sigman Byrd Junior, who was a Houston banker when the article was written in 1994. This guy in Colorado must be Sig's grandson, Sigman Byrd III. He even has his own website.http://sigmanbyrd.com/Site/Home.htmlThe odds that two men could have the name Sigman Byrd and not be related are impossible to calculate.I would bet money that Sigman Byrd the poet is Sigman Byrd the newspaperman's grandson. The SSDI lists a Sigman Byrd who was born in 1909 and died in 1987, which would put him within the right age range to be the grandfather of someone my age. And I am certain that Sigman Byrd the poet is about my age, because I met him once years ago here in Houston.In the early 80s, I was heading into my senior year at St. Thomas High School. At the time, one of the teachers there offered creative writing classes focusing on poetry to interested students, as a sideline to his regular teaching job. Every year, at the conclusion of those classes, he'd have an informal get-together in the evening at his house for the students to read some of their recent work to a small group of invited family, friends, and other faculty members. The year I was in the class, I showed up for the reading and soon became aware of a guy I'd never seen before with an intense presence about him, not least due to the imposing full mohawk he was sporting. It was Sigman Byrd, who I soon gathered had transferred out of St. Thomas the year before I transferred in (at the beginning of my junior year). It was clear that he was highly respected by the other students. I soon realized why when he read one of his recent poems, because his writing was on a level far beyond anyone else there, even at that young age. I am not surprised that he subsequently pursued poetry as a vocation, because he was obviously gifted. I had no idea who Sig Byrd the newspaperman was at the time, and didn't discover his work until much later, but if Sig Byrd Jr. is a banker, I guess the writing gene must've skipped a generation before asserting itself once again. Edited November 26, 2009 by mkultra25 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Earlydays Posted November 27, 2009 Share Posted November 27, 2009 Sure do! You can find them all over here. http://blogs.chron.com/bayoucityhistory/sigman_byrd/ One thing I haven't been able to find is a photograph of the guy. Chron and Press files don't have pictures of him. The best I could do was this scan from an article that appeared in the Press after the Texas City explosion. I went to the University of St. Thomas, class of 1968, and I had a classmate named Steve Byrd. He looked a lot like the picture above...I wonder if he was his son, or related in some other way?? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Poppahop Posted November 27, 2009 Share Posted November 27, 2009 I went to the University of St. Thomas, class of 1968, and I had a classmate named Steve Byrd. He looked a lot like the picture above...I wonder if he was his son, or related in some other way??One of Byrd's sons was killed in Vietnam... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Retama Posted November 30, 2009 Share Posted November 30, 2009 Thanks for this, Filio. Sig Byrd's noir Houston is great stuff. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sevfiv Posted November 30, 2009 Share Posted November 30, 2009 I found what I referenced earlier and I was wrong - I have a paper copy of the Public News article "What's passed is past: Sig Byrd's Houston revisited / In Search of Sig Byrd's Houston" (March 19, 1997). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Don Julio Posted February 4, 2010 Share Posted February 4, 2010 Here is how Byrd appeared in the Houston Chronicle in January, 1962: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Don Julio Posted February 4, 2010 Share Posted February 4, 2010 (edited) Here's the dust jacket to Sig Byrd's Houston. Edited February 4, 2010 by Don Julio Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
57Tbird Posted February 5, 2010 Share Posted February 5, 2010 I just contacted the Sig Byrd in Colorado to inquire if he was the grandson of this Sig Byrd. His reply was..."Indeed, I am the grandson of Sig Byrd. I, too, am a writer. Guess I have a love of words in the ol' genes.I've also heard my grandfather's book is quite popular in Houston these days.Right now I live in Boulder, CO, and I have not been back to visit Houston in thirteen years. In fact, I haven't lived there since the early eighties, although I did live in Austin for six years in the nineties."I gave him the HAIF link. Maybe he will respond with some more info on his granddad. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brucesw Posted February 5, 2010 Share Posted February 5, 2010 Perhaps he'd like to know his grandfather was the subject of one of the features on Postcards from Texas this week. Just missed the re-run by a few minutes but the clip is online. