June 6, 2016

 

Don & Sandy Hendrick attended Doug Waters’ UT graduation party in Austin on May 20th. His parents are Mike and Renae Waters of Diboll and his only sister, Chelsea Christmas, is a graduate of Texas A&M. Chelsea managed to wear orange nail polish but her hair was “Aggie” Maroon.  In addition to Don & Sandy, Doug’s parents and grandparents, some of the other guests included longtime coaching friends, T.J. & Manonne Johnson, Jeff & Donya Stiffle.

After the party, Don & Sandy drove to Fredericksburg and enjoyed some shopping and sightseeing before traveling on to Kerrville to visit with longtime friends from Diboll, Bill & Linda Fulmer. Sandy said their Hill Country home is beautiful! That’s what everyone says that has been there to visit the Fulmers. They are still missed in Diboll.

On May 27, Don & Sandy Hendrick & Bob & Laurel Youngblood went to Magnolia to attend the wedding of Nick Papaioannau & Kaitlin Anderson.  Nick is the son of Rich & Sage and grandson of Janie & Pat McCann.  They left Diboll at 12:30 PM, it was raining very hard and it took five & a half hours to get to the wedding venue. Only about half of the wedding guests were able to attend because of the stormy weather. They were grateful to have motel reservations and not have to drive home that night. The weather wasn’t much better the next day and it took five hours to get from Magnolia to Diboll. It was an experience they hope never to repeat!

Dianne Gipson was happy to attend a luncheon last weekend for the annual reunion of alumni who attended St. Agnes Academy in Houston. It was held at the Jr. League of Houston and Dianne said it was a beautiful venue. She graduated in 1959, at that time the school was located on Fannin Street. Some of the alumni present went all the way back to 1945. It was a great luncheon and she always looks forward to going and thankful to her husband, Mike, who was willing to drive through the bad weather to get to Houston and back safely.

While Bill Dean Yates was in the store I got him to tell me about his beautiful granddaughter’s graduation from James Bowie High School in Richmond. Haven Burrous’ graduation was held in the Toyota Center in Houston at 11AM on Friday. Bill said finding a place to park was most difficult as there were SIX graduations that day all from Brazos County high schools. Some were coming and others going all day long; there was approximately 600 in Haven’s class. Bill and Carolyn Yates attended along with their two daughters, Casey Jackson from New Braunfuls and Cassidy (Butch) Turner and her two young daughters: one-year-old, Piper and three-year-old, Perrie from Apple Springs. Also driving from Louisiana were Patsy (Grimes) Brown and her daughter Cricket. Haven’s little brother, Heston and her mom Heidi, of course were there along with her step dad, Billy Schmidt whose parents provided a delicious BBQ dinner after the graduation. Haven’s older brother, Hunter Burrous, is presently serving in the US Air Force stationed in Japan after serving a tour in Afghanistan.

Owning a Raymond Ryan original oil painting has been a dream of mine for decades. About a year ago I approached Raymond about painting some of our longhorn steers. He called last week to say he had completed the project and I have to say, it was worth the wait! It is a beautiful painting of four longhorns in our back pasture. My intentions were to surprise JR for his birthday last year but he got an early birthday present this year. I would like to think this painting got Raymond “back in the saddle” and motivated to use his God given talent of painting. Growing up in Burke with his siblings, Kenneth, Bobby and Sara Rios, the children of Mr. & Mrs. Cecil Ryan, I asked Raymond when he realized he had a talent. Grinning, in his bashful, quiet, soft spoken manner, he said one of his teachers at the Burke school, whether it was Tennie Havard, Abby Travis or Nell Walker, he couldn’t remember which one, but one of them complimented and bragged about a drawing of a lizard and he thought, “I’m an artist!” At age 19, Raymond took classes from Mary Reid at AC who he said, “Was a big encourager”. He also took lessons at SFA.

Back in the ‘80’s, Raymond approached the ranch manager of the largest land and Cattle Company in West Texas, the Pitchfork Ranch, and asked permission to take pictures of the cattle operation. The reply was “yes” and Raymond moved into the bunk house and watched the ranch hands during the spring roundup through the lens of his camera. That week of photographs inspired lots of paintings. Raymond Ryan has been featured in the Western Horseman and has sold paintings from Massachusetts, Florida, Seattle and is hoping for a buyer in California to cover all four corners of the lower US.

My niece, Marty Scarborough, graduated from DHS in 1983 and four years later from SFA with a BS in education. She began her teaching career 28 years ago in the Corrigan-Camden ISD and has had perfect attendance for 27 years! She also earned a Master’s Degree while teaching and has taught 2nd, 3rd and 4th grades. She is a dedicated teacher and in May, the CISD awarded her the coveted Teacher of the Year Award. She received a trophy, a double ice cream freeze, a basket of goodies and a gift card. Through the years, I’ve seen Marty grade papers while faithfully taking care of her grandparents, “Bug” and Dorothy Scarborough and Geraldine Pouland. I know they would all be so very proud of Marty, just as we are. Congratulations Marty, we love you!

Enjoy the sunshine, remember those who have lost their homes during the flooding and come see us…’round the table.