Paris is a city and

county seat A county seat is an administrative center, seat of government, or capital city of a county or civil parish. The term is in use in Canada, China, Hungary, Romania, Taiwan, and the United States. The equivalent term shire town is used in the US ...

Lamar County, Texas Lamar County () is a county located in the U.S. state of Texas, in the Northeast Texas region. As of the 2020 census, its population was 50,088. Its county seat is Paris. The county was formed by the Congress of the Republic of Texas on Dec ...

, United States. Located in Northeast Texas at the western edge of the

Piney Woods The Piney Woods is a temperate coniferous forest terrestrial ecoregion in the Southern United States covering of East Texas, southern Arkansas, western Louisiana, and southeastern Oklahoma. These coniferous forests are dominated by several sp ...

, the population of the city was 24,171 in 2020.

History

Present-day Lamar County was part of Red River County during the

Republic of Texas The Republic of Texas ( es, República de Tejas) was a sovereign state in North America that existed from March 2, 1836, to February 19, 1846, that bordered Mexico, the Republic of the Rio Grande in 1840 (another breakaway republic from Me ...

. By 1840, population growth necessitated the organization of a new county. George Washington Wright, who had served in the Third

Congress of the Republic of Texas : ''For the current Texas legislative body, see Texas Legislature.'' The Congress of the Republic of Texas was the national legislature of the Republic of Texas established by the Constitution of the Republic of Texas in 1836. It was a bicamera ...

as a representative from Red River County, was a major proponent of the new county. The Fifth Congress established the new county on December 17, 1840, and named it after Mirabeau B. Lamar, who was the first Vice President and the second President of the Republic of Texas. Lamar County was one of the 18 Texas counties that voted against secession on February 23, 1861. In 1877, 1896, and 1916, major fires in the city forced considerable rebuilding. The 1916 fire destroyed almost half the town and caused an estimated $11 million in property damage. The fire ruined most of the central business district and swept through a residential area. The burned structures included the Federal Building and Post Office, the Lamar County Courthouse and Jail, City Hall, most commercial buildings, and several churches. In 1893, black teenager Henry Smith was accused of murder, tortured, and then burned to death on a scaffold in front of thousands of spectators in Paris. In 1920, two black brothers from the Arthur family were tied to a flagpole and burned to death at the Paris fairgrounds. The city has prominent memorials to the Confederacy, but has no acknowledgement of these killings. In 1943, the U.S. Supreme Court in '' Largent v. Texas'' struck down a Paris ordinance that prohibited a person from selling or distributing religious publications without first obtaining a city-issued permit. The Court ruled that the ordinance abridged freedom of religion, freedom of speech, and freedom of the press in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment. Following a tradition of American cities named "Paris" (named after France's capital), the city commissioned a

replica A 1:1 replica is an exact copy of an object, made out of the same raw materials, whether a molecule, a work of art, or a commercial product. The term is also used for copies that closely resemble the original, without claiming to be identical. Al ...

of the

Eiffel Tower The Eiffel Tower ( ; french: links=yes, tour Eiffel ) is a wrought-iron lattice tower on the Champ de Mars in Paris, France. It is named after the engineer Gustave Eiffel, whose company designed and built the tower. Locally nicknamed ...

in 1993 and installed it on site of the Love Civic Center, southeast of the town square. In 1998, presumably as a response to the 1993 construction of a

tower A tower is a tall structure, taller than it is wide, often by a significant factor. Towers are distinguished from masts by their lack of guy-wires and are therefore, along with tall buildings, self-supporting structures. Towers are specific ...

Paris, Tennessee Paris is a city in and the county seat of Henry County, Tennessee, United States. As of the 2020 census, the city had a population of 10,316. A replica of the Eiffel Tower stands in the southern part of Paris. History The present site of Pari ...

