Hunt Co., TX - News: Hunt County News 1957-1958 ***************************************************** This file was contributed for use in the USGenWeb by: Sarah Swindell USGenWeb Archives. Copyright. All rights reserved http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm ***************************************************** FIRE DESTROYS FARM HOME OF THE ELMER LACYS, 1958 The nice farmhouse of Mr. and Mrs. Elmer Lacy, who live about 2 ½ miles south of Leonard, was destroyed by fire on Sunday, January 19, 1958, about 10:45 AM. Mr. Lacy had lighted a fire in the kitchen and bathroom and had gone to the living room. When he returned to the bathroom, it was completely engulfed in flames. The house and the contents were a total loss with only a chair or two being saved. (January 24, 1958) The nice farmhouse of Mr. and Mrs. Elmer Lacy, who live about 2 ½ miles south of Leonard, was destroyed by fire on Sunday, January 19, 1958, about 10:45 AM. Mr. Lacy had lighted a fire in the kitchen and bathroom and had gone to the living room. When he returned to the bathroom, it was completely engulfed in flames. The house and the contents were a total loss with only a chair or two being saved. (January 24, 1958) ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- CELESTE WOMAN ATTENDS CAMP Mrs. B. W. Raper, RR 1, Celeste, is attending the Longhorn Recreation Laboratory at Glen Lake Camp, Glen Rose, for a week’s training to help adults learn to lead recreation, according to Jack Doby, assistant Hunt County agent. (January 31, 1958) ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- PATRICIA BURNETT NAMED HOMEMAKER OF TOMORROW HERE Patricia Ann Burnett has been named the "Betty Crocker Homemaker of Tomorrow" in Celeste. She received the highest score in a written examination on homemaking knowledge and attitudes taken by graduating girls in Celeste High School. Her examination paper now will be entered in competition with those of 628 other school winners to name this sates’ candidate for the title of All- American Homemaker of Tomorrow and will also be considered for the runner-up award in the state. Each State Homemaker of Tomorrow will received a $1,500.00 scholarship and an educational trip with her school advisor to Washington, D. C., Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia, and New York City. A $500.00 scholarship will be awarded the second ranking girl in each state. The school of the state winner receives a set of The Encyclopedia Britannica. The national winner will be named on April 17, 1958, at a banquet in the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York City. The scholarship of the All-American Homemaker of Tomorrow will be increased to $5,000. Girls who rank second, third, and fourth in the nation will receive $4,000, $3,000, and $2,000 scholarships, respectively. (January 31, 1958) ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- M/SGT. K. R. GRIFFIS NCO OF WEEK Editor's Note The following appeared in a Hawaiian newspaper, which features a non- commissioned US Army officer each week. This particular article concerns a young man known to most of the Celeste people, M/Sgt. Kenneth R. Griffis. "Time was when you could be almost certain that a Master Sergeant was an ‘old- timer’ with a long service record. But today, in the neoteric army, the trend is toward youthful ‘top-kicks.’ Typifying this trend is M/Sgt. Kenneth R. Griffis, 26, aggressive First Sergeant from A Company, 14th Infantry, who rose to his present rank from PFC in five months of Korean combat. He was only twenty-one then. The current Schofield-Lightning News’ NCO of the Week isn’t the sensational type; he’s impressed his superiors with his dependability. There’s no mountain of paper work that’s too high for Griffis, who will make the deadline every time. The wiry Texan came to Company A last April with a topflight recommendation from past commanders, and assumed his present position in June. He’s been a battalion sergeant major twice. Griffis began Army life in 1950 at Fort Ord, California, and not long afterwards was a … there at Camp Breckenridge, Kentucky and at Fort Sill, Oklahoma. In Korea, he moved up the line—from platoon messenger to platoon sergeant. (Cannot read) A construction worker and a farmer in civilian life, Griffis intends to stay in the Army. He lives with his wife Frances and two children." (May 19, 1957) ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Decker Jackson President of IBA W. C. (Decker) Jackson, Jr., Dallas, Texas, was elected president of the Investment Bankers Association of America, at that Associations Annual Meeting in Hollywood, Florida. Jackson is president of First Southwest Company, Dallas, one of the more prominent investment banking firms in the Southwest, with branch offices in Lubbock, Plainview, Abilene, Tyler, and San