author
Loraine Daly
Remembered for a lively career in music and modeling before turning to regional history, this Texas writer helped bring Padre Island’s story to a wider audience. Her best-known book grew out of a personal fascination with the island and its past.
1 Audiobook
The Padre Island Story
by Loraine Daly, Pat Reumert
About the author
Raised in the Texas Hill Country and born as Hidalgarde Weicklein, she later adopted the professional name Loraine Daly. Before publishing books, she built a public career as a singer and model, studying voice at Incarnate College and performing on radio and with big-band leader Herbie Kay.
In the 1950s she co-wrote the song Come with Me to Padre Island with Carl Johnson and performed it as a vocalist. A few years later, after being named Miss Padre Island during a 1959 visit, she became deeply interested in the island’s history.
That interest led to The Padre Island Story, co-authored with Pat Reumert and published in 1962. The book traced Padre Island’s history from the 1550s to modern times and was reprinted several times, helping preserve and popularize a piece of Texas coastal history.