, the city placed a giant red cowboy hat atop its tower. The current Eiffel Tower replica is at least the second one; an earlier replica constructed of wood was destroyed by a

tornado A tornado is a violently rotating column of air that is in contact with both the surface of the Earth and a cumulonimbus cloud or, in rare cases, the base of a cumulus cloud. It is often referred to as a twister, whirlwind or cyclone, alt ...

Geography and climate

Paris is located at (33.662508, −95.547692). According to the

U.S. Census Bureau The United States Census Bureau (USCB), officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the U.S. Federal Statistical System, responsible for producing data about the American people and economy. The Census Bureau is part of the ...

, the city has a total area of , of which are land and (3.74%) are covered by water. Paris has a

humid subtropical climate A humid subtropical climate is a zone of climate characterized by hot and humid summers, and cool to mild winters. These climates normally lie on the southeast side of all continents (except Antarctica), generally between latitudes 25° and 40° ...

(''Cfa'' in the

Köppen climate classification The Köppen climate classification is one of the most widely used climate classification systems. It was first published by German-Russian climatologist Wladimir Köppen (1846–1940) in 1884, with several later modifications by Köppen, nota ...

). It is located in "

Tornado Alley Tornado Alley is a loosely defined area of the central United States where tornadoes are most frequent. The term was first used in 1952 as the title of a research project to study severe weather in areas of Texas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Kansas, ...

", an area largely centered in the middle of the United States in which tornadoes occur frequently because of weather patterns and geography. Paris is in

USDA plant hardiness zone A hardiness zone is a geographic area defined as having a certain average annual minimum temperature, a factor relevant to the survival of many plants. In some systems other statistics are included in the calculations. The original and most wide ...

8a for winter temperatures. This is cooler than its southern neighbor

Dallas Dallas () is the third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 million people. It is the largest city in and seat of Dallas County ...

, and while similar to

Atlanta, Georgia Atlanta ( ) is the capital city, capital and List of municipalities in Georgia (U.S. state), most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. It is the county seat, seat of Fulton County, Georgia, Fulton County, the mos ...

, it has warmer summertime temperatures. Summertime average highs reach and in July and August, with associated lows of and . Winter temperatures drop to an average high of and low of in January. The highest temperature on record was , set in August 1936, and the record low was , set in 1930. Average precipitation is . Snow is not unusual, but is by no means predictable, and years can pass with no snowfall at all. On April 2, 1982, Paris was hit by an F4

that destroyed more than 1,500 homes, and left 10 people dead, 170 injured, and 3,000 homeless. The damage toll from this tornado was estimated at US$50 million in 1982.

Demographics

From a

1880 United States census The United States census of 1880 conducted by the Census Bureau during June 1880 was the tenth United States census.2000 census; in 2020, however, its population declined to 24,171. Among the city population in 2010, there were 10,306 households, and 6,426 families. The population density was 588.1 people per square mile (227.4/km); the 11,883 housing units averaged 277.6 per square mile (107.3/km). of all households were made up of individuals, and 15.2% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.38 and the average family size was 3.01. In the city, the population was distributed as 25.0% under the age of 18, 10.6% from 18 to 24, 24.1% from 25 to 44, 23.8% from 45 to 64, and 16.6% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 37.1 years. For every 100 females, there were 87.3 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 82.9 males. By 2020, there were 10,522 households according to the

American Community Survey The American Community Survey (ACS) is a demographics survey program conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau. It regularly gathers information previously contained only in the long form of the decennial census, such as ancestry, citizenship, educati ...

, and 3,549 were married-couple households. The average household size was 2.29 and the average family size was 2.99. Of its 2020 population there were 933 foreign-born nationals, 18.9% of whom were naturalized U.S. citizens. As of the census estimates, there were 49.6% of owner-occupied units and 50.4% renter-occupied units. In 2010, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, the

racial makeup A race is a categorization of humans based on shared physical or social qualities into groups generally viewed as distinct within a given society. The term came into common usage during the 1500s, when it was used to refer to groups of variou ...

of the city was 70.3%

White White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no hue). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully reflect and scatter all the visible wavelengths of light. White ...

