Natalie Maines to Be Inducted Into West Texas Walk of Fame

The 2015 West Texas Walk of Fame Inductees have been announced, and many West Texans may be surprised to see that Lubbock native Natalie Maines is one of the inductees.

In a press release from Civic Lubbock, new inductees for 2015 are the aforementioned Natalie Maines, who is a singer, songwriter and daughter of previous Walk of Fame inductee Lloyd Maines, and Jo Harvey Allen, a Lubbock playwright, poet and female radio pioneer.

The induction ceremony will take place Thursday, September 17 at 6 p.m. inside the Lubbock High School Auditorium at 2004 19th Street.

So has West Texas officially forgiven Maines for what she said in 2003 regarding then-President George W. Bush's plans for war in Iraq? Maines said that she was "ashamed the President of the United States is from Texas."

Maines was performing with her band The Dixie Chicks in London when she made the comments.

The statement prompted irate listeners to phone, email and otherwise bombard country music radio stations until The Dixie Chicks were pulled from country music playlists all over the country. West Texas and Lubbock were no exceptions.

In a 2013 interview with Rolling Stone, Maines made it clear that she did not regret the statement.

Is this a sign of the times? It seems that more than enough time has passed and that West Texas is wanting to honor two Lubbock women who have made enormous impacts in their fields not only locally, but nationally and on a worldwide stage.

Eddie Moreno, chair for the West Texas Walk of Fame, told me that when we are young, we all do things that sometimes we wish we had done differently. He also said that Jo Harvey Allen has had a huge impact on Natalie Maines and her career, and that "we want to focus on the positive contribution these women have made locally and worldwide."

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