St. John Donates to Kids’ Playground
St. John Lutheran in Ellinger recently donated to the kid’s playground at St. John Lutheran in Rutersville. On hand were President Lucille Koehl, Secretary Maxine Brugger and representatives Shiela Brugger, Laura Brugger and the confirmation and Sunday School youth of Shared Lutheran Ministry.
Graduates
Rylee Fritsch of Ellinger graduated from Fayetteville High School on May 9, 2025 and completed her Nurses Aid classes through Blinn College and received her certification in 2024. She will be attending Texas A& M and major in Business. She worked all of her high school career and held two jobs her senior year through the school work program. Upon graduation, she was awarded the following scholarships: Hawes & Prafiska, Bluebonnet Electric Cooperative, Craig Coufal Memorial, Knights of Columbus, La Grange Optimist, Lanny Conway Memorial, Second Chance Emporium and Aggies Assurance. She is the daughter of Seth Fritsch and Erin Fritsch, granddaughter of Jimmy Zapalac and JoAnn Zapalac, and Sammy and the late Susan Fritsch.
Shared Lutheran Ministry
Worship services are still offered on Facebook, You Tube and KTIM 89.1 on Sundays at noon. Ellinger has worship every Sunday at 8 a.m. with communion.
St. Mary’s Catholic Church
St. Mary’s Catholic Church mass is every Saturday at 4 p.m. and Sunday at 8 a.m.
Brethren Church
Fayetteville Brethren Church has services the second, third, and fourth Saturdays of each month at 10 a.m. Other services are at Industry Brethren on the second, third and fourth Saturdays at 5 p.m., Wesley Brethren on Sundays at 9 a.m. and Nelsonville Brethren on Sundays at 10:15 a.m. Rev. Mike Groseclose leads all the services. The Nelsonville service is live streamed on Nelsonville Brethren’s Facebook page.
Ellinger Tomato Festival
The 88th annual Tomato Festival will kick off on Friday, May 23 with a barbeque cookoff and the chopped challenge round 1 contest. Entertainment will be provided by the Airplane Band from 8-11 p.m. The cookoff continues on Saturday along with a 5K run, tomato toss contest, chopped challenge live cooking contest, raffle and an auction at 7 p.m. Entertainment will be provided by a DJ. Sunday concludes with a fried chicken and sausage drive through meal starting at 10:30 a.m.
Cemetery 25th Anniversary The Cesko Narodni Hrbitov Cemetery in Ellinger, Texas was established around 1884. In 2000, the cemetery was designated a Historic Texas Cemetery and this year, on May 18 at 2 p.m., the 25th anniversary of this designation will be commemorated. The Board that oversees the maintenance and preservation of this historic cemetery invites the community to come out to the cemetery for this celebration.
The Cesko Narodni Hrbitov (aka Ellinger Public Cemetery) is located at 1705 FM 2503. For more information about the cemetery go to http://www. ellingerpubliccemetery. org.
Birthdays
Birthday Wishes to the following May celebrants: Conner King-19, Phyllis Fritsch and Liz Ripple-21, Shelby Dennis-24 and Ann Heintschel-25.
Have news?
Send any news or announcements to Laura at ellingernews@ yahoo.com by Sunday evening for the following Friday’s paper. Pictures of milestones, parties, celebrations, etc. are welcome.
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