b'H e r i t a g eTerry Labontes dad was really in to race cars, and introduced his son to the quarter-midget when he was just sevenat age nine, Terry was the national champion and by the time he was a teenager, he was winning stock car races on short tracks in Corpus Christi, San Antonio and Houston. He was a star in the making, and in 1978 made his NASCAR debut at Darlington Speedway in South Carolina at the age of 22. Over the following three decades, Labonte would win the NASCAR Winston Cup Series and IROC Championship twice, racing for some of the sports most famous owners like Roger Staubach, Troy Aikman, Joe Gibbs, Michael Waltrip, and Richard Petty. He was inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame in 2016 and named one of NASCARs Top 50 Drivers. Terrys younger brother, Bobby Labonte, is also a Winston Cup and IROC Championship winner. Although the family has not lived in the Coastal Bend full-time since 1980, the Labontes have continued to be part of the community, supporting causes like the Ronald McDonald House in Corpus Christi. The Citys park along IH-37 at the Nueces River was named Labonte Park in their honor.Eva Longoria grew up in a one-bath-room farmhouse on a small ranch on the west side of Corpus Christi, a piece of land that was part of a Spanish land grant to her seventh great-grandfather in 1767. The Lon-gorias emigrated to Mexico, then re-ferred to as the Viceroy of New Spain,Lou Diamond Phillips (yes, his real in 1603, but her familys semi-royalname) was born on the Subic Bay status had long faded by the time she(Phillippines) U. S. Naval Base in 1962 was born in 1975. to a Filipino mother who was mar-Her father, Enrique, was a mechani- ried to a U. S. Marine air tanker crew cal engineer at Corpus Christi Armychief. Just a year after he was born, Depot, but with six kids to raise,his father died, and not long after his the family did not lead an affluentmother remarried, his stepfather was lifestyle. Wanting to earn money for atransferred to NAS Corpus Christi and quinceaera on her fifteenth birthday,the family moved to Flour Bluff. The Eva lied about her age to get a job atstar pupil of the high schools storied Wendys at age 13. After graduatingDrama teacher, Mrs. Chapman, Lou from Miller High School, she attendedwas encouraged to pursue theater Texas A&M Kingsville and earned her bachelors degree in kinesiologyas aarts at U. T. Arlington, where he senior, she entered and won the Miss Corpus Christi pageant and was awarded aearned a Bachelors Degree in Drama trip to Los Angeles where she landed a part on an episode of Beverly Hills 90210and took his first steps toward landing and then a full time role on The Young and the Restless, her big break. roles in Hollywoodand did he ever!Eva Longoria became a household name after delivering standout performancesPhillips big break still defines his ca-on ABCs Desperate Housewives, in which she starred in 180 episodes over eightreer, starring as 1950s Rock-n-Roll star Ritchie Valens, who tragically died at age years from 2004-12. Just as impressive and lucrative as her acting career is Evas17 in the plane crash that took the lives of Buddy Holly and the Big Bopper, in work as a celebrity endorser, landing contracts with some of the biggest brands1987s La Bamba. After his rookie hit as a movie star, Phillips made another mark in the world including LOral makeup, York & Co., Magnum Ice Cream, Heineken,in Stand and Deliver, alongside Edward James Olmos, and from there his stardom Microsoft, Bebe Sport, and even our favorite grocery store chain, HEB! Eva hasexploded when he co-starred with Emilio Esteves and Kiefer Sutherland in Young been acclaimed for her philanthropy and civil rights work, and is yet anotherGuns I and II. In the years since, Phillips played the King of Siam on Broadway and shining star of a role model for Corpus Christians and Latinas everywhere. has appeared in numerous TV productions. 98 THE COASTAL BEND TOUR+RELO+BUILD GUIDE TheCoastalBend.com'