ANOTHER TRAGIC LOSS

DAUPHNE M. WARD, 46, of Amarillo died Monday, July 14, 2008.Services will be at 10 a.m. Friday in Amarillo South Church. Burial will be in Memorial Park Cemetery by Cox-LaGrone Funeral Home, 4180 Canyon Drive.Ms.

Ward was born Sept. 28, 1961, in Amarillo. She grew up here and graduated salutatorian from Alamo Catholic High School in 1980, attended Amarillo College to become a paralegal and was a member of the Texas Panhandle Paralegal Association.

Dauphne was a sweet girl. It is so sad to see her die so young. JT.

OLD FRIEND GET TOGETHER

Jane Begy sent me this picture of a recent get together with a few of her friends from Sam Houston (about 2 years ago she said). Pictured from left to right are: Jane Begy, Martha Allred, Pat Groom, and Janie Boyd. They all look great! To me they haven't changed much. I could pick them out in a crowd if I saw them.



Feel free to leave your comments about your memories with them. We were so busy those days that other than seeing each other in the break room (if we had the same conference period), we socialized with those in classrooms nearest to us. My neighbors were, Mr. Smith, band, Ms Halfman who was next door to me and Mr. Williams, who was also the head of the science department, who was right around the corner from my room. Since I taught one PE class a day, I got to know Mr. Barker pretty well. My most memorable quote from him came every year when the school year was winding down, "teaching jobs start looking good at this time of the year". And Charlie Williams was a crazy man, everyone knew that. He was great fun to be around. Jim Garcia was on the other side of the building but he and I went to WTSU in the summers together and we used to play a lot of racquetball. I've lost track of all these people. If anyone knows where they are and how they are doing, let us all know.



Jake

NOTE FROM JANIE BOYD

Jake, I'm sending this for you to edit or do whatever you wish with it.

Thanks,

Janie

I taught Spanish and 8th grade Language Arts at Sam Houston from March, 1970 through May 1982 and then became librarian at Crockett. I loved my years at Sam Houston, teaching between Bill Lammes and Dan Johnson. And then Coach David Cottrell was there across the hall from me with his SS class singing country western songs while we were conjugating verbs and rolling our "r's". I read with great interest the comments about Mrs. Eads. She was so good to me--taking my class to allow me to go eat lunch with my daughter when she had a student teacher or a conference at that period. She was a good friend as well as a mentor and an excellent teacher. I agree that she was also a good cook, as Mrs. Knox wrote. However, I also remember the open houses that the homemaking department under Mrs. Knox and Mrs Coffman had and the wonderful goodies that they served. Some of those recipes are still favorites with my family. I'm glad that Jake has started the Blog and hope it will continue to grow.

NEW CLUE

I love it. The previous "post" has peaked someone's interest (see comment), so I am giving you one more clue. They have the same first name, Lisa. Hope that helps. We could use some others to help out. If you know the identity of these two, leave a comment.

We have helped two people make a connection on this blog. Two old friends that had lost touch "found" each other and are communicating now. I just wish alot more of this would happen. There is still hope.

Later,

Jake

WHO ARE THEY?????

First of all, my apologies for the quality of this picture. It's been sitting around for a long time and just recently ran into it. I've been working on my family tree so I've looked at every picture I own several times. So that's how I ran into this picture. So my question to you with what little you have to work with is, who are these girls and if you want to take it a step further, where are they now. One hint for you is that they were inseparable while in the 7th grade. Not sure how that turned out by the time they were in the 9th but at least I know they started out as best friends. Okay, one more clue. They were both in my 7th grade science class the first year at SamHouston - which would be 1973. Any ideas? That's all the clues I'm giving you. Good luck.

Stay in touch.

Jake

LOOK FAMILIAR

Quick note from Kris (Gregerson) Martinez. Jake

They set up construction stuff in front of the school a few months ago and we thought maybe they were going to expand the offices because they removed the trees from in front. When we drove by the other day, we had to stop and check out the front. They put in bricked terraces and the stairs. It looks really cool. Looks like a whole new building and they didn't even touch the actual building. It looks pretty cool.

Mrs. Knox on Sam Houston Jr. Hi

Dear friends,

Mary Lou Knox gave me permission to post this to our blog. I am proud to do so. I too feel we had a great staff and wonderful students. It was one of the best times of my life and I'm not just saying that. I have very fond memories of my Amarillo days. Anyway, enjoy Mary Lou's remarks and leave your comments if you are so inclined. Enjoy:

Jake


Hi to all,

This is Mrs. Knox, the homemaking teacher, and I am delighted that someone wrote about Mrs. Eads. I met her in about 1948 through a mutual friend. She was going to school at WT at the time and so was I. I didn't see her again until I walked into the faculty meeting in September, 1970, the first day I was at Sam Houston. What a surprise to see her and what a wonderful experience to get to work with her. She was truly amazing. She spent her entire career teaching in that room at the end of the hall, and you students probably didn't know that she was a super good cook. The faculty did and we all looked forward to the special times she brought so many goodies to the teacher's lounge we could nibble on them all day long. I still use her recipe for Banana Bread. And Mrs. Pierce's Zucchini Bread is still the best. I noticed in the paper today that Spam is getting popular again because it is low in price, so some of you might want Sarah Leisure's recipe for Spam Salad which is delicious.

Another teacher I enjoyed getting to know was Pat Groom. Her late husband was my late husband's high school basketball coach at Hereford, so I had heard him talk about them for years. What a treat for me to get acquainted with her and work with her! I still hear from her and talk to her on the phone occasionally. Great lady.

You students are not aware that the years we spent at Sam Houston Junior High are probably the best years of our lives. The school had a unique quality that I have never seen equaled. The faculty during the '70's was second to none. As one of the teachers, I can truthfully say that they were my most enjoyable years out of the 35 years I taught. Remember how much fun it was when we walked across the street to the park, sat on the grass and enjoyed Awards Day? I don't know if the kids get to do things like that anymore. Every year on the last day of school just before he rang the bell to dismiss us, Mr. Dial played the hymn, "God Be With You Til We Meet Again." I know that tradition has been done away with. Too bad.

I now live in Cordell, Oklahoma so I can be close to my two brothers. I find it a joy to live in a small town again. The traffic nothing compared to San Antonio's traffic where I lived before moving here last November.

I feel like you do, Jake, I hope more people will write post a word or two so we will know where they are and what they are doing.

Hoping to see more of you contribute to the blog soon!

Mrs. Mary Lou Knox