Renaming Central would cost more than simply adding Landry's name to a road known only by a number. That's why Linden Burgess, the Dallas-based manager of traffic operations for the state highway department, thinks the gesture would be better applied to the section of Interstate 30 that connects Dallas and Fort Worth. It'll cost half as much. One of Burgess' colleagues tried making that exact change a few years ago, but was rebuffed by a Dallas rule that said anyone honored must be dead at least two years. Assistant city attorney John Rogers said a new provision would allow the city council to waive the waiting period.
Memorialized highways are common in the Dallas areas.
Honorees include former presidents Lyndon B. Johnson and George Bush as well as several former local leaders. As nice as those potential honors are, it will be hard to top what the Carrollton-Farmers Branch school district has been doing since 1996. Every six weeks, a student in each grade, kindergarten through sixth, is honored for best epitomizing The Landry Way. The kids at Mission High School don't need any explanation about the guy whom their football stadium has been named after since 1984. Landry is a hero to folks in the town located on the western edge of the Rio Grande Valley, a few miles north of Mexico.