How could I report the arrival of Sally Hammond's grandson without telling you his name? Well, let's correct that problem. Erin and Matt Hammond's son Tyler arrived Oct. 21.

         Sally Hammond is winding up her year as president of the Garland Downtown Business Association just in time to devote more time to the new grandson who arrived Oct. 21. Parents are Matt and Erin Hammond of McKinney.

         Linda Brownlee keeps up with the territory in the interest of the real estate firm she and Woody run. She noticed an outstanding array of trumpet bushes in the 1600 block of Bowie, west of Shiloh Road. I took a tour and agreed the plantings, all around the house, are unusual and attractive.

 

Our Town Nov. 6, 2009

 

            Kevin James credited GarlandHigh School with keeping him on track when, as a 14-year-old at another school, he wanted to choose another route. At the All-School reunion Oct. 24 at Garland High, he received one of four distinguished alumni awards.

            Ending up a super-active high school student and president of his senior class, he went on to graduate in 1981, graduate from the University of Oklahoma and the University of Houston Law School.

            Now a resident of Los Angeles, he is a late-day radio host after years with prestigious law firms where he has met famous and infamous world leaders and entertainment stars.

            One of the stories he recounted dealt with the early 1960s when the law firms decided to accept women attorneys. One woman interviewed for the place and seemed to be acceptable. The interviewer then said, “I suppose it will be all right with you to do your own secretarial work.”

            That’s why Sandra Day O’Connor refused the job and went on to become the first female Supreme Court justice.

            Kevin’s humor continued when he said his law firm was founded by a Mr. Gibson. “People called all the time and wanted to speak with Mr. Gibson. Since he’s been dead many years, the newest attorney became ‘Mr. Gibson,’ at least  until a newer hire came along.

Sydna Gordon and Dr. Ronnie Rogers, also awardees, served many years on the Garland ISD board of trustees, with Rogers as president. Sydna, deeping involved with UIL and school improvement, looking at Rogers and Bobby Boyd, also an awardee, said she wasn’t an athlete but she was a cheerleader. Boyd recounted the winning games he had participated in and told of his days as a restaurateur with Johnny Unitas, his co-player with the Baltimore Orioles.

 

        WESTERN DAYS TO RETURN

 

Sally Hammond, retiring president of the Garland Downtown Business Association,  told assembled members of that group that  the second Wild West Cowboy Roundup is set for Sept. 18, 2010 on the downtown square. Days surrounding that date will also offer a large trade show in the Atrium at GranvilleArtsCenter and the Will Rogers annual awards.

In a Metroplex it is virtually impossible to set dates that won’t conflict with other area fairs and functions, she said.

GDBA board expressed thanks to the planning committee and sponsors of this first event. The committee is composed of the following: Carlos Porras, event chairman; Nancy Ghirla and Don Green, publicity and promotion; Kendra Walden, vendors; Doug Biter and CB Luce, entertainment; Melissa Gonitzke, children’s activities; Marcela Minahan, finance, and Jan Furtick, art and design.

Following the meeting, the group toured the Fifth Street Crossing apartments.

Another organization supported the western days Sept. 19. That’s Friends of Olde Downtown Garland, with Cleo Holden as president. Membership is open to anyone interested in the history and current events. Individual and senior dues are $25; family, $35, and businesses, $50. Checks for membership may be sent to FODG, 3318 Sunrise Dr., Garland 75043.

October 23, 2009 Sue's column

 

 

            Four Garland High School graduates will be honored at 2 p.m., tomorrow in the school they attended. An All-school Reunion will begin at noon.

            Alvin Moore and his nomination committee selected Bobby Boyd, Sydna Gordon, Kevin James and Dr. Ronnie Rogers to receive the distinguished graduate honors from the Garland HS Alumni Association, with Jay Jones, president.

            Boyd is a member of the Texas High School Hall of Fame, Texas Oil Bowl Hall of Fame and the Garland Sports Hall of Fame. At GHS he was team co-captain of football, baseball and basketball teams, followed by serving as team co-captain at the University of Oklahoma, coached by Bub Wilkinson. He played on the Oklahoma team that won 47 games in a row, joining the Baltimore Colts where he was named to the Baltimore Colts 50th Anniversary All-Time Colt Team. He also coached five years for the Colts.

            Sydna Gordon, a 1964 GHS graduate, is a 1977 graduate of Southern Methodist University School of Law. A former director of the Garland Education Foundation, she also served as trustee of Garland ISD from 1983-1998 and was three-term trustee of the Texas Association of School Boards. A life member of PTA, she served as president of the Kiwanis Club and the Executive Women of Dallas. She was a Texas Education Association appointment to the UIL State Executive Committee and guidance advisory committee.

