Leader November 6

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Inside Today: Kids age 5-11 can receive a COVID vaccine • Page 4A

Covering the Heights, Garden Oaks, Oak Forest & the neighborhoods of North Houston

10570 NW Frwy ❖ 713-680-2350

Saturday, November 6, 2021 • Vol. 66 • No. 45

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Local HISD trustee races headed to runoffs By Adam Zuvanich azuvanich@theleadernews.com

40 YEARS INSULATING! Attics • Walls • Floors Noise Reduction • Removal

Two Houston ISD trustees who serve area schools must survive runoff elections in order to keep their seats. Neither District I board member Elizabeth Santos nor District VII trustee Anne Sung, nor any of their challengers, earned at least 50 percent of the vote in Tuesday’s election, according to unofficial results released Wednesday morning by Harris County. Santos led the race in District I by receiving 41.5 percent of the 9,443 votes that were cast either on Election Day or during early voting. Also qualifying for the runoff was energy industry consultant and Travis Elementary parent Janette Garza Lindner,

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INSIDE. Photo by Adam Zuvanich Margott Williams, the founder and president of Descendants of Olivewood, said she worries the historic African-American cemetery in the Heights area will further deteriorate without drainage improvements on the 7.5-acre property near White Oak Bayou.

Historic cemetery in need of drainage improvements Sign up today. You can use the above QR code to sign up for our weekday newsletter.

Break in the chain. Many local businesses have been impacted by supply chain problems.

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By Adam Zuvanich azuvanich@theleadernews.com Margott Williams has been taking care of Olivewood Cemetery for nearly 20 years. It’s where her grandfather, great-grandfather and three uncles are buried, so preserving the historic site is personal. It’s been painful for Williams to witness the continued deterioration of the northernmost part of the 7.5-acre property, which is immediately south of White Oak Bayou in the Sawyer Yards area. She said repeated flooding events during the last decade or so have eroded the land and either damaged gravestones or moved them, essentially erasing the remnants of what she estimates to be at least 100 people. “It’s disheartening,” Williams said. “It’s sad for me to know that we’ve got so much history in the cemetery, and it’s just being flushed down the bayou.” Williams is the founder and president of the Descendants of Olivewood, a nonprofit that was formed in 2004 and subsequently granted guardianship of the cemetery by a state district court. The burial ground was incorporated in 1875 and served what at the time was Houston’s early AfricanAmerican community in the aftermath of emancipation from slavery, with Williams saying it contains the graves of more than 4,000 people, including doctors, lawyers, educators, community leaders and some who were slaves. Olivewood Cemetery has largely been restored after decades of neglect and overgrowth, but the flooding problem persists and has gotten “worse and worse” in recent years, according to Williams, who cited heavy rain events such as

Getting going. High school basketball season starts this week for girls teams in the area.

Shipley Do-Nuts moving headquarters away from Heights By Stefan Modrich smodrich@mcelvypartners.com A local institution and popular doughnut purveyor is moving its headquarters away from the Heights next year after nearly half a century in the neighborhood. Shipley Do-Nuts, 5200 N. Main St., is packing up its Heights headquarters and heading south on Interstate 45 to Third Ward, according to CEO Clifton Rutledge. Rutledge said the company had outgrown the Heights location, where it has been for more than 40 years. “It was important for us to stay in Houston,” Rutledge said. “We looked at many, many other locations that were in the suburbs or away from Houston. But we felt that it was important to be a part of the city, where Shipley’s has been for 85-plus years.” The new location at 4001 Gulf Fwy. is on the site of a former Finger Furniture warehouse and Buff Stadium, the former home of the Houston Buffalos, a minor league baseball team that played there from 1928-61. Last Thursday, Oct. 28, the company broke ground there on its new headquarters, which is expected to open late next year. The 23 employees working across four buildings along North Main will all transfer to the new location, Rutledge said. The new two-story building will house the company’s yeast “do-nut mix” manufacturing facility and a “donut innovation center” and provide office space for about 130 people, according to a news release from Ashley Lennington of SPM Communications. In the last two years, the company has added 60 corporate employees, according to a news release. The future of the building at 5200 N. Main is unclear as Rutledge said it will remain under the ownership of the Shipley family and its other businesses. Lawrence Shipley III still ofSee Shipley P. 4A

Photo by Adam Zuvanich A colorful, hand-painted sign greets visitors of Olivewood Cemetery, which was incorporated in 1875.

Hurricane Harvey in 2017 as well as nearby development. She said the Descendants of Olivewood have been unable to get the City of Houston or Harris County to address flooding risks on the property, which is privately owned by the nonprofit, but over the summer they secured a $50,000 grant for a drainage study from the National Trust for Historic Places. Amy Webb, a senior field director for the Colorado-based National Trust, helped the Descendants of Olivewood with See Olivewood P. 5A

Contributed artist’s rendering Shipley Do-Nuts plans to move its headquarters from the Heights to Third Ward.

Duvall reflects on movie career, upbringing in area

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By Adam Zuvanich azuvanich@theleadernews.com

THE INDEX. Church....................................................... 4A Classifieds.............................................. 5A Coupons. ................................................. 3B Food/Drink............................................. 7A Opinion. ................................................... 3A Public Information......................... 8A Puzzles...................................................... 3A

Wade

Contributed photo Shelley Duvall grew up in Oak Forest and Lazybrook before becoming a well-known actress and producer.

It was either fourth grade or sixth grade, likely at Oak Forest Elementary or possibly Sinclair. Shelley Duvall isn’t quite sure, but she otherwise has vivid memories of her first theatrical performance and how it was received. She had spent three weeks rehearsing a Joyce Kilmer poem for a school talent show. Then, when Duvall had the spotlight and the audience’s attention, she locked up and couldn’t remember

the words – even as her teacher tried to whisper them to her. “Later that night, I heard my parents talking outside my bedroom door,” Duvall recalled. “They said, ‘Well, I guess she’s not that talented.’ It was stage fright. I just froze up.” Duvall eventually overcame her fear of performing, and she proved her parents wrong. The 1968 graduate of Waltrip High School landed her first filmacting role two years later, launching a storied career in the entertainment industry that spanned more than 30 years

and earned her an induction into the Texas Film Hall of Fame last year. Duvall, 72, who now lives in the Texas Hill Country and stays mostly out of the public eye, was the first movie star to emerge from the area, attaining celebrity status a decade or so before fellow Waltrip graduate Patrick Swayze. She recently spoke to The Leader about growing up in the Oak Forest and Lazybrook neighborhoods, her career as an actress, producer and television personality, and retirement life in the small See Duvall P. 5A

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