, 24.8% Black and African American, 3.1%

American Indian and Alaska Native Native Americans, also known as American Indians, First Americans, Indigenous Americans, and #Terminology differences, other terms, are the Indigenous peoples of the Americas, Indigenous peoples of the mainland United States (Indigenous peopl ...

, 1.1% Asian, and 4.1% from other races. Hispanics or Latinos of any race were 8.2% of the population. In 2020, its racial and ethnic makeup was 56.6% non-Hispanic white, 23.06% Black and African American, 1.35% Native American, 1.42% Asian alone, 0.08% Pacific Islander, 0.23% some other race, 5.38% multiracial, and 11.88% Hispanic or Latino of any race, reflecting demographic trends of greater diversification.

Race relations

Paris has had a

white White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no hue). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully reflect and scatter all the visible wavelengths of light. White ...

majority with a significant Black minority for most of its history. The city is deeply segregated and race relations in Paris have a bloody history and are deeply polarized, turbulent, and sometimes explosive. In the late-19th and early-20th centuries, several

lynchings Lynching is an extrajudicial killing by a group. It is most often used to characterize informal public executions by a mob in order to punish an alleged transgressor, punish a convicted transgressor, or intimidate people. It can also be an ex ...

were staged at the Paris Fairgrounds as public spectacles, with crowds of white spectators cheering as the African-American victims were tortured and murdered. A Black teenager named Henry Smith was lynched in 1893. His murder was the first lynching in US history that was captured in photographs sold as postcards and other trinkets commemorating the killing. Journalist Ida B. Wells said of the incident "Never in the history of civilization has any Christian people stooped to such shocking brutality and indescribable barbarism as that which characterized the people of Paris, Texas." On July 7, 1920 Irving and Herman Arthur were burned alive at the fairgrounds before a crowd of 3,000, their charred corpses then being dragged by a convoy of shouting white terrorists through Paris's African-American neighborhood as a warning to the Black community. 1cherryandblackwell

In 2008, an African-American man, Brandon McClelland, was run over and dragged to death under a vehicle. Two white men were arrested, but the prosecutor cited lack of evidence and declined to press charges, and no serious subsequent attempt to find other perpetrators was made. This caused unrest in the Paris African-American community. Following this incident, an attempt by the

United States Department of Justice The United States Department of Justice (DOJ), also known as the Justice Department, is a federal executive department of the United States government tasked with the enforcement of federal law and administration of justice in the United Stat ...

Justice Community Relations Service to initiate a dialogue between the races in the town ended in failure when African-American complaints were mostly met by silent glares from white community members. A 2009 protest rally over the case led to Texas State Police intervention to prevent groups shouting "white power!" and "black power!" from coming to blows. In response to the incident, civil rights activist Brenda Cherry said "I think we are probably stuck in 1930 right about now". In 2007, a 14-year-old African-American girl was sentenced by a local judge to up to 7 years in a youth prison for shoving a hall monitor at Paris High School. Three months earlier, the same judge had sentenced a 14-year-old white girl to probation for arson. This sentencing disparity occasioned nationwide controversy and the African-American girl was released after serving one year on orders of a special conservator appointed by the State of Texas to investigate problems with the state's juvenile-justice practices. In 2009, some African-American workers at the Turner Industries plant in the city claimed that hangman's nooses, Confederate flags, and racist graffiti were regular features of plant culture. At the same time, the

United States Department of Education The United States Department of Education is a Cabinet-level department of the United States government. It began operating on May 4, 1980, having been created after the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare was split into the Departmen ...

was conducting an investigation into allegations that African-American students in Paris's schools are disciplined more harshly than white students for similar offenses. In 2015, the United States

Equal Employment Opportunity Commission The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) is a federal agency that was established via the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to administer and enforce civil rights laws against workplace discrimination. The EEOC investigates discrimination ...

