Remember When?

The La Grange High School graduating class of 1963 held its 10-year reunion at the VFW Hall on June 16. (Left to right, back row): Don Mayer, Robert Boehm, Michael F. Klesel, Jim Schaefer, Bennie Adamcik, Robert A. Berry, Karen Schultz Wendler, Louis Konvicka and Arthur Noack. (Third row, left to right): Walter Gersch, Raymond Vaclavik, Henry Svec, Henry Bains, David Friedrich, Nancy von Rosenberg Hunter, Leroy Peck, Bob C. Heinsohn, Jeanette Schwartz Selman, La Verne Chernosky Kimball and Delores von Minden Votaw. (Second row, left to right): Fritz Miller, Glenn Pape, Leonard Jecmenek, Roy Kasper, Bobbie Robbins Stevens, Karen Kallus Peck, Louise Wiesenhutter Grimm, Carol Guettler Zbranek, Marjorie Citzler Stibora, Marceil Marburger Koonce, Patricia Krenek and Judy Williams Berry. (Front row, left to right): Gene Kubecka, Otto Ullrich, George Psencik, Lillian Supak Kallus, Gloria Svrcek Kolek, Elaine Lehman Key, Sue Synnott Schaefer, Carol Lehman Davis, Minnie Giere Pesl and Maribeth Milton Bains. Attending but not pictured were: Bill von Rosenberg, Donna Bambrick Riefkohl and Ethel Schmidt Hodges. Photo courtesy of Fayette Heritage Museum and Archives.

The La Grange Leopards pSheriff T.J. Flournoy returned from Shiner late Friday with the 65-year-old reader-advisor in custody who had promised to cure an eastern Fayette County resident’s illness. The victim, who wished to remain anonymous, told Sheriff Flournoy that he and his wife had visited the healer on several occasions. On the most recent trip, she offered him pills that made him ‘crazy in the head.’ The readeradvisor then instructed him to go to his bank and withdraw $6,000 to affect a cure for the hex. After regaining his senses, the victim said he decided to call the sheriff’s office. Held on a felony theft charge overnight, the reader-advisor was released Saturday morning on her own recognizance after $3,000 was returned to the victim with the understanding that the remaining $3,000 would be repaid within 30 days. It was thought she may have also been responsible for stealing $70 from an Engle woman several weeks earlier.

Burglars entered the Dew Drop Inn at Flatonia sometime Wednesday night or Thursday morning and made off with a quarter-inch electric drill and a field jacket, along with about $100 cash. A pool table and a juke box were also broken into and an undetermined amount of cash taken. Officers said a rear window was pried open to gain entrance to the building.

Burglars hit the Vastine Schaefer Store at Rabb’s Prairie sometime Friday night and got away with five cases of beer, five cartons of cigarettes, a two-pound can of coffee, some sardines and onions, and $10 in cash from the register. Entry was gained by smashing the glass in the front door and reaching through to trip the night latch.

Nearly a foot of rain fell Tuesday and Wednesday pushing the Colorado River level up two feet in a six-hour period. At 9 a.m. on Wednesday it was gauged at 22.3 feet. The water level rose to 24.5 feet by 3 p.m., crested during the night and dropped to 18.8 feet by Thursday morning. The St. John Road in Schulenburg was one of the first FM roads to be closed due to high water, followed by Buchner’s Creek, Winchester and Williams Creek, as well as Hwy. 71 west.

Two long-time Fayette County Jail prisoners broke out and escaped sometime early Wednesday morning. One of the prisoners on the loose, who had been in the local jail for a year and seven months, faced several burglary indictments. The other, locked up since November, had been indicted in connection with a burglary at the F. R. Hruska store in Ellinger and had been billed a habitual criminal by a later grand jury. The pair sawed a one-and-a-quarter-inch bar to get out of their cell and into the open area of the jail. How they managed to leave the jail had not yet been determined. Sheriff T. J. (Jim) Flournoy said, “I have done just about everything but get down on my knees to have these prisoners tried, but without success.” Ironically, the two escapees had been scheduled to go to trial in district court the following week. A dairy farmer organization announced that the milk prices it charged dairies in an eight-state area would increase on July 1. Citing the need for dairy farmers to keep pace with record (and still-rising) production costs, a representative of Associated Milk Producers, Inc. said the prices charged for milk used for bottling purposes would increase 70¢ per 100 pounds, over and above the minimum price specified in the federal milk market orders in effect.

The La Grange Leopards Class AAA University Interscholastic League Texas baseball championship was not the only impressive title won by county athletes over the years. In 1972, the Schulenburg Shorthorns went all the way to capture the Class A football championship. The same year, the La Grange Schroeder Drug Demons annexed the state championship in the Texas branch of the National Baseball Congress. Although the Round Top-Carmine Cubettes didn’t take their third straight state girls’ Class B win in 1973, the team still ranked third in the state. This year, Flatonia High School’s Bulldogs went all the way in the Class A baseball race to tack on the Region V championship. However, the team facing the biggest weather challenge was back in 1922 when a La Grange High School octet took a train to Austin. Soon after their arrival, they rode out three tornadoes before regaining their composure to cop the state Class A relays the next day. Members of that first winning team were: A.V. Smith, Arthur von Minden, Glenn Garrett, John Blume, W.B. Loessin, Ed Novosad, Wilburn Zingelmann and Walter Mensing.

Fayetteville Rural High School District trustees received the good news that the 230.60 average daily attendance or 96.23% in 1972-73 qualified the school to reinstate its 10th classroom teacher unit. In other school district news, the board accepted the resignation of Mrs. Oneita Blankenship, who was retiring, and employed Miss Marie Helen Hajovsky of Holman, who had been teaching first grade at Stockdale.

Final but unofficial figures for Fayette County’s 1972 cotton and feed grain payout totaled $639,585, according to the Agricultural Stabilization and Conservation Service in La Grange. The 1,237 farms participating in the feed grain program had planted 20,349 acres, while setting aside another 3,381.

Funeral services were held for: W.E. Kolbe Sr., 66, of Rutersville; Mrs. Frank (Annie) Ermis, 80, of Schulenburg; and Rufus P. Altmann, 55, of La Grange.

Michael Klesel of La Grange presided over theArea II American Cancer Society meeting inAustin. In attendance were 80 volunteers from 35 counties.

Katherine Marie Zatopek, a 1973 graduate of Fayetteville Rural High School, received a $600 Carl B. and Florence E. King Foundation Scholarship from the Texas Interscholastic League Foundation.

Mr. and Mrs. Ernest Kallus returned from a three-week pilgrimage to Italy, the Holy Land, Turkey, Greece and Switzerland. Their tour was coordinated by the Catholic Travel Office in Washington, D.C.

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