EARLY VOTING ENDS FRIDAY! ELECTION DAY NEXT TUESDAY
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Current Weekly News for Leakey, Camp Wood, Sabinal, Utopia and Surrounding Areas Vol. 5 No. 9
INSIDE
www.hillcountryherald.net
editor@hillcountryherald.net
February 26, 2014
Caddel-Smith Chapter, Daughters of the Republic of Texas, Entertained with Our Southern Heritage Program by Karen Collins
............................ Page 9 ANNUAL LEAKEY LIONS CLUB RIB DINNER FRIDAY MARCH 14TH AT 5:30 P.M. AT THE AMERICAN LEGION HALL LEAKEY, TEXAS
The Caddel-Smith Chapter, Daughters of the Republic of Texas, met on Thursday, February 13, 2014 in the Huddle Restaurant in Uvalde with 24 members and one guest present. The meeting was called to order by President Judy Burleson. Chaplain Beverly Langford read Psalm 33:12, then gave the invocation. Mrs. Burleson led the pledges to the United States and Texas flags. Second vice president Jane Van Hoozer read the DRT Objectives. The business meeting was adjourned at 11:40 a.m. so that Jakelynn Crawford, Karen Collins, and Kristi Powers could present their program entitled Texas, Our Southern Heritage. The program highlighted the years Texas was in the Confederacy, featuring Jefferson Davis and his home, Beauvoir, located in Biloxi, Mississippi. A slide show demonstrated the damage caused by Hurricane Katrina and the massive restoration required to save the buildings. Jefferson Davis was a U.S. Senator, Congressman, Secretary of War, and the only President of the Confederacy. His home, Beauvoir, was a Confederate Veterans Home from 1903 until 1956. The program ended with facts about Texas, humorous tidbits about our state that all Texans are proud to share, including that the domino game of 42 was invented in Texas, and that the most decorated hero of World War II was a Texan, Audie Murphy. One interesting fact
mentioned was that seven presidents have come from Texas: Dwight Eisenhower, Lyndon Johnson, George H. W. Bush, George W. Bush, along with Sam Houston,
The Battle Of The T h e S p i r i t o f ‘ 4 5 Alamo
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Getting ready for that summer garden
Thanks to a friend who called about an unusual bus at Dairy Queen, a meeting with a longtime friend, Mary Virginia Pittman, I have been “commissioned” as it were to tell the stories of World War II veterans, one each week. This week is “Mr. Mac”, Charles McFarland. As he told me his story, he confessed that a flood of memories had come back to him. This is his story. McFarland was appointed Flight Officer in the Army Air Corps. He was a non-commissioned officer. He got his training for bomadier at the University of Florida and was also offered a scholarship there. Since he was trained to go overseas, he could not use the scholarship. As bomadier, he put in 450 hours with 18 hours combat and 50 hours night flying. He also had the privilege of flying over Austria where they airlifted
FIRST TIME VOTER!
by Billie Franklin
French and British POWs who had been prisoner for five years. Some of them were in very bad shape. In 1944, he came to the USA and was stationed at Sioux Falls, South Dakota. He got his discharge from Randolph Field. It was at the end of the war, he was 20 years old, and he landed a job as pipe fitter’s helper at South Port Refinery in Texas City, TX and where he met his first wife, Evelyn. From that job he went into construction with Ford, Bacon, Davis as a carpenter’s helper. He also played baseball. He was offered a scholarship at Rice University to play football, but that did not work out. Offered a scholarship at Trinity University in San Antonio, he took it and earned his bachelors degree in 2 and 1/2 years by going straight through summer school, all while holding a number of jobs. He was on staff as a Physical Education teacher at Harris Junior High School in San Antonio and earned his Masters degree while there. C A Pepper and Louis Parker went to San Antonio to persuade him to apply for principal at Sabinal. He already knew Ralph Curtis, the coach who formed the first Homecoming. He knew the young Jan Jackson and Bob Clary, classmates from Trinity, who farmed near San Antonio and later moved to Kinchelow Prairie. In August 1953, McFarland began working in Sabinal, 15 years as principal and 19 years as superintendent. After his retirement, he worked 19 years for the Special Education Cluster out of Uvalde. Asking him where the Greatest Generation developed their famous “can do attitude”, he said, “World War II touched many people. Their responsibilities and their lives changed so much.” Did you ever feel that America might not win the war?, I asked. “No, never for a minute.” With that dedication of a generation of young soldiers, the Can Do Attitude was a side affect.
Mirabeau Lamar, and Anson Jones. Also mentioned was “We don’t talk funny. Ever’body else does.” continued page 2
Texas Choice Pageants Crowns Meagan Prather Miss Southwest Texas
Meagan Prather was recently crowned Miss Southwest Texas with the pageant system Texas Choice Pageants. She will go to Houston in May for the State competition. Meagan currently serves as Miss Nueces Canyon. She is a junior at Nueces Canyon High School. She is the daughter of Vernon and Janis Prather. Congratulations Meagan!!
AMERICA’S HUNGRY CHILDREN ARE CLOSER THAN YOU THINK! By Elaine Padgett Carnegie
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INDEX State News .................... Page 2 Legals/Jail Register ...... Page 3 Community News ......... Page 4-6 Feature Story ................. Page 7 Obituaries ...................... Page 8 Classifieds ..................... Page 12
Today’s Weather
High:41° Low: 37° First time voter Kayla Vincent went to the poll last week to cast her ballot. Kayla is the daughter of Ricci and Terrie Pendley of Leakey. Kayla graduated from Leakey ISD in 2013. She is currently a full time student at Southwest Texas Junior College in Uvalde, majoring in Business Administration.
If you have not found a reason motivating enough to get out there and VOTE…let me give you one! Our children are going hungry! The bouncing 8 year old Jeanie is in the lunch line chatting with her friends over her rumbling belly. She eats breakfast before 8:00 am and lunch isn’t until 1:30 and she is very hungry! The young girl’s laughter quiets as they reach the lunch counter and are given their trays. One by one they file through the line past the “lunch lady” at the end who takes their names. When Jeanie reaches the lunch lady she is asked for money. She starts to tremble as her tray is jerked from in front of her and a plain brown bag with a piece of fruit and a very small carton of milk takes its place. She walks away slowly with her head down…she knows her friends are looking. She quietly drops the sack lunch in the trash and disappears into the girls’ room before she cries. Huge tears streaking her cherubic face she flees once out of the lunch room in disappointment, she is hungry! In humiliation…all of her friends saw her food thrown in the trash…
Every single day in schools all over America this is happening! Are we actually allowing them to do things like this and get away with it? Well, of course we are…read on… UTAH…lunches were taken from up to 40 students at Uintah Elementary School in Salt Lake City after lunch officials noted outstanding balances on their accounts. Lunch workers took the lunches from the kids who had negative balances and threw them away. The children were given milk and fruit to eat instead. MINNESOTA…A new report shows hungry school children who cannot afford lunch are being denied food in some Minnesota public schools. DICKINSON, TX … A 12-year-old Dickinson student’s breakfast was tossed in the trash, because his account was short by just 30 cents. November 6, 2013 OLD TOWN, MAINE —11-year-old boy went hungry during lunch at J.A. Leonard Middle School because he was denied his hot lunch in the cafeteria. continued page 2