It isn't your imagination.  I am from the South, and I heard the same thing too.  In fact, in some areas--east Texas for one--I have heard "where" pronounced as "were".
Karen

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I think this is actually an example of the merger in Southern US English of the vowels in 'pin' and 'pen'. Because this merger sometimes leads to ambiguities, certain dialect terms have developed; 'ink pen' is perhaps the most famous, to discriminate from 'pin'. With pairs such as bell/bill, context tells you if it's a dollar bill or a church bell.

 

Perhaps I have to mention that Southern American English needs to be kept separate from 'General American', and in particular, from the American Midlands dialect. With the different vowel distribution, as well as non-rhoticism (a la RP), it is quite different. The Charleston/South Carolina accent (the historian Shelby Foote is perhaps the most well known speaker of this dialect, but Strom Thurmond and others have it too), while Southern, is even more different.

 

I am not really that qualified to speak of real Texas accents, but they do divide along east and west. East Texas is more Southern. West Texas has a distinctive twang, but, as I recall, it is somewhat closer to the Midlands dialect. El Paso people almost tawk normal. 8-)

 

Mark.