Alvin Earl DeVane (November 2, 1923 – January 1, 2012) was a former Army Air Forces sergeant and a retired Austin Police lieutenant. A street in

Austin, Texas Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of Texas, as well as the seat and largest city of Travis County, with portions extending into Hays and Williamson counties. Incorporated on December 27, 1839, it is the 11th-most-populous city ...

is named for him, since its opening in 1984. He was an amateur radio operator, and an active member and former president of Austin's barbershop singing community.

Early life

DeVane was born in

Elba, Alabama Elba is a city in and the county seat of Coffee County, Alabama, United States. It is the official seat, although there are two county courthouses, with the other one being located in the town of Enterprise. At the time of the 2010 U.S. census ...

in 1923 and enlisted in the

Army Air Corps Army Air Corps may refer to the following army aviation corps: * Army Air Corps (United Kingdom), the army aviation element of the British Army * Philippine Army Air Corps (1935–1941) * United States Army Air Corps (1926–1942), or its p ...

(then recently a component of the

United States Army Air Forces The United States Army Air Forces (USAAF or AAF) was the major land-based aerial warfare service component of the United States Army and ''de facto'' aerial warfare service branch of the United States during and immediately after World War II ...

) in 1943, during which he was a C-47

radio operator A radio operator (also, formerly, wireless operator in British and Commonwealth English) is a person who is responsible for the operations of a radio system. The profession of radio operator has become largely obsolete with the automation of ra ...

in the Pacific Theatre. A sergeant, he was assigned to the 318th Troop Carrier Squadron (Commando),

3rd Air Commando Group The 353rd Special Operations Wing is an operational unit of the United States Air Force Special Operations Command, stationed at Kadena Air Base, Japan. The Wing's first predecessor was activated in 1944 as the 3rd Air Commando Group. The unit ...

Career and recognition

DeVane was a member of the

Austin Police Department Austin Police Department (APD) is the principal law enforcement agency serving Austin, Texas. As of Fiscal Year 2022, the agency had an annual budget of $443.1 million and employed around 2,484 personnel, including approximately 1,809 officers. T ...

from 1957 to 1983. A lot of his time there was spent as a street cop, but he later achieved the rank of Lieutenant and served in the traffic office. The ''American-Statesman'' pictured DeVane in uniform among others at a disaster center for a May 1981 flood in Austin. When DeVane was nearing retirement, one of his daughters decided to try to have a street named for him as a retirement gift. She started by writing a letter to a popular Q&A columnist in the '' Austin American-Statesman'', Ellie Rucker. She then investigated the possibility of changing the name of the street he lived on, but soon found that to be entirely too cumbersome a project. She moved on to finding a developer who would name a new street after him instead. She contacted an acquaintance of his in the city's Street and Bridge department who was instrumental in making it happen. A new development was being planned for southeast Austin, that would be the site of

Advanced Micro Devices Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (AMD) is an American multinational semiconductor company based in Santa Clara, California, that develops computer processors and related technologies for business and consumer markets. While it initially manufact ...

. Thanks to the generosity of a developer, her dream became a reality in December 1984. Street and Bridge made a street sign for her to present to him along with the city

plat In the United States, a plat ( or ) (plan) is a cadastral map, drawn to scale, showing the divisions of a piece of land. United States General Land Office surveyors drafted township plats of Public Lands Surveys to show the distance and bea ...

, detailing the location. The event was covered by a local news television station and was also picked up by the AP, appearing in the Dallas paper.

Personal life

During his military service, DeVane was stationed at Austin's

Bergstrom Field Bergstrom or Bergström is a Swedish surname. It derives from the Swedish words ''berg'' meaning mountain and ''ström'' meaning stream