ruled after an investigation that African-American workers at the

Sara Lee Corporation The Sara Lee Corporation was an American consumer-goods company based in Downers Grove, Illinois. It had operations in more than 40 countries and sold its products in over 180 countries. Its international operations were headquartered in Utrec ...

plant in Paris (closed in 2011) were deliberately exposed disproportionately to asbestos, black mold, and other toxins, and also were targets of racial slurs and racist graffiti. Some Paris residents downplay the extent to which the town has a race-relations problem. Judge M. C. Superville commented "I do not believe there is systematic racial discrimination in Lamar County. I do believe there is a misperception that that is going on".

Economy

In the past, Paris was a major cotton exchange, and the county was developed as cotton plantations. While cotton is still farmed on the lands around Paris, it is no longer a major part of the economy. Paris' one major hospital has two campuses: Paris Regional Medical Center South (formerly St. Joseph's Hospital) and Paris Regional Medical Center North (formerly McCuistion Regional Medical Center). It serves as the center of healthcare for much of Northeast Texas and Southeast Oklahoma. Both campuses are now operated jointly under the name of the Paris Regional Medical Center, a division of Essent Healthcare. Paris Regional Medical Center South Campus has recently closed and only the North Campus remains open. The health network is one of the largest employers in the Paris area. Outside of healthcare, the largest employers are

Kimberly-Clark Kimberly-Clark Corporation is an American multinational personal care corporation that produces mostly paper-based consumer products. The company manufactures sanitary paper products and surgical & medical instruments. Kimberly-Clark brand ...

and

Campbell's Soup Campbell Soup Company, doing business as Campbell's, is an American processed food and snack company. The company is most closely associated with its flagship canned soup products; however, through mergers and acquisitions, it has grown to become ...

. ''Note: PRMC is Paris Regional Medical Center.''

Education

Paris July 2015 20 (Paris Public Library)

Elementary and secondary education is split among three main

school district A school district is a special-purpose district that operates local public primary and secondary schools in various nations. North America United States In the U.S, most K–12 public schools function as units of local school districts, w ...

s: *

Paris Independent School District Paris Independent School District is a public school district based in Paris, Texas, United States. It is a UIL region 4A district, and is the largest in Lamar County, with an enrollment of approximately 4,000 students. In 2009, the school d ...

* North Lamar Independent School District * Chisum Independent School District Prairiland ISD also serves a small portion of the town, along with Blossom ISD. In addition, Paris Junior College provides postsecondary education. It hosts the Texas Institute of Jewelry Technology, a well-respected school of gemology, horology, and jewelry. The Industrial Technology Division offers programs in air conditioning technology, refrigeration technology, agricultural technology, drafting and computer-aided design, electronics, electromechanical technology, and welding technology.

Texas A&M University-Commerce Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

, a major university of over 12,000 students, is located in the neighboring city of

Commerce Commerce is the large-scale organized system of activities, functions, procedures and institutions directly and indirectly related to the exchange (buying and selling) of goods and services among two or more parties within local, regional, natio ...

, 40 minutes southwest of Paris. The Paris Public Library serves Paris, as does the Lamar County Genealogical Society Library.

Government

Paris is governed by a

city council A municipal council is the legislative body of a municipality or local government area. Depending on the location and classification of the municipality it may be known as a city council, town council, town board, community council, rural coun ...

as specified in the city's charter adopted in 1948. Paris is represented in the

Texas Senate The Texas Senate ( es, Senado de Texas) is the upper house of the Texas State Legislature. There are 31 members of the Senate, representing single-member districts across the U.S. state of Texas, with populations of approximately 806,000 per co ...

by Republican Bryan Hughes, District 1, and in the

Texas House of Representatives The Texas House of Representatives is the lower house of the bicameral Texas Legislature. It consists of 150 members who are elected from single-member districts for two-year terms. As of the 2010 United States census, each member represents abo ...

