RSS 2.0 NEWS FEEDSGrandparents
Posted 09.20.07 at 9:47 AMOne of the gifts of the season (for me) has been the winning of awards and prizes by seven of my freshman English students at Paris Junior College. The two classes which I teach entered their essays, written on their second class day and without any instruction or effort on my part except a “pep talk,” in the Grandparents Day Essay Contest sponsored by Sterling House of Paris.
Winning in the category for ages 19+ were Cattlin Day, 1st; Jennifer Adams, 2nd; Ryan McClendon, 3rd; and Rory Butkovich, 3rd. Winning in the category for ages 14-18 were Matthew Hanley, 1st; Lance Morehouse, 2nd; and Kristyn Phillips, 3rd.
First place winners were given a Newsom photography package. Other prizes consisted of lunches for two in a nice restaurant and bouquets of “forget-me-nots.” Dwight Chaney, Dean of Academic Studies, said that he was pleased to learn that students, in this day of broken and extended families, still have great respect for their grandparents and their family heritage. It’s nice to know, isn’t it?
Comments: 0 | Read & Comment »Letters From Paris 9-7-41
Posted 09.07.07 at 12:58 PMToday is Friday, Sept. 7, 2007, and in 1941, Sept. 7 was on a Sunday. I was thinking about my big brother, J.B., who was born on Sept. 6 (but not in 1941; he was 76 years old yesterday), but for some reason, I often seem stuck in time back in the year 1941, which was the countdown to Pearl Harbor.
I like to think what it would have been like to have been here in Paris in 1941, and been old enough to know anything, and what Paris was like then. I looked back on our Paris News microfilm and couldn’t find an edition for Sept. 6, but it would have been a Saturday, and then, as now, we didn’t have a Saturday edition, so the 7th was as close as I could come to it.
The raging headline of the day featured a picture of the destroyer USS Greer, which had been attacked by a submarine and had “answered” with depth bombs. According to the major headline, “German-American Relations Critical as Navy Refutes Nazi Claim Greer Was Aggressor.”
Life in Paris continued, though, as right under the word “Refutes,” it was reported that an “Estimated 30,000 Persons Attended Fair This Year.” The 31st fair had closed on Saturday, my brother’s birthday. I wonder if our parents had taken him to the fair to celebrate. “According to Harry Baker, Fair Association secretary, “There is a strong possibility that the dairy and hog show will be the highlight of the Fair next year.”
Comments: 0 | Article Continues ... Continue Reading & Comment »Texas Top 10 Reading Lists
Posted 09.05.07 at 2:03 PMInteresting article in the Dallas Morning News on Sept. 2, 2007, on “The Top 10 Books on Texas” by Judy Alter. Thanks to Dwight Chaney for sharing it with me.
Jim Lee, professor emeritus and former chair of the English department at the University of North Texas, submitted this list:
» A Woman of the People by Benjamin Capps
» Leaving Cheyenne by Larry McMurtry
» Hold Autumn in Your Hand by George Sessions Perry
» This Stubborn Soil by William Owens
» Farther Off From Heaven by William Humphrey
» Collected Stories by Katherine Ann Porter
» The Great Plains by Walter Prescott Webb
» Interwoven by Sallie Reynolds Matthews
» A Personal Country by A.C. Greene
» The Good Old Boys by Elmer Kelton
Dorothy Humphrey
Posted 09.04.07 at 4:52 PM
There is a really good Web site on which to view the paintings of Dorothy Humphrey (1916-2003).
She attended the High School of Music and Art in New York before attending Hunter College. In 1936 she trained with Ann Goldsmith at the Art Student’s
League in Woodstock, N.Y. She also modeled for the painter Josephine Cantine and married her eldest son Holley. They had a daughter, Toni, in 1942.
Dorothy’s second husband was the author William Humphrey, known widely for his novel Home from the Hill, which was made into a popular movie.
The Humphreys lived abroad for several years, and then they returned to live in Hudson, N.Y. Dorothy’s studio overlooked the Hudson Valley and the Catskills, and she painted there for the next 30 years. Her works reveal the influence of great artists such as Picasso, Modigliani, Braque and Van Gogh.
According to the article on the Web site, she never exhibited her works until she was in her 80s. Many of her paintings, including a portrait of William Humphrey, may be seen in the gallery of the site.
Comments: 0 | Read & Comment »Recent Additions
Posted 08.31.07 at 9:48 AMHere are some recent additions to the archives library. Thanks to Mrs. Joe Heston for her abiding interest in the James Gang:
» Steele, Phillip W. Jesse and Frank James: The Family History. Gretna: Pelican, 1991.
» Beamis, Joan M. and William E. Pullen. Background of a Bandit: The Ancestry of Jesse James. Liberty: Jesse James Publishers, 1981.
» Triplett, Frank. The Life, Times and Treacherous Death of Jesse James. NY: Promontory Press, 1970.
» McGrane, Martin E. The James Farm: Its People, Their Lives and Their Times. Madison: Caleb Perkins Press, 1991.
Also, not to be forgotten:
» The Forgotten Towns of East Texas, Vol. 1 by Bob and Doris Bowman. ufkin: Best of East Texas Publishers, 2007.
I’ve always been interested in the James Gang myself, and if you really delve into it, as a member of that group of specified researchers, you will uncover not only their bloody Quantrell-related history, but the familial connections of many of them. I’ve always thought the rather long run of successful robberies and lack of betrayal came from the fact that many of the gang members were related, and their wives were part of the gang.
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