Margaret Joost Wins National Merit Scholarship
April 22, 1975
La Grange High School announced that Margaret L. Joost was its first National Merit Scholarship winner. Lubrizol Corporation financed the $1,000 scholarship she received. Each winner was chosen in an open competition with all the other highly qualified students in their home state who had attained finalist standing.
A Waller County deputy sheriff and former La Grange resident Albert E. Cooke, 39, was kidnapped and killed with his own gun early Friday morning. A 17-year-old Hempstead youth was being held without bond in the murder. The Waller County sheriff reported that Deputy Sheriff Cooke arrested the youth after a break-in at a service station in Hempstead. Texas Rangers arrested the gunman about 2 a.m.
Two candy salesmen, who were friends and competitors, outsmarted a couple of nervy, hardworking thieves in Weimar. Robert Kallus of La Grange was parked in front of Bennie’s Cafe at 8 a.m. on a weekday having a cup of coffee after making his delivery there. Across the street and a few doors down, Leroy Stavinoha of Schulenburg saw two men calmly transferring boxes and boxes of candy from Kallus’s truck to their old Pontiac car. Mr. Stavinoha walked past the men and into Bennie’s Cafe, where he congratulated his rival on the big sale. Taken aback, Mr. Kallus dashed outside in time to get the license number of the perpetrators’ vehicle and turn it over to Constable Joe Dusek. Deputy Joey Targac, who had left Weimar a little earlier, got the radio message and stopped the vehicle at Columbus. Not only was the $78 worth of candy recovered, but the thieves were charged with misdemeanor theft and one count of altering a driver’s license and were fined nearly $500.
La Grange’s Leopards gave up four first-inning runs to the Smithville Tigers on three solid base hits, a walk and a fielding error, before taking the offensive themselves to come up with a 10-4 triumph behind Kenny Hatfield’s five-hit hill job and 11 base knocks of their own. Hatfield contributed a pair of three-baggers while Neal Miller socked a homerun. Neal also had a single, while Mike Pechal contributed a trio of singles and Larry Bippert had a pair. La Grange tied the score with a quartet in the second stanza around singles by Bippert, Gary Dippel and Pechal, plus free tickets to Jeff Lindemann and Hatfield.
Eileen Muras, a sixth grader at Hermes Elementary School, stayed in the Houston Chronicle Spelling Bee for 16 rounds. She was one of 36 contestants up to the age of 16 competing for the honor of representing this region in the National Spelling Bee in Washington, D.C. Eileen was accompanied to Houston by her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Henry Muras.
The Fayette County Sheriff’s Department was investigating a burglary at Ritz Food Mart No. 3 on E. Travis St. About $100, mostly in rolled coins, was taken from the cash register, but nothing else was missing. Entrance was gained by prying open a rear door to the business.
Funeral services were held for: Mrs. Sarah Leeland (Sadie) Hoch, 84, of La Grange and Miss Elizabeth F. Schuetze, 64, of Freyburg.
Jack Redus of Round Top was presented with a retirement gift at a party in his honor in Houston for 39 years of service to Herder Truck Lines. Mr. Redus reminisced that when he first went to work for Charlie Herder, the company had only four pieces of equipment. When he retired, Herder Truck Line had 270 equipment units and almost 300 employees.
Mrs. Nettie Freudenburg, Fayette County’s Extension Agent for 15 years, said the Texas Agricultural Extension Service offered her the job right after she received her BS degree in home economics from the University of Texas. When she met her future husband, she settled in La Grange. Mrs. Freudenburg enjoyed her work with senior citizens that when the Fayette County Committee on Aging, a subcommittee of the Fayette County Program Building Committee, began offering courses designed to help elderly residents improve the quality of their lives. This included driver education, estate planning, insurance and repair of small appliances. Each year, Mrs. Freudenburg had been instrumental in helping to sponsor a senior citizen fair, which included recognizing outstanding senior citizens at a banquet co-sponsored by the Fayette County Home Demonstration clubs.
Calvin Kuehn was elected commander of Fayette Memorial Post 524, succeeding Paul Kleiber as head of the Veterans of Foreign Wars organization. Also elected were: George Kaehler, senior vice commander; Kenneth C. Schultz, junior vice commander; Werner von Minden, quartermaster; Delton Wessels, chaplain; Cyril R. Kallus, post advocate; and Ted Harbers, surgeon.
The Flatonia School Board rejected all bids for the possible sale of the former Cistern school property.
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