Remember When

A full-length, GP rated movie called “Yeller Headed Summer” was to be filmed in its entirety in La Grange during the summer. Arrangements for shooting the script about the trials of a small-town constable were completed when officials of the Texas Governor’s Office Texas Film Commission and John Ireland, one of the stars, met with Mayor L.W. Stolz Jr. and other city officials. The movie was to include other such well-known stars as Laurence Harvey, Stuart Whitman, Walter Pidgeon, Donna Reed and Warren Oates. Filming was to begin in May and, yes, local folks would have a chance to sign up to be extras. Ireland had just completed Escape in the Sun and a western film called Amen. Some of Ireland’s better known earlier films were “Welcome to Arrow Beach” and “All the King’s Men.”

A large crowd of parents and patrons attended a meeting at the Bishop Forest High School gymnasium in Schulenburg to complete plans for the 1973-74 school year and to discuss the school’s fundraising campaign. A total of $32,000 ($17,000 in cash and $15,000 in pledges) was being sought by March 19 to assure the school’s operation for the upcoming academic year. The Bishop Forest senior class under the sponsorship of Kelly Sartain kicked off the fundraising with a $500 donation. At the time, the school had 110 registered students.

Records tumbled like falling dominos at the 14th annual Fayette County Junior Livestock Show. Total sales came in just under $50,000, topping by more than $13,000 the $36,300 1972 auction total. La Grange Future Farmer Frank Heger sold his 892-pound grand champion Charolais steer for $1.75 a pound, downing the old record of $1.65 posted in 1971, to Schatte Real Estate of Round Top. The purchaser donated the champ to Fayette Memorial Hospital. Round Top-Carmine FFA member Michael Peters received a record $3.50 per pound for his 205-pound Duroc grand champion fat hog, also from Schatte Real Estate. Jackie Stueber of the Rutersville 4-H Club posted a new high of $2.75 per pound for her reserve champion fat lamb, a 105-pound crossbred that went to Guentert Meat Processing Company of High Hill.

Colorado County’s Commissioners’ Court passed a resolution to allocate only $33,000 of the nearly $250,000 Revenue Fund toward operation of a countywide ambulance service. In contrast, Fayette County’s government had agreed to underwrite the entire annual cost of $78,000 for the services of a private ambulance firm.

Coach Leonard May’s La Grange Leopards finally got the 1973 high school baseball season off the ground in an auspicious fashion by shutting out A&M Consolidated’s Tigers, 4-0, at Fair Park. The Leps’ Billy Miller fashioned a neat one-hit stint over the seven frame tilt with six-hit support from his mates. The team used five of those swats in producing the quartet of tallies. Other local stars in the game were: Hal Lindemann, Buddy Grobe, Steve Kovar, Marcus Cook, Jim Quinn and Mark Muzny.

Funeral services were held for: Alvin W. Meinardus, 67, of La Grange; Fritz Foltermann, 93, of La Grange; Rudolph W. Zatopek, 68, of Ellinger; and Mrs. Ora Nell Kipp, 53, of Ledbetter.

Mayors from most of the 30 Central Texas cities served by the Lower Colorado River Authority joined together to resist efforts by LCRA to raise electrical rates. The wholesale supplier contended that on Jan. 1, 1974, an increase was necessary to build additional generating plants to meet the growing needs of the municipalities and 11 electrical cooperatives it served. According to La Grange Mayor L.W. Stolz Jr., “The LCRA has suggested an average cost of 1¢ per kilowatt hour, or what they figure is a 50% increase. Our experts tell us that applying that rate to our last year’s electrical usage would result in an actual increase of between 60% and 70%.”

The La Grange Information Center, which would publicize and promote the attractions and services available in the La Grange area, was opening in the former Frisch Auf! Village Gift Shoppe on Monument Hill. The building would also serve as headquarters for Kraft Builders, Inc.

Parsons College at Fairfield, Iowa, named Miss Marie Wolle, the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Oliver Wolle of Carmine, to the dean’s list for the fall semester.

William H. Schovajsa of La Grange was among 1,239 students named to the honor roll at North Texas State University at Denton for the fall semester.

Holy Cross Lutheran Church at Warda hosted well over 1,000 when the congregation observed the 100th anniversary of its founding.

Six La Grange students were named to the list of Blinn College sophomores in the 1972-73 edition of Who’s Who Among Students in American Junior Colleges: David Elmore, Carol von Minden, Rebecca Blaha and Paulette Tielsch. Making the list from elsewhere in Fayette County were Barbara Belota of Plum and Norris Wied of Ellinger.

For more great stories, visit Elaine online at www. elainethomaswriter.com/blog/ or call her at 979-263-5031.