            Kevin James, a 1960 GHS graduate, fronts the Kevin James Show from 9-11 p.m. weeknights in the Los Angeles area's 870 KRLA. He had hosted one of L.A.'s highest rated local overnight show from 1-5 a.m., following his time as talk show host on KTOK in Oklahoma City. From 2001-2004 he was an entertainment litigator with Lavely & Singer, P.S. in Los Angeles, a primarily talent-based practice. A graduate of the University of Houston College of Law, he was an assistant U.S. Attorney in Los Angeles.During his legal career he assisted in representation of Brad Pitt, Jennifer Aniston, Michael Jackson, Donald Trump and "first brother" Roger Clinton. His mother, Kathleen Kelley Duval, is also a GHS graduate.

            Dr. Ronald R. Rogers, 1959 GHS graduate, is still remembered for recovering a fumble in the 1956 state championship football game. Graduation from Baylor University and Baylor Dental School led to his being the first oral surgeon in Garland. He is a diplomate of the American Board of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery and holds membership in state and national oral surgery organizations. He served on the board of dental examiners for Texas. A former president of the Garland ISD board of trustees, he is a member of the Garland Sports Hall of Fame.

            As Alumni Association president Jones proclaims, "This reunion is free."

            Steve Blow has been writing columns for The Dallas Morning News for 20 years and brought some of his stories and experiences to the Garland Women’s ActivitiesBuilding fall luncheon Oct. 5.

            Tall and slender Steve said he often has readers tell him they thought he would be short . . . judging by the small head shot that runs with his column. Another often-asked question is what happened to the homeless woman in a park he could see from his office window.  He followed this to try to get help for her, but she refused it. He has lost her now. This introduced his comments on the need for better mental health to keep the sick from being homeless and untreated and filling jails.

            While Steve’s subtle humor is present in most of his columns, he handles serious subjects, too. The decline of print journalism brought his sincere wishes for all present to subscribe to the newspaper and keep reading. To this I wanted to say “Amen.”

            In the question session, Steve expected and got several queries about all the Cowboy photos on page one. He explained this results from many polls to see what sells newspapers on news stands. The all-female audience accepted the answer without always liking it.

            Sharing a personal story about his son Cory who suffered a heart attack on a downtown Dallas street, he was pleased to report the story had a good ending. Literally dying, Cory was on the way to lunch. One of his co-workers had had CPS training recently while adopting a baby and applied the technique until the emergency crew came. Treatment at nearby BaylorUniversity Medical

Center completed Cory’s lifesaving.

            “My wife and I were at the end of Cory’s bed in ICU as his friends came in. Without fail, each one would get close and whisper, ‘Dude, did you see the white light?’” Cory replied that he didn’t.

            This son and also Steve and Lori’s daughter have placed the senior Blows in the grandparent category, to that grandfather’s delight. Looking at his audience, he knew he had struck a happy note with grandmothers and probably some great-grandmothers.  

(more)

            Stay around Garland long enough and you will find one of the dedicated citizens is Jay Jones, Garland High class of 1959. He has been president of that school's alumni association since its beginning and remains in that post, he says, "by default."

            Council member Doug Athas honored Jay at an August council meeting for his dedication to the Garland High School Alumni Association and for his publishing The Garland News for three and one-half years.

            With a flourishing real estate business backing his other activities, Jay and his wife, Merble Ann, have published the alumni bulletin, a quarterly filled with news of former GHS students. They are right in the middle of planning the Oct. 24 all-school reunion. It will be from noon to 3 p.m. at the high school, South Garland Avenue, between Avenues B and D. The Distinguished Alumni program begins at 2 p.m. Inductees include Bobby Boyd, '56, Dr. Ronnie Rogers, '59, Sydna Holbert Gordon, '64, and Kevin James, '81.

            The Mighty Owl Band Boosters Club will be selling grilled hot dogs and hamburgers, drinks and other snacks.

            The alumni association, along with Best Partners in Education: Partnerships That Light the Way, presents scholarships to seniors at Garland High. "Even with the economy in 2009, the alumni funded six $1,500 scholarships and one private scholarship for $1,500," said Kathleen Henslee Thompson, treasurer.

            Best Partners is composed of Garland ISD, City of Garland, Chamber of Commerce, and Dallas County Community College District.

 

 

 

            Just in time for early Christmas shoppers, the Garland Landmark Society has published its calendar

for 2010. At $6 each the calendar offers an attractive cover photo of the LandmarkMuseum (that's the old Santa Fe

depot, you know) with a freight train on the track near

State Street

and

Museum Drive

. Inside are favorite

photos of an earlier Garland.