Antonio. Except for three and one-half years with the US Navy during WWII, Jackson has been engaged in the securities business in Dallas for the past twenty-seven years. He was born in Celeste, and upon completion of his formal education entered the employ of the First National Bank, Plano, in 1928. Two years later, he became cashier and assistant secretary-treasurer of the Ulen Securities company, Dallas. In 1932, with Joe M. Callihan, he organized Callihan and Jackson, a partnership engaging in the investment banking business, which was subsequently incorporated and then liquidated (1942) when Decker Jackson became a Lieutenant (jg), USNR, and another principal left he business to serve with the US Army. Jackson was returned to inactive duty in 1945 with a permanent rank of Lieutenant Commander and was awarded Letters of Commendation by the Secretary of the Navy. Early in 1946, the First Southwest Company was organized, with Jackson serving as a director and president of the company since inception. He is a director and president of Jackson and Company; Antelope Oil Corporation; and Provident Oil Company; and a directory of Electrical Log Services, Inc.; Ripley Shirt Company; and Goodwill Industries, Inc., of Dallas. He has been a trustee of the Municipal Advisory Council of Texas since it was organizes several years ago, serving as chairman of the Board of Trustees in 1956-1957. —Bankers Digest (December 30, 1957, The Celeste Courier) ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- COLD SPELL OF 1875 A RECORD BREAKER Arthur P. Green of Celeste has in his possession a copy of a letter written on March 21, 1875, by T. J. Willis of White Rock, Hunt County, to his brother, in which he described a cod spell that recent hit this section. Warren Culberson, weather forecaster for WFAA-TV furnished him the copy. He relates that on Friday, March 5th, he worked all day in his shirtsleeves and around dark the wind shifted to the north and it commenced snowing. It snowed all day Saturday so that a house 300 yards away was not visible and drifted in places waist deep to shoulder deep and was about two feet deep all over the prairie. He blanketed his horses to keep them from freezing and said he had never seen so many dead cattle. It was followed later by another norther. He said times were mighty hard and money scarce. Corn and wheat were selling for $1.50 cash; oats, seventy-five cents; flour, $4.50 per/100 pounds; sorghum, seventy-five cents a gallon; and bacon, eleven to fourteen cents per pound, all cash. We talk of the "good old days" and our hard times. Think what the conditions were in those times, especially when wages were less per day than they are now per hour and a day was ALL day. (February 28, 1958) ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- SAFETY AWARDS PRESENTED TO THREE LOCAL RURAL ROUTE MAIL CARRIERS ON WEDNESDAY Three rural mail carriers, J. E. (Jimmy) Norris, Charles Dupre, and Carl Lacy have received safe driving awards. Postmaster S. M. Compton representing both the National Safety Council and the Postal Department presented them with cards of recognition and lapel pins on Wednesday. Norris is nearing his 40th year of service and hasn’t had an accident. He began his career as a rural carrier on March 10, 1919, in Kingston. He traveled as a temporary carrier for 7,124 miles; regular Kingston carrier for 39,251 miles, Celeste RR 2 carrier for 113,414 miles and for more than twenty-one years as RR 3 Celeste carrier for 337,867 miles. His safety pin represents twenty-eight years since the awards were established in 1930. William Carl Lacy got a seventeen-year pin. He has traveled 175,280 miles of RR 2. Charles Dupre has a nineteen-year record of safe driving while serving as a mail carrier on RR 1. He has traveled 275,000 miles. (March 14, 1958) ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- W. R. CARROLL BACK FROM WORLD CRUISE "I think this cruise has really been something terrific," says quartermaster third class, Walter R. Carroll, upon returning from a "Round the World Cruise." " I saw a lot of interesting places and things that I never thought I would." "Buck," was he is called aboard the submarine Gudgeon, is the son of Mr. and Mrs. Bonnie B. Carroll of RR 1, Greenville. Before entering the US Navy in August of 1955, he attended Celeste High School at Celeste, Texas, and was employed by Cecil Arey. Since leaving Pearl Harbor on the Gudgeon last July; Buck has seen such places as Japan, Hong Kong, Okinawa, the Philippines, Ceylon, Pakistan, Greece, Italy, France, Spain, Portugal, and Panama. He has also gone through the world’s two largest canals. Being a quartermaster, navigating and signaling is his job. He reported aboard the Gudgeon in February of 1956. (March 7, 1958) -----------------------------------------------------------------------------