History is alive and swinging on a porch in Vickery Place.
Raymond Ogas, 97, spends hours on his little white swing, chatting with visitors – friends and strangers alike – and sharing the memories and stories that shaped his life.   

He has lived in the same house he bought from Ebby Halliday herself — just below the M Streets area — since 1956. When developers tried to buy his home, he and his wife of 69 years, Felicita, refused. His house is one of the few original structures left on his block, which is surrounded by businesses.

“My wife and I decided to stay here to the last day of our lives,” Ogas said. “We never suffered anything God didn’t provide.”

Anyone who knows Raymond Ogas knows he has lived a rich life. His family came from the Galician region of Spain within the Province of A Coruna. The province is where Santiago de Compostela Cathedral, the centuries-old destination of Christian pilgrims on the Way of St. James, is located. Not far is a town called Ogas, Raymond’s family name.

Ogas, the second eldest of nine children, grew up in Alpine, Texas, and attended Alpine High School. He briefly attended Sul Ross State College, but he quit school to support his family. Ogas drove petroleum trucks and was a boxer in his late teens along with his brother, Porfirio.    The two of them were underdogs who would fight before the “big” matches, according to his daughter, Elisabeth Taquino of Plano.

One story she remembers hearing from her father, who boxed as a welterweight, is about the time he refused to throw a match.

“He was like a little bulldog. Once he gets a hold of something, he won’t let go,” she said. “He was always considered the little guy.”

Sitting in his dimly lit living room, surrounded by his family, Ogas recalled this particular match and how the other guy was being praised by all the local newspapers before the fight.

“But I whooped him,” Ogas said with a sly grin. “I saw how easy he was to knock down.”

Unfortunately, his daughter said, photos from those days — what few there may have been — are lost. Taquino said her father gave them all away to friends and relatives.

“Dad was always generous that way,” she said. “He didn’t think in terms of posterity, and it became increasingly hard to get photos of Pa-Pa.”
Pa-Pa is what everyone calls Ogas, and his wife was always Ma-Ma. He gave up boxing for her after she told him, “I want to marry somebody who is complete” not broken up in “a bunch of different parts!”

The couple moved to Dallas in 1936 and rented a home at Pearl and Munger, where Woodall Rodgers Freeway is now. The Andres family who owned a grocery located down the street from them, were the first people to befriend the couple. In fact, Roger Andres of Andres Properties, along with his staff, make it a point to stop by to see Ogas when they are in the neighborhood. 

“Everybody in the office, if we see him [outside], it’s an unwritten policy to go sit out on the porch with him,” Andres said.

A jack-of-all-trades, Ogas never limited himself. In nearly a century of living, he has worked at a garage in Oak Cliff; was an instructor for General Motors while working at Lone Star Cadillac; and trained  semi-pro pitchers while playing on a recreational baseball league.

In 1959, he took over the garage he worked for — Tyler Avenue Garage. His granddaughter Felicia-Beth Taquino remembers those days fondly.

“My favorite memories were when Pa-Pa picked me up from preschool by his garage,” she said. “And when I had trouble falling asleep on Sundays, I remember listening to the Rangers on the radio on the porch and falling asleep on his lap.”

Ogas outlived most of his customers at Tyler Avenue Garage and retired at age 90 to take care of Felicita, who died in 2005. His son, Raymond Jr., passed away soon after, which strengthened the bond Ogas already had with his son-in-law, Bob Taquino, who lost his father. The two consider each other father and son.

But no matter who crosses his porch, Ogas welcomes everyone as family, blood or not. The lessons he instilled in his family passed on to his 8-year-old great-granddaughter Angelisa Taquino, who will proudly tell you that it doesn’t matter what color or race you are, you have to love each other. 

“Always try to treat people right or you are not going to get a good response from them. You got to love your fellow man,” Ogas said. “Everybody, don’t care who it is, that’s my brothers and sisters.”

When asked what keeps him so sharp at 97 years old, Ogas said, “I think God gave me the spirit to be around.”

Jenice Johnson is the White Rock area editor for neighborsgo. Know someone in your neighborhood who deserves to be profiled? Contact Jenice at 214-977-8461 or jsjohnson@neighborsgo.com.