For such appearances appraisers are often recognized in public, even at fast-food counters. "My phone rang one day in a small-town Dairy Queen," David recalls. "I started talking, and two ladies turned around and said, ‘We know who you are.' "

Meanwhile, Back in Texas Usually these appraisers work quietly in their private lives. Beth, a graduate of the University of Mississippi, resides in a two-story home filled with antiques and graced with a backyard where she gardens. She spends a great deal of time in research amid books and on her computer, learning why glass made during World War I is yellow or why a sideboard built with American wood was made in England.

John, a Tulane University graduate, also spends much of his time in research for his Dallas firm, Art Trak, Inc. David, a Sweetwater native and Baylor University alumnus, owns David Lackey Antiques & Art in Houston, and works with Edish, a china replacement service.

Bruce, born into a ranching family, says the world of fine arts seemed far away during his West Texas boyhood. "In Abilene back then, you could either fiddle with horses or go shoot something. Somehow I was directed into art," he quips. After earning degrees at The University of Texas at Austin and University of Oklahoma, he worked as a museum director and then as a cowboy on his family's ranch.

He now consults, curates exhibits, and contributes to books. Like Beth, David, and John, Bruce looks forward each summer to weekends with friends "like family" and seeing another city's attic coming down the escalator on a Roadshow Saturday. Gary D. Ford

"Texas Stars of Antiques Roadshow" is from the January 2007 issue of Texas Living: People & Places, a special section for our Texas readers.