No one is too old or too young to act heroically.
At the age of 53, Gordon C. Jennings was the oldest hero to die at the Alamo.
At the age of 10, his daughter Katy became a hero in her own right.
As news spread that the Alamo had fallen, panicked pioneers fled quickly toward Texas’ eastern border with the United States, where they hoped to find safety. This mass exodus is known as the Runaway Scrape.
On their farm in Manor, the Jennings family waited anxiously for news. Even when she heard that the Alamo had fallen, Catherine and her four youngest children stood their ground, but when the Mexican army under General Gaona crossed the Colorado River near town on April 12, 1836, she no longer had a choice.
The family quickly threw a few essentials into the family wagon. Thirteen-year-old Abigail and eleven-year-old Joseph could help their mother manage the trip with five-year-old Samuel, but Catherine had another job for Katy.
“Take the horse and don’t bother with the saddle. There’s no time. Ride west to Barton Creek, fast as you can. Make sure everyone along the way knows the danger. Whatever you do, don’t come back here! Find a family heading east and go with them. I’ll find you.”
Bareback, Katy lit out “at great speed” to make the thirty mile trip.
Small wonder she’s remembered as “the Paul Revere of Texas.”
