Who was Duane? The story behind the app

Duane Wilkinson in his bolo tie, seated with four generations of family on the Nebraska farm — Four generations on the farm — Papa Cowboy in his bolo tie, my mom, me, and the girls.

I always called him Papa Cowboy.

He was born in Lincoln, Nebraska, in 1928, served in the Navy in World War II, and spent most of his life running restaurants — places like The Red Rooster, famous around town for their southern fried chicken and onion rings. He was an avid history and genealogy buff, the kind of man who actually wanted to know where things came from and why they mattered.

He wore a bolo tie in basically every photo I have of him, and there was always a cowboy hat somewhere in his office. He loved visiting us in Texas — driving the back roads with my mom, slowing down for the historical markers they passed along the way. He would have absolutely pulled over for that brown sign on the side of the highway.

Duane in a bolo tie holding two of his great-grandchildren on the couch — There was a bolo tie in just about every photo.

Duane smiling down at a newborn great-grandchild, two young girls beside him — He had a way with the little ones.

He passed away in 2013, at 85 — surrounded by his kids, his grandkids, and his great-grandkids. Five children, fourteen grandchildren, twenty great-grandchildren. He'd lived in the same Nebraska farmhouse he loved for fifty years.

Duane standing with family in front of the Nebraska farmhouse he lived in for fifty years — In front of the Nebraska farmhouse he loved for fifty years.

When I started building this app, his was the voice I kept hearing.

Curious. Unhurried. Genuinely interested in the story. That's the spirit I wanted riding shotgun with you — someone who's glad you asked, and has all the time in the world to tell you what happened here.

So I named it Duane.

— Michael

Who was Duane?

That's who's reading you Texas.