Louise S. O’Connor was born in Victoria, Texas, a fifth-generation member of the O’Connor family, which has been ranching the Texas Coastal Bend since 1834.

She began photographing on her family’s ranches in the early 1970’s while studying photography and attending colleges and universities in the state.  A graduate of Nazareth Academy in Victoria, the author attended Loretto Heights College in Denver, Victoria College, and University of Texas at Austin. She majored in History, English, and American Studies.

In 1996, the author was awarded an Honorary Masters of Art from Bath University College in Bath, England, for her work in the preservation of Texas history.

Her portraits of the people of the Texas Coastal Bend have been exhibited all over the United States since 1988.

Louise S. O’Connor lives on her family ranches and continues to deepen her historic research using oral interviews and photographs.  She continues the study of the history of the Texas Coastal Bend and is planning more volumes of “Tales from the San’Tone River Bottom”. She is also preparing a study of the Irish settlement of the Coastal Bend as well as several other volumes addressing this unique culture. 

“We loved to work cattle so much we’d just be sittin’ around cryin’ for daylight to come…”
                                         Will King, Itinerant Cowhand 1902-1985

“You know, I been thinkin’ –I started workin’ cattle when I was 14. I been on horseback that many years.  I love the work, don’t care how hot, how cold.  I love it.”
                                                               Alejandro de la Garza “Alex”,
                                                               Cowhand, O’Connor Ranches