by Republican Gary VanDeaver, District 1. The

Texas Department of Criminal Justice The Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) is a department of the government of the U.S. state of Texas. The TDCJ is responsible for statewide criminal justice for adult offenders, including managing offenders in state prisons, state jai ...

operates the Paris District Parole Office in Paris. At the federal level, the two U.S. senators from Texas are Republicans

John Cornyn John Cornyn III ( ; born February 2, 1952) is an American politician and attorney serving as the senior United States senator from Texas, a seat he has held since 2002. A member of the Republican Party, he served as the Senate majority whip for ...

and

Ted Cruz Rafael Edward "Ted" Cruz (; born December 22, 1970) is an American politician and attorney serving as the junior United States Senator from Texas since 2013. A member of the Republican Party, Cruz served as Solicitor General of Texas fro ...

. Paris is part of Texas's 4th congressional district, represented by Republican

Pat Fallon Patrick Edward Fallon (born December 19, 1967) is an American businessman and politician. A member of the Republican Party, he has been the U.S. representative for since 2021. He served the 30th district of the Texas Senate from 2019 to 2021. ...

. The

United States Postal Service The United States Postal Service (USPS), also known as the Post Office, U.S. Mail, or Postal Service, is an independent agency of the executive branch of the United States federal government responsible for providing postal service in the ...

operates the Paris Post Office.

Tourism and recreation

The city is home to several late-19th to mid-20th century stately homes. Among these is the Rufus Fenner Scott Mansion, designed by German architect J.L. Wees and constructed in 1910. The structure is solid concrete and steel with four floors. Rufus Scott was a prominent businessman known for shipping, imports, and banking. He was well known by local farmers, who bought aging transport mules from him. The Scott Mansion narrowly survived the fire of 1916. After the fire, Scott brought the architect Wees back to Paris to redesign the historic downtown area. *

Pat Mayse Lake Pat Mayse Lake is a reservoir in the Prairies and Lakes region of Texas, United States. It is in Lamar County near the towns of Chicota and Powderly. Paris, Texas is the nearest major city. The lake is managed by the United States Army Corps o ...

* Beaver's Bend Resort Park (Oklahoma) * Evergreen Cemetery – Located on the south side of town, there are over 50,000 people interred. This is the site of a noted tall "Jesus with cowboy boots" statue and grave marker of Willet Babcock, as well as the resting place of banker/philanthropist William J. McDonald, Confederate General/U.S. Senator Sam Bell Maxey, rancher Pitts Chisum, and cotton magnate John J. Culbertson. Pitts Chisum's more famous brother, John Chisum, is also buried in the city. * Sam Bell Maxey House – Maxey was a Confederate general and 2 time US Senator. * Paris Eiffel Tower * On October 4, 1955, early in his career,

Elvis Presley Elvis Aaron Presley (January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977), or simply Elvis, was an American singer and actor. Dubbed the " King of Rock and Roll", he is regarded as one of the most significant cultural figures of the 20th century. His ener ...

performed at the Boys Club Gymnasium at 1530 1st Street Northeast in Paris as a member of the

Louisiana Hayride ''Louisiana Hayride'' was a radio and later television country music show broadcast from the Shreveport Municipal Memorial Auditorium in Shreveport, Louisiana, that during its heyday from 1948 to 1960 helped to launch the careers of some of the ...

Jamboree tour. * Lamar County Historical Museum

Transportation

Paris has long been a railroad center. The

Texas and Pacific The Texas and Pacific Railway Company (known as the T&P) was created by federal charter in 1871 with the purpose of building a southern transcontinental railroad between Marshall, Texas, and San Diego, California. History Under the influence o ...

reached town in 1876; the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe Railway (later merged into the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway) and the Frisco in 1887; the Texas Midland Railroad (later Southern Pacific) in 1894; and the Paris and Mount Pleasant (Pa-Ma Line) in 1910. Paris Union Station, built 1912, served Frisco, Santa Fe, and Texas Midland passenger trains until 1956. Today, the station is used by the Lamar County Chamber of Commerce and serves as the research library for the Lamar County Genealogical Society.

