Celebrated Texas Ranger shares his humor, memories

MARBLE FALLS — Celebrated author and retired Texas Ranger H. Joaquin Jackson talked more about others than he did about himself. 

When Jackson did talk about himself, he still found a way to compliment others. 

Jackson, now an iconic figure after he was pictured on the cover of Texas Monthly, came to autograph and discuss “One Ranger” and “One Ranger Returns,” his two memoirs about his service with one of the oldest law enforcement agencies in North America Thursday at the Marble Falls Public Library.  

“One Ranger” is in its 10th printing, and “One Ranger Returns” is in its third printing.

Someday, Hollywood may produce a movie based on his action-packed memoirs, Jackson said. 

“I had a fellow picked out to play me — but he died,” Jackson added. “His name was Don Knotts.” 

More than 50 listeners in the library cracked up. Knotts played the skin-and-bones, bumbling deputy Barney Fife in the popular “The Andy Griffith Show” 1960s television series. 

Some Hollywood producers have told Jackson the best actor to portray him in a movie about his life would be Tom Selleck. 

Which would be fine by Shirley, his wife of 46 years, Jackson said. 

“She said, ‘If Tom Selleck plays Joaquin, I’m playing myself,’” Jackson told the crowd. 

Loud laughter followed. 

Jackson is already a bit of an actor himself. He appeared in the films “Good Old Boys,” based on the Elmer Kelton novel, and in “Streets of Laredo,” based on the book by Larry McMurtry. 

“Kelton is one of the greatest Western writers this country ever had,” Jackson said. 

Jackson is friends with Selleck, Robert Duval, Tommy Lee Jones and other Hollywood actors. 

Yet, Jackson is still a little camera shy. 

“I’m not going to Hollywood — they have to come to me,” Jackson said. 

During his service as a Ranger from 1966 to 1993, he helped arrest killers, kidnappers and horse thieves. 

“Every day I wore the star was a great day,” Jackson recalled. “I got shot at, and I shot back. I saw a lot of tragedy. But I would go through it all again.” 

Jackson referred briefly to the classic black-and-white photograph by Dan Winters on the front of Texas Monthly, which helped sell a record number of copies for the magazine. 

The Winters photo — which also appears on the cover of “One Ranger” —  shows Jackson standing tall and alone somewhere on the plains of West Texas; carrying a rifle by his right side, the barrel pointed toward his boots; a pistol strapped to his left hip; his legs wrapped in chaps; his Rangers badge fastened above a breast pocket on his long-sleeve shirt; his throat covered with a neckerchief; a slight grin below his mustache; and his sunburned face partially hidden beneath a wide-brimmed cowboy hat. 

The image epitomizes rugged individualism and respect for the law of the land.  

“He made me look good,” Jackson said, referring to Winters. 

For the most part, ever since Stephen Austin founded the Rangers to protect settlers at Brazos-on-Washington in 1823, they “have conducted themselves well, and they have been respected,” Jackson said. 

“We have had great Rangers over the years,” Jackson added. 

However, the Rangers had reputedly committed “brutality” during Prohibition in the Rio Grande Valley, Jackson said. 

“I wasn’t there,” Jackson said. “It’s possible it could have happened. I can’t verify it.” 

He was one of 65 Rangers when he joined the organization in 1966, Jackson recalled. 

Today, there are more than 130 active-duty Rangers, and they are more apt to chase bad guys with a laptop computer than with a horse, he said. 

“They have all the modern technology,” Jackson added. 

Jackson retired from the Rangers at 57. 

“I got tired getting called out 2 or 3 o’clock in the morning,” Jackson recalled. 

Also at the time of his retirement, he resented what he viewed as an ill-advised plan by the late Gov. Ann Richards to force inexperienced women to join the Rangers. 

However, Jackson is no male chauvinist. 

“Two great things women have over men,” he said. “They have intuition, and they’ll kill you in a New York minute if you make them mad.” 

The crowd laughed. 

Today, the Rangers do have women within the ranks, and he hears they are doing well, Jackson added. 

He cherishes the memory of Richards, too. 

“She was a former school- teacher, and God bless schoolteachers,” Jackson said. “You certainly didn’t ask Ann Richards what she thought, if you didn’t want to hear what she thought.” 

In “One Ranger,” Jackson wrote, “I’ve come to realize that if Ann Richards wanted women in the Rangers, she should have pinned a badge on herself. She would have have made a good Texas Ranger.” 

While responding to questions from the audience, Jackson said expansive walls will not halt illegal immigration from Mexico. 

“I don’t think that is a working thing,” Jackson added. “It will just funnel (illegal immigrants) in a different direction.” 

Instead, satellites can be used to detect illegal immigrants, Jackson said. 

“The (satellite) technology is there now,” Jackson added. “I think (the U.S. Border Patrol) will be able to handle (illegal immigration) without building any fences.” 

In response to another question, Jackson said he was prone to sympathize with the plight of two U.S. Border Patrol officers in prison now for wounding a drug dealer in the back. 

“They tried to cover it up, and you just can’t do that,” Jackson added. 

Army Special Forces should be dispatched along the Mexican border to stop the illegal drug traffic in the region, Jackson said. 

“But I’m not a politician,” Jackson added. 

Along with Shirley, Jackson now operates a private investigation business in Alpine. 

One reporter asked Jackson if anyone ever asked him to run for political office. 

“No,” Jackson said, with a shy smile. 

raymond@thepicayune.com

Photo by Raymond V. Whelan