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Don Julio Posted February 6, 2010 Share Posted February 6, 2010 Perhaps he'd like to know his grandfather was the subject of one of the features on Postcards from Texas this week. Just missed the re-run by a few minutes but the clip is online.Thanks, enjoyed that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gonzo1976 Posted February 8, 2010 Share Posted February 8, 2010 I just contacted the Sig Byrd in Colorado to inquire if he was the grandson of this Sig Byrd. His reply was..."Indeed, I am the grandson of Sig Byrd. I, too, am a writer. Guess I have a love of words in the ol' genes.I've also heard my grandfather's book is quite popular in Houston these days.Right now I live in Boulder, CO, and I have not been back to visit Houston in thirteen years. In fact, I haven't lived there since the early eighties, although I did live in Austin for six years in the nineties."I gave him the HAIF link. Maybe he will respond with some more info on his granddad.His book is popular, but unfortunately, it's out of print. Oh it can be found online, but that's about the only place to find it.However, a few months back I purchased a copy of Byrd's book at an estate sale for 25 cents. I already had one copy of his book, but no way was I going to pass up getting another copy at that price.I haven't decided what to do with it. Maybe I'll give it away on the blog. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rkimberly Posted November 20, 2011 Share Posted November 20, 2011 A Sig Byrd update. A small archive (753 and counting) of his out-of-print "Stroller" columns has been placed online... Also, a Google map of the many address and locations mentioned in the columns... http://g.co/maps/8nfcr Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FilioScotia Posted January 12, 2012 Author Share Posted January 12, 2012 Thanks to JR Gonzales at the Chronicle, here's one of the late great Sig Byrd's columns from 1954, with a few of his famously droll observations about life in Houston and other Texas places.Sig Byrd was one of the great ones, and he was one of the last of that early and mid 19th century breed of newspapermen who really wore out the shoe leather talking to people and gathering stories.http://blog.chron.co...ltitude-flight/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rkimberly Posted October 27, 2017 Share Posted October 27, 2017 For those interested in a written history of Houston back in the 40s and 50s, there was a Houston Press columnist named Sig Byrd who wrote 6 times for much of the year, He started publishing his "Strolling in Houston" column in late 1947. These columns touched upon the many people and places Sig encountered in Houston; bar owners, bouncers, poets, painters, winos, housewives, and many more. He often would cite full names of people and addresses of home and businesses. He eventually turned some of these columns into a book, "Sig Byrd's Houston" 1955. I've been scanning his columns and posting them online here (1947, 1948, 1950, 1951). Additionally, there's a Facebook page (The Sig Byrd Digital Archive) that posts regularly and a google map that shows assorted locations mentioned in his columns. He's an interesting writer, operating in the style of Joseph Mitchell (The New Yorker, "McSorley's Wonderful Saloon") and Nelson Algren (Man with the Golden Arm.) I hope this might interest a few of you here on the HAIG site. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Earlydays Posted October 27, 2017 Share Posted October 27, 2017 His son, Steve Byrd, was with me at the University of St. Thomas (class of 1968). His family lived in Montrose and my wife's family knew the Byrds. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Earlydays Posted October 27, 2017 Share Posted October 27, 2017 19 minutes ago, Earlydays said: His son, Steve Byrd, was with me at the University of St. Thomas (class of 1968). His family lived in Montrose and my wife's family knew the Byrds. PS - Steve had an older brother, Arthur, that was killed in Vietnam. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scott Geyer Posted June 22, 2020 Share Posted June 22, 2020 Would love to obtain a copy of Sig Byrd's Houston at a reasonable price if anyone knows of source(s). Many thanks sgeyer@mac.com Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mkultra25 Posted June 23, 2020 Share Posted June 23, 2020 21 hours ago, Scott Geyer said: Would love to obtain a copy of Sig Byrd's Houston at a reasonable price if anyone knows of source(s). Many thanks sgeyer@mac.com Create a saved search at eBay and a want at abebooks.com. Occasionally copies pop up at both sites for under $100. The asking prices for currently-available copies are insane. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FilioScotia Posted June 24, 2020 Author Share Posted June 24, 2020 (edited) I found Sig Byrd's Houston on Amazon. But you may need a bank loan to get it. https://www.amazon.com/Sig-Byrds-Houston-Sigman-Byrd/dp/0670644366/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=sig+byrd's+houston&qid=1592966885&s=books&sr=1-1 Edited June 24, 2020 by FilioScotia 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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