Katy Vine and Meher Yeda explore the Heartsills, a West Texas family whose lives revolve around competitive hot‑air ballooning. As they note, “Joe has spent a lifetime building a fierce bond with his family, and their shared dedication to ballooning—the determination, discipline, and devotion they bring to the sport—is part of what binds them so tightly.” Each member contributes in the air or on the ground, but it is patriarch Joe who sits at the heart of it all, and as he nears retirement, the family rallies around him for one more collective push skyward.
But even among that exclusive class, there are no competitors quite like the Heartsills. They are the first family of balloon racing—the Mannings of a sport with a tiny fraction of football’s fandom. Joe Heartsill, the clan’s 75-year-old patriarch, is built compact and lean, like a trail runner, with powder-white hair and tanned skin that betrays the years he spent working as a realtor beneath the West Texas sun. He tends to survey a room like an eagle at its perch, masking his killer instinct with a warm smile or an encouraging nod.
More picks from Texas Monthly
The Guadalupe Swept Us Away. This Is the Story of All That Came After.
“In the days after last July’s historic disaster, I wrote about the tragedy that befell my family. But crawling out of the river was only the beginning.”
One Man’s Quest for the End of the World Started on a Ranch in Texas
“A Texas businessman believes he was divinely chosen to help usher in the Second Coming of Christ—by finding unblemished red heifers and getting them to Israel.”
This Texas Teenager Is One of the World’s Most Feared Fighters. Don’t Expect Her to Talk About It.
“Not yet twenty, Helena Crevar is one of the most feared fighters in martial arts. What’s her secret?”
Will Dad and I Ever See Texas the Same Way?
“A noted Texas historian and his adult child get behind the wheel to see if they can finally view their home state the same way.”
Inside the Deadliest Immigration-Related Disaster in US History
“He went in search of a better life for his family. His brother refused to let him go alone. Only one survived the journey.”
The Baby Whisperer
“Marian Fraser once ran the go-to day care for Waco’s elite. But the community turned against her after she was arrested for the death of a child in her charge. The evidence against her was circumstantial, yet many came to believe there had long been a dark secret to her success.”