Major highways

U.S. Highway 82 U.S. Route 82 (US 82) is an east–west United States highway in the Southern United States. Created on July 1, 1931 across central Mississippi and southern Arkansas, US 82 eventually became a 1,625-mile (2,615 km) route extending from ...

* U.S. Highway 271 * State Highway 19/ State Highway 24 * State Highway Loop 286 According to the Texas Transportation Commission, Paris is the second-largest city in Texas without a four-lane divided highway connecting to an

interstate highway The Dwight D. Eisenhower National System of Interstate and Defense Highways, commonly known as the Interstate Highway System, is a network of controlled-access highways that forms part of the National Highway System in the United States. T ...

within the state. However, those traveling north of the city can go into the Midwest on a four-lane thoroughfare via US 271 across the Red River into Oklahoma, and then the Indian Nation Turnpike from Hugo to Interstate 40 at Henryetta, which in turn continues as a free four-lane highway via US 75 to

Tulsa Tulsa () is the second-largest city in the state of Oklahoma and 47th-most populous city in the United States. The population was 413,066 as of the 2020 census. It is the principal municipality of the Tulsa Metropolitan Area, a region wit ...

. Paris is served by two taxicab companies.

Cox Field Cox Field is an airport seven miles east of Paris, in Lamar County, Texas. It is owned by the city of Paris but is operated and maintained by J.R. Aviation, the airport's fixed-base operator (FBO). History The airport opened in August 1943 as ...

provides general aviation services.

Notable people

Duane Allen Duane David Allen (born April 29, 1943) is an American singer/songwriter who had formal training in both operatic and quartet singing before becoming a member of The Oak Ridge Boys in 1966. Allen is the lead singer for the quartet and is hear ...

, member of

the Oak Ridge Boys The Oak Ridge Boys are an American country and gospel vocal quartet originating in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. The group was founded in the 1940s as the Oak Ridge Quartet. They became popular in Southern gospel during the 1950s. Their name was chang ...

* Tia Ballard, actress for Funimation Entertainment * Charles Baxter, physician, attended President Kennedy after he was fatally shot *

Raymond Berry Raymond Emmett Berry Jr. (born February 27, 1933) is an American former professional football player and coach in the National Football League (NFL). He played as a split end for the Baltimore Colts from 1955 to 1967, and after several assist ...

, professional football Hall of Famer * Tyler Bryant, blues rock guitarist * John Chisum, cattle baron * Gary B.B. Coleman, soul blues guitarist, singer, songwriter and record producer * Marsha Farney, Republican member of the

from Williamson County; reared in Paris, graduated from Paris Junior College, and taught school in Paris in 1990s * Bobby Jack Floyd, National Football League (NFL) fullback * Charles R. Floyd, three-term Democratic

state senator A state senator is a member of a state's senate in the bicameral legislature of 49 U.S. states, or a member of the unicameral Nebraska Legislature. Description A state senator is a member of an upper house in the bicameral legislatures of ...

; pioneer of the Texas farm-to-market road system and an original founder of Paris Junior College *

Cas Haley Benjamin Cas Haley (born 1980; Paris, Texas) is an American singer-songwriter, who specialises in reggae-inflected music when singing. He rose to national prominence by appearing on ''America's Got Talent'' in 2007, finishing as runner-up on tha ...

, singer/musician, NBC's season two of ''America's Got Talent'' runner-up *

Al Haynes Alfred Clair Haynes (August 31, 1931 – August 25, 2019) was an American airline pilot. He flew for United Airlines, and in 1989, came to international attention as the captain of United Airlines Flight 232, which crashed in Sioux City, Iowa aft ...

