TLC #100: July 15, 2007
Dear Hearts & Gentle
People:
My heart is heavy as I write of the death of one
of my closest friends. Many of you knew Judy Cook '56 Watkins,
who passed away at her home in Pauls Valley,
Oklahoma, 7/14/2007. Services are Tuesday at 10 a.m. For further
information you may contact me by email or call 660-259-4559. Judy fought cancer
for 4 1/2 years with courage and grace. She also was known for her sense of
humor, which she maintained until the end.
From Shirley Briggle
Miller:
Would you run something on the death of
Billy Bob Hoeflicker? He was from Dover and didn't graduate from
LHS, but he was married for 55 years to Bessie Hackley, one of our
school's most beloved graduates. She lives in John Knox in
Higginsville. He died June 6.
And, as always, the whole TLC was great!
I loved the photos of your class reunion!
My favorite was "Hello."
Those of you who haven't had a chance to view the LHS Class of 1957
50th Reunion may go to:
John '58 Cross wrote regarding his recent retirement and new
email address. He also said:
I hope the class '57 reunion was a
rousing success.
It
was, thank you.
Welcome aboard, new subscriber H.J.
Guillia!
Norma Gadt suggested a name
for the Characters of Lexington list:
How about Rev. Stafford, Chaplain for WMA and
Pastor for the First Presbyterian Church. What a Gem he was. He was
at church every Sunday evening to chaperone the teens and pre-teens for a couple
of hours. I certainly have very fond memories of him.
Jan Beretta '54 Beyer was happy to see
Jim O'Malley remembered her mother Helyn
Beretta:
Jim O'Malley thinking of my mom reminded
me of when he use to sing solos at the Catholic Church. They would practice
together, and the result was just beautiful. Mom played the organ at the
Catholic Church for close to 50 years.
Mary Pat Gueguen '58 Miller answered
a question:
I'm sure there were several people
reporting this, but Paul Henry (Hank) Wilson died several years
ago. I see his buddy, Bill Seiter, sometimes. Is he on this
list?
No, he isn't. But we can take care of that if he
wants to be.
Don Stephenson vouched for Jim
O'Malley's memory from Arizona:
With regard to Jim O'Malley's comments about a
Lexington colony in the Phoenix area that used to socialize together, I can
personally confirm that this was true. I moved to the Phoenix area in
1960. A group of us former Lexingtonians including O. W. Drumm,
Humphrey Guillou, "Scraps" Parks, and I used to get together to
attend the Arizona State football games, after which we would get together at
one of our homes for refreshments. Our wives didn't attend the football
games but would visit with each other while we attended the games.
By the way, the story that Scraps Parks would
tell about why he moved to Arizona was that he was actually moving to California
and his car broke down in Phoenix. He said he didn't have the money to
have it fixed and so he just stayed in Arizona. Scraps was quite a joker,
so I don't really know whether the story is true or not.
On another subject, with regard to the name of
the lady that ran the Palace of Sweets, it seems to me that we used to call that
shop Hinesley's. I had heard the story about her hair being caught in a
fan but never knew whether it was true or not. But I will say that the
permanent strain lines or scars that showed on her upper face would lend
credence to this story.
Shirley
Briggle '53 Miller made up for lost time in writing this past
month:
I was pretty sure about the Junk Yard being on both sides of 14th
Street. But I don't think the entire collection was sold off during WW
II. In fact, I believe that you could take such things as aluminum and
sell it to him "for the war effort." And if the entire collection was sold
off at that time, then he started it again, because as I told you, Pierre bought
out what was left of the junk yard (I think in the 60's)and some of the things
he found had been there a lonnnng time, judging by what they were.
And
of course Ike Entine's wife was Helen, not Stella.
I don't recall whether I ever discussed this
with you, but I keep reading in the Lexington News about attempts to
bring any kind of business to Lex., and years ago I made a suggestion that never
went anywhere.
You may know about it, but maybe not . .
. there is a First Monday antiques, etc., sale that opens in Canton, Texas the
Thursday before the first Monday of every month. It is huge. There
is an entire "fairground" built just for that, and people come from everywhere
to sell their wares from booths, and from everywhere to buy.
That seemed to me to be a natural for
Lexington, and I told Ken Nadler about it when he still had the funeral
home, and I still had knees. I told him if he would get together a little
group of business/Chamber of Commerce people and bring them down, I would take
them to Canton and Jefferson, Texas. The whole town of Jefferson is
antique shops and the luxury train car of railroad tycoon Jay Gould, who first
made Jefferson a train Mecca, then pulled all of it away when the town didn't
want his rails going through the middle of their town.
Both these places can be Googled, I'm sure, and
a delegation could visit them and ask questions, then maybe copy both of them
and lure people to Lexington. Unfortunately, I can no longer trounce
around East Texas -- at least not until I get a couple of knee replacements
-- but they don't need a chaperone to do this.
SOOOOOOO -- I got to thinking about this the
last few days, wondering whom I could tell it to who might get a ball rolling or
get somebody else to do it. Naturally, I thought of you. I mean,
maybe you're not chairman of anything right this minute, and maybe you
could bring it up at a City Council meeting or something.
Whaddaya think?
I think I have enough on my plate right now,
thank you. But I'm printing this in case someone will pick up that ball and run
with it.
Those of us who
have Maid-Rites still running through our veins will enjoy our
webmaster Bob '58 Ball's recent
commentary:
Speaking of
Maid-Rite, (wife) LeeAnn and I had stuff from there for lunch on
Saturday. LeeAnn still doesn't appreciate the glory of a true
Maid-Rite and has a regular cheeseburger, instead! Did you know Maid-Rite has a
web site? You might mention it in a TLC sometime:
But I doubt
it.
I doubt it
too.
This newsletter
performs occasional services, and we recently preserved a happy home.
Joyce Spease was desperate:
I did a horrible thing,I accidentally deleted my last two
newsletters before my brother-in-law got to read them and he is coming by in a
day or two and here I am without them.Would it be possible for you to send them
to me again PLEASE?? He is really wanting to see the
pictures of his class
reunion ('57) that was held a while back at The Brewery. I had told him how good
the pictures turned out. I know you had it on a link in one of those newsletters
but don't remember which one(memory is going).I have looked on the TLC
website but can't find it, I must be doing something wrong.Can you help or do I
have to run away from home?
I'm happy to report I was able to provide what she needed to
Joyce, and she reports she has unpacked her bags.
If your homelife
is threatened, you too can find all sorts of TLC information at our web pages
Plus there are
recent photos taken during the observation of the 250th anniversary of the birth
of Marquis de Lafayette, for whom our county (formerly Lillard) is named. It was
an amazing ceremony.
And, as a bonus,
you will see the Lexington Historical Association's Ice Cream Social which
featured entertainment by the marvelous Marshall Municipal
Band.
Thus ends an historic issue: the 100th edition of TLC which
we began in February 2001. There are now over 450 subscribers. To those of
you who haven't written, people are waiting to hear from
YOU!
Your devoted scribe,
Susan
Links to other pages