Albert Lavada Durst was born on the 12th of January 1913 in Austin. He learned to play the piano as a child and developed a unique style of barrelhouse blues that defined his career.
Albert Lavada Durst became the first black radio disc jockey in Texas in 1948. John Connally, the manager of radio station KVET, hired Durst to serve as the station's first black disc jockey and a baseball commentator for Negro league games.
Albert Lavada Durst used the name Dr. Hepcat for his radio persona. This persona appealed to both white and black listeners and introduced an entire generation of white Austinites to jazz, blues, and rhythm and blues.
Albert Lavada Durst published The Jives of Dr. Hepcat in 1953. This dictionary of jive talk captured the vernacular of the era and served as a cultural artifact that preserved the language of the African American community.
Albert Lavada Durst was ordained as a minister at Mount Olive Baptist Church in 1965. He gave up performing for several years to focus on his spiritual duties and community work before returning to play at festivals from the mid-1970s.
Albert Lavada Durst retired from KVET in the early 1960s and worked as the director of athletics for the Rosewood Recreation Center in Austin from the mid-1940s until 1979. He was credited in 1978 by Wax magazine as one of the inventors of rock'n'roll radio.