, commercial airline pilot, captain during the United Airlines Flight 232 crash * William Henry Huddle, Texas Capitol artist * Charlie Jackson, NFL football player * Frank Jackson, NFL football player * General

John P. Jumper John Phillip Jumper (born February 4, 1945) is a retired United States Air Force general, who served as 17th Chief of Staff of the United States Air Force from September 6, 2001 to September 2, 2005. He retired from the Air Force on November 1 ...

Chief of Staff of the United States Air Force The chief of staff of the Air Force (acronym: CSAF, or AF/CC) is a statutory office () held by a general in the United States Air Force, and as such is the principal military advisor to the secretary of the Air Force on matter pertaining to t ...

from 2001 to 2005 * Richard Gordon Kendall (1933–2008) self-taught outsider

folk art Folk art covers all forms of visual art made in the context of folk culture. Definitions vary, but generally the objects have practical utility of some kind, rather than being exclusively decorative. The makers of folk art are typically tr ...

ist * Beverly Leech, actress, portrayed Kate Monday on ''

Mathnet ''Mathnet'' is a segment on the children's television show ''Square One Television'' that follows the adventures of pairs of police mathematicians. It is a pastiche of ''Dragnet (1951 TV series), Dragnet''. Premise ''Mathnet'' is a pastiche of ...

'' * Samuel Bell Maxey, United States Senator and Confederate Major General *

Gordon McLendon Gordon Barton McLendon (June 8, 1921 – September 14, 1986Texas State Historical AssociationMcClendon, Gordon Barton/ref>) was a radio broadcaster. Nicknamed "the Maverick of Radio", McLendon is widely credited for perfecting, during the 1950s ...

, pioneer radio broadcaster and founder of the Liberty Broadcasting System *

Jay Hunter Morris Jay Hunter Morris (born July 3, 1963) is an American operatic tenor. He is best known internationally for the role of Siegfried in the Metropolitan Opera's 2011–12 series of Wagner's '' Ring Cycle'', performances of which were cinecast and radi ...

, operatic tenor * John Morris, actor * Robert Nelson (1920–1985), NFL professional football player *

John Osteen John Hillery Osteen (August 21, 1921 – January 23, 1999) was an American pastor and founding pastor of Lakewood Church in Houston, Texas, from its beginnings in 1959 until his death in 1999. His television program, ''John Osteen,'' ran for 16 ...

, pastor * Dave Philley, professional baseball player and holder of five MLB records * Bass Reeves, the first black deputy U.S. marshal to serve west of the Mississippi River, was based in Paris for four years in the late 19th century * Admiral James O. Richardson, United States Navy Fleet Commander 1940–1941 * Eddie Robinson, professional baseball player, four-time All-Star and Texas Rangers executive * Augusta Rucker, medical doctor, zoologist, public health lecturer * Jack Russell, professional baseball player and first relief pitcher selected to a

Major League Baseball All-Star Game The Major League Baseball All-Star Game, also known as the "Midsummer Classic", is an annual professional baseball game sanctioned by Major League Baseball (MLB) and contested between the all-stars from the American League (AL) and Nationa ...

Leslie Satcher Leslie Winn Satcher (born 1962) is a singer-songwriter based on Nashville, Tennessee. She has recorded two albums of her own, and has additionally co-written several singles for such artists as George Strait, Martina McBride, Pam Tillis, Gretc ...

, country music recording artist * William Scott Scudder, Major League Baseball pitcher * Gene Stallings, Alabama head coach 1990–1996 * Steven H. Tallant, president of Texas A&M University-Kingsville *

Starke Taylor Austin Starke Taylor Jr. (July 2, 1922 – October 27, 2014) was mayor of Dallas, Texas, from 1983 to 1987, and a cotton investor. Biography Taylor was born on July 2, 1922, in Paris, Texas, in Lamar County to Austin Starke Taylor Sr. and Veryl ...

, mayor of Dallas and businessman * Shangela Laquifa Wadley, comedian, reality television personality, and drag performer