            January features Garland's circa 1917 fire truck in front of Handley Drug Store, now The Generator

Coffee on the west side of the square. The fire department was composed of volunteers then. February's feature is

a photo of the W.C. Kingsley house, the airplane bungalow version of the Craftsman style, built in the World

War I era south of the present day

Kingsley Road

between Duck Creek and present

Saturn Road

.

            For March the illustration is a service station, one that actually offered service. This one was operated

my members of the Shugart family. At present Main and Glenbrook, the station was photographed in the 1920s.

            Two unidentified women grace the April page showing a Garland Hotel sign. This place was on the

northwest corner of present

State Street

. Originally it was part of a dormitory built at the northeast corner of

present Avenue

A and Ninth Street

for GarlandCollege which burned in 1932.

            The May photo shows Cyril and Cecil Flook around 1914 on the Garland square. The wagon they

commanded was used to deliver groceries from the Garland Grocery purchased by their father in 1913, on

the north side of the square.

            June's photo revives the memory of a sad event, the Duck Creek flood in 1949. Only the roof of Smith's Laundry in Duck Creek

Village is visible. Dorothy Brown Cooper and members of the King family died in the rushing waters. Preston Wilbanks'

Centerville Store appears on the July page in a circa 1930 photo, pre-A&P and Safeway's arrival on the downtown square.

            When onions were a major part of Garland's economy, this August page shows a post-harvest time on the

Wynne family fields near O'Banion and Centerville Roads. For September, a Model A Ford decorated for a Labor Day Parade in the '70s

shows the humor of Jaycees, an energetic group of young Garland men.

            October features the H.A.Harvey, Jr., sternwheeler which made a 67-day trip up the Trinity River to a ramp

on

Commerce Street

in 1893. Its significance was that its 13-mile trips to the south lowered rail freight rates for

the agricultural commodities in the Dallas area. Remember, Garland was a farming community.

            Varo, Inc., on

Walnut Street

built the monorail demonstration track shown in the November photo. The

firm was a major part of Garland's economy when Austin Stanton hired dozens of young engineers to design

and offer the monocab, night vision goggles and other items.

l           GarlandShopping Center at

South Garland Avenue

and

Miller Road

covered 10 acres of cotton field.

Skillern Drug was an anchor tenant, with Wyatt Grocers, Rick Furniture, J.C. Penney, Lloyd Hardware and

other businesses. The area remains vacant now except for one rental business.

l           Landmark board members, president Joann Nelson and vice-president and historian Mike Hayslip,

were the main contributors to the calendar. It is availalbe at Garland Chamber of Commerce, Roach Feed & Seed,

McGillicuddy's and Books 'n Stuff, both on the downtown square.

           

           

 

 

 

 

            Sights, sounds and tastes join for the Wild West Cowboy Roundup on the downown square Saturday (tomorrow). The fun planned by the Garland Downtown Business Association will include chuckwagons, a stagecoach for rides, a kids' corral with games and even art lessons, capped by a street dance with Western swing offered by the Lone Star Troubadours.

            Activity begins at 10 a.m. and stretches to 11 p.m. For the kids there will be horseshoe pitching, bandana decorating, face painting, pony rides and other activities. A first-class art show will be on view, says Nancy Ghirla, a Chicagoan who found her niche quickly in Garland.

            John  Bramblitt’s pictures  will be displayed as he instructs children in art. John learned to paint after becoming blind. A fiddlers' showdown will be staged in the Generator Coffee Shop on the west side of the square, sponsored by Professional Bank. The bank president Jamie Miller honors his late father, Jim Paul Miller, who summoned blue grass musicians to the square on weekends to play.

            Gunslingers and saloon girls will be part of the entertainment.

Photos with a western theme will be available, adds Sally Hammond, president of the GDBA. A major sight will be Bubba the Bull from Mesquite Rodeo.

            Musical performances and cowboy poets will be found in the Plaza Theater.

`           Carlos Porros, owner of Dos Banderos, is chairman of this event.

  Becky Parks is an award-winning artist in Garland. After a recent show, she received an email inquiry to puchase a painting displayed in the ACA website. As he negotiations developed it became obvious that it was an attempt to scam Beck and her husband, Sonny.

   "Artists in the area whould be aware and take caution when receiving blind inquiries through emails," Sonny said. "Payment was to be made by moneygram in an amount greater than that agreed on and the balance refunded to the purchaser," he added.

   Becky Parks, an award-winning Garland artist, received an email inquiry from someone who wanted to buy one of her paintings.

   As the negotiations developed, it has become obvious that it is an attempt to scam the artist, said her husband, Buddy Parks. "Artists in the area should be aware and take caution when receiving blind inquiries through emails," he added. Payment was to be by moneygram in an amount greater than that agreed on and the balance refunded to the purchases.