We do have some sad news to report.   We lost some Greenies in January. Guy Rogers (’56) and  Ann Perkins-LeBlanc (’54)  have been called to the Promised Land. Guy was a golfer at  SPHS  and was always fun to be around.   Ann  was  one  of  those  special angels we  had  at SPHS.   She worked at Mobil, raised a fine family and was loved by many.

Mr. Harold Meehan, orchestra director at SPHS  in  the 50’s also passed  away  in Nacogdoches. He was interred the same day as Ann.

Our return to Beaumont has been fun. We’ve run into a lot of Greenies.  Among them were Betty Sherman (’55),  Charles Wales (’52),  Ann Ray Smith-Norris (’54) and Gene Alexander (’50) at Wal-Mart. We talked with Ladelle Costello-Benoit (’56) at "DJ’s Boudain".  Rachel Kirkland-Lee (’56) is President of IMI, Inc.   Her late husband was J.M. Lee (’55).   Of course, we talked with many Greenies at the funeral home.

We got a nice letter from Bubba Plaia (’54), then got to talk with  him at  Guy’s funeral. Bubba is still an electrician, but spends a lot of time with his three granddaughters. On of the girls struck out 36 batters in 4 games of fast pitch softball.

When the traveling Vietnam Memorial Wall was in Beaumont, Bubba went down to pay his respects.   He found Holly Bell’s  name and   shaded it  with a pencil  a  couple of times.   He sent one to us. Thanks Bubba.

We received our annual Christmas letter from  Audrey Hebert-Karr.   She  does a beautiful job of summarizing her year.   In 1999, she visited friends in New Zealand, where she  and  Rogers  had  lived  from 1984-1987 on assignment from Mobil. She was  there  for   the  dedication  of  a  new building at the  Bell  Block Baptist Church where she  and  Rogers  were  members. Audrey and her sister, Beverly (’55) took a 7-day  cruise of  the  Western Caribbean, visiting Mexico and Jamaica.

By the way, Dale Redmon-Jolly is  working on the Class of ’55 reunion for this summer. We’ll pass on all the information we can get. Sounds like it will be fun.   We will try to be there.

Bob  Behn  (’47),  husband of  Madie Williams-Behn (’54) also wrote us.   As reported in a past issue,  they work at the YMCA of the Rockies during the summer, managing the food service. They winter at their home  in  Vidor.   Bob  reported  on Madie’s Christmas activities.   Lady, you better slow down. She decorated about 10 trees (his estimate),  baked enough sweets for an army and  set out their  collection  of manger scenes.   Of course, she didn’t let Bob sit around.   He had a list of honey-do’s as long as your arm.   Bob sent photos of inside and outside their home and one of Colorado Aspens  in  their fall  foliage.

Joe Garner (’55) dropped us a line. He’s lived in  Houston  since  1963   handling residential real estate. At the present time he’s selling in the Katy area at the Cinco Ranch Development.  We’ve been out there. They have some very nice homes.


More Greenies we’ve seen since moving to Beaumont are Carol Cudd (’52), Mickey Sellers’ sister Martha (’56), Donnie and Lou Surratt (don’t remember what class they were in, just know they’re younger than us). We’ve also seen James "Pop" Ward (’53), Patsy Tiner-Schroeder (’56), Twala Leblanc (’57), Lester LeBlanc (’56) and Jessie Rogers (’53). Our memory is getting a little shorter, so if we’ve talked lately, forgive us for not mentioning you.

Good News! Two more Greenies have gotten together. Shirley Mayther-Goins (’53) is now Shirley Chapman. She and Willie Chapman (’50) were wed in January this year. We believe she said it was on Jan. 2, 2000. We wish the best of life for both of you.

Carlos Maggio (’54) will have a birthday this year. He was born on Feb. 29. This is not a leap year, but other rules apply for this year. If a year ends in "00", or if the year is divisible by 400, then February will have 29 days. The year 2000 fits both rules. Happy Birthday Carlos. We thank JoAnn Epperson-Parmley (’54) for this bit of information.

We got a note from Glenda Irle-Norwood (’54). She sends her greetings from Oklahoma.

Charlie-Chuck Clifton (’54) is back in from West Africa again. His daughter recently gave birth to a 9 lbs. 3 oz., 21" boy. Ol’ Charlie is pretty proud of that. He and wife Barbara were staying in Beaumont with his sister Loma and her husband, Lanny Latil. Both of them are Greenies, too, but too young to mention their class. Charlie cooked a pot of shrimp gumbo for them and invited Grace and I. It was very good gumbo.

Recently, a certain individual called this writer "cheap". We think "thrifty" is a better word. Remember olive Cokes at the Pig Stand? Well, the Coke was five cents. Two olives and a tooth pick increased the price to fifteen cents. To save a little money, this writer carried a bottle of olives and box of toothpicks in the glove compartment. That wasn’t being cheap. It just meant the date could get two olive Cokes instead of one. But, we have to agree that making the girl get in the trunk to get her into the drive-in free did border on being "cheap".

We received an e-mail from JoLynn Holloway-McClurkin (’55). She lives in Atascocita, a beautiful area near Humble. Her two children live near her. You probably remember her dad, Tom Holloway. He had a gas station on Highland Ave. Tom passed away last March at 82. He had lived the last 20 years in Atascocita where he played golf and gin rummy. JoLynn’s sister, Lynda (’56), is deceased. Her children also live in Atascocita. Janie Holloway-Washburn (’65), Tom’s youngest daughter also lives there with her husband, Bill "Bubba" Washburn (’64).

The SPHS chorus was at the University of Houston for contest. We went over on a "yellow hound" bus. Remember Mr. Ramsey? He was a tall, bald headed fellow, band director we think. He always wore one of those felt dress hats. As he passed the bus, some one flipped a cigarette out the window and it landed in his hat. Of course, the students weren’t supposed to be smoking, especially on the bus. Since discretion is the better part of valor, we won’t say who did it, just that it was the same person who blew the urinal off the wall at the Pig Stand.

One year, Coach Phythian withheld a couple of football letter jackets for some players. The players had skipped practice to go duck hunting. We tried to get coach to give them the jackets with a duck emblem on the letter, but he didn’t go for it.

Remember Coach Phoebe stopping at the corner every morning to dole out lunch money to his brood? That was a daily ritual.

Ms. Nowlen wrote a scripture on her black board every day. Every Thursday morning she complained about the traffic at the Lamar Theater the night before. She was on her way to Church and the traffic slowed her down. She said those people should have been in Church instead of at the movies. In today’s schools, she would be fired immediately.


Check out Johnny and Mildred Watson’s Class of '54 web page.  The address is :www.geocities.com/researchtriangle/forum/8848

R. H. Berwick
P. O. Box 12977
Beaumont, TX 77726-2977

Our e-mail address is:graron@wwbbs.net

If you have an e-mail address, please send it to us.   We’ll pass it on to John Watson  or e-mail it to jlwmil@aol.com so that he can   publish it on the class web page.