State Legislature proclaimed "Elmer Kelton Day". In 1998, he received the first Lone Star Award for Lifetime Achievement from the Larry McMurtry Center for Arts and Humanities at Midwestern State University in Wichita Falls. Kelton received honorary doctorates from Hardin-Simmons University in Abilene and Texas Tech University at Lubbock. Kelton also received a lifetime achievement award from the National Cowboy Symposium in Lubbock. He is honored with a star in the sidewalk at the Fort Worth Stockyards in Fort Worth. Personal life Kelton was married to Anni Lipp, a native of Austria. They had three children. One son, Gerhard (also known as "Gary") of Plainview, is Anni's son who was adopted by Kelton. The other son and a daughter are Steve Kelton and Kathy Kelton, both of San Angelo. He also had three brothers, Merle Kelton and his wife, Ann, of May, Texas; Bill Kelton and his wife, Pat, of Atlanta, Texas; and Eugene Kelton and his wife, Peggy, of McCamey, Texas. Kelton was working on another book, but was facing several health problems in early 2009. The book had not been completed before he died on August 22, 2009, from natural causes. His funeral was held on August 27, 2009, at the First United Methodist Church in San Angelo. A life-sized statue of Kelton by Raul Ruiz is displayed at the Stevens Central Library in San Angelo. Beginning in 2014, the Academy of Western Artists, based in Gene Autry, Oklahoma, awarded the first of its annual Elmer Kelton book awards to successful authors in the categories of fiction and nonfiction. Awards Bibliography Partial list of works: Barbed Wire (1957) Buffalo Wagons (1957) Shadow of a Star (1958) Texas Rifles (1960) Donovan (1961) Massacre at Goliad (1965) After the Bugles (1967) Llano River (1968) The Day the Cowboys Quit (1971) Wagontongue (1972) The Time it Never Rained (1973) The Wolf and the Buffalo (1980) Dark Thicket (1985) Honor at Daybreak (1991) Slaughter (1992) The Far Canyon (1994) The Pumpkin Rollers (1996) Cloudy in the West (1997) The Smiling Country (1998) Way of the Coyote (2001) Jericho's Road (2004) Six Bits a Day (2005) Ranger's Law: A Lone Star Saga (2006) The Rebels: Sons of Texas (2007) Many A River (2009) Texas Ranger Novels: The Buckskin Line Badger Boy The Way of the Coyote Ranger's Trail Texas Vendetta Jericho's Road Hard Trail to Follow Other Men's Horses Texas Standoff See also