DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of the story as the official marker has it, right here in Anderson County, Texas. Now settle in, because this one is something else. Born on December 14, 1917, in Groesbeck, Limestone County — Osjetea Briggs came into this world the daughter of Simeon Singleton Briggs and Docia Augusta Briggs, and from the very start, she was building toward something that most people wouldn't have predicted for a young Native American woman in Texas.
She got her schooling, finished high school, and then did what the bold ones do — she left. Headed to Houston. And in Houston, she worked as a film re-toucher, which tells you right there she already had an eye for what makes an image true.
But that wasn't going to hold her for long. She took an unpaid job — unpaid, mind you — as the associate editor of The Houstonian newspaper, because some people follow the work that calls them, not the work that pays them. Throughout the 1940s, she was traveling the world with a camera.
The whole wide world. Then in the 1950s, she came back to East Texas and put down roots in Palestine — opened her own photography studio. And through that lens, she captured downtown Palestine, the faces of local residents, the community groups that held a town together.
In 1954, she helped found and advise the Anderson County Council of Honor. Now this was a male-dominated organization that honored citizens across eleven East Texas counties for their community service — and Osjetea was right there at the center of it, advising and guiding, for forty years. Forty years.
Then came the early 1960s, and she didn't slow down — she founded, edited, and published her own weekly newspaper, the Elkhart Eagle. Won awards for articles in the Grapeland Messenger and the Groesbeck Journal. And her column in the Elkhart Eagle — she called it Walk in my Moccasins — that column earned outstanding recognition for covering the assassination of President John F.
Kennedy. The weight of that moment, and she was there, in print, bearing witness. In 1992, she turned that column and those years of stories into a book — Walk in my Moccasins, three hundred and five pages of her newspaper work and experiences, published for the world to hold.
And if all of that weren't enough, she was a member of the Anderson County Democratic Executive Committee and a delegate to the Texas Democratic Convention. She was not a woman who sat at the edges of things. Osjetea Briggs died on April 7, 2002, and she is buried near Groesbeck — not far from where she started.
Photographer. Artist. Writer.
Founder. Editor. Publisher.
Forty years of service to eleven counties. One life, and she filled every corner of it. Walk in her moccasins if you can.
What the marker says
Native American photographer, artist and writer Osjetea Briggs was born on December 14, 1917, to Simeon Singleton Briggs (1877-1974) and Docia Augusta (Gant) Briggs (1894-1969) in Groesbeck, Limestone County, Texas. Following her high school education, Osjetea moved to Houston where she worked as a film re-toucher until she took an unpaid job as the associate editor of The Houstonian newspaper. Throughout the 1940s, she traveled the world as a photographer but moved to Palestine in the 1950s and opened her own photography studio. Her photographs captured downtown Palestine and local residents, as well as Palestine community groups. In 1954, she helped found and advise the Anderson County Council of Honor, a male-dominated organization that honored local citizens across eleven East Texas counties for their community service, a position she held for 40 years. In the early 1960s, she founded, edited and published her own weekly newspaper, the Elkhart Eagle and won awards for articles in the Grapeland Messenger and the Groesbeck Journal. Her column "Walk in my Moccasins" in the Elkhart Eagle won outstanding recognition for covering the assassination of U.S. President John F. Kennedy. In 1992, Osjetea's book, Walk in my Moccasins, was published, a 305-page compilation of her newspaper stories and experiences. In addition to her writing and photography career, Osjetea was a member the Anderson County Democratic Executive Committee and a delegate to the Texas Democratic Convention. Briggs' continuous dedication to her community and heritage benefitted Palestine as well as the greater State of the Texas. She died on April 7, 2002, and is buried near Groesbeck. (2017)