John Pirtle's Oral History

John Pirtle was born in 1931 and graduated from Sugar Land High School in 1949. His family lived on "Rat Row" (old Imperial Blvd.), which is now covered by the expanded Nalco plant. Time has made sweeping changes to the town John grew up in, but his memories are still vivid and cherished. Read his interview to get a taste of Sugar Land back then.

Click the image below to read John Pirtle's account of his life in Sugar Land.
 

News & Updates

Thank you, Mary Lee Brodecky Sebesta, for sending me a link to Mrs. Patsy Guerrero's obituary. (I mentioned her death in an earlier post, but didn't have a link to her funeral notice.) Click here to view the obituary. My sincerest condolences to the extended Guerrero family for the loss of their loved one.

Many of you know Lakeview Elementary celebrated the centennial of its campus (former site of Sugar Land School) last week. Click this link to view photos from the event, which was a big success.

Others of you may have heard that FBISD's current facilities plan includes an option of closing LVE and merging its student body with Meadows Sugar Mill Elementary. Click here to view the schedule of public meetings for community feedback on the facilities plan. Click here and go to page 11 of the plan and view the details regarding merging Meadows Sugar Mill and Lakeview Elementary Schools.

More People of Old Sugar Land: Sugar Land Elementary School in 1960

My thanks go to Tommy Laird (DHS '67) for sending me this scan of the 1960 Sugar Land Elementary School annual.

Click the image to view it.
 

SL Elementary School annual.

Lakeview Elementary School Will Celebrate Its 100th Anniversary in March

1932

This is a save-the-date message announcing Lakeview Elementary School's celebration of its 100th anniversary on Saturday, March 24, 2018. More about this as we get nearer the date.

Click this link for details as of this date.

More People of Old Sugar Land

SLHS Class of '56 as 3rd graders in 1947.

SL contingent of DHS Class of '66 as 1st graders in 1955.

DHS Class of '74 as freshmen in 1971.

More Images of Old Sugar Land

  

While researching west Sugar Land, I reviewed 1941 aerial photos we have of that area. It has changed dramatically in recent decades, so I thought I'd show a transition from 1941 to the present day.

Click the image below to view the 30-second video.  (Click the full-screen option to get a better view.)
  

  

Here are stills of the 1941 aerial and the Google Earth view, if you want to study them.

1941

  

Click here to read a 2009 post on the Nibbs-Fields house.  Click here to read a 2012 post on it.

   

I received a couple of questions about Sugar Land Schools, so I've posted the following series of photos to answer them.  The first is an aerial photo taken in 1940.  (Click on the image to magnify it.)  M. R. Wood School is just out of the frame, but the Hispanic school on Ulrich St. is visible, as is the campus on Lakeview Dr.

1940

Here are two photos of the Auditorium.  I think the first one was taken soon after it was completed in 1918.  The second was taken around 1960, I think.

1918

Early 1960s

  

The next image shows the home economics building, probably just after it was completed in 1932.  The build was still in use into the early 1960s.  Mrs. Robinson taught my 4th or 5th grade class choir in that building, but it didn't last much longer. Apparently it had severe structural problems and stood empty for a couple of years before it was razed.

  

Early 1930s

I've enlarged the 1940 aerial to show where it stood.  I've also provided a current Google Earth view to orient it to today's campus.

Magnification of 1940 aerial photo

Google Earth view today

People of Old Sugar Land

Thank you Tommy Laird for posting the following clipping from 1970 on Facebook.  

The next photo comes from John Pirtle, who was in the same class as my mother (SLHS '49).  I don't recognize him in this photo, but I see my mother, Marjorie Hauerland Polasek, Marilyn Bourg Cheaney, Betty Sue Douglas Lubajosky, and Harry McBride.  I think they are in the 2nd grade.  You can see the old classrooms in the background.

  

The next photo also comes from the Pirtle family and shows John's sister Betty Pirtle McClure near the goldfish pond in front of the Char House.  I don't know the date, but my guess is the late 1940s.

  

Once again we have a photo from the Pirtle family.  I assume this is a photo of Rennie Pirtle's (John's older brother) first grade class.  I can't identify anyone except Miss Lima Johnson, the teacher.  I especially liked the barefoot boys.  You have a closeup of their feet and clothes in the very last image. The girls look nice, but the boys seem a little dusty and ragged.

  

Sugar Land Elementary Photos

There's a Facebook group devoted to Lakeview Elementary.  I've stretched their scope a bit to show photos of elementary schools preceding Lakeview.  

The first photo shows the school that existed before the Lakeview campus was created in 1918.  This one-room school was located at the northwest corner of Wood and 2nd St. Old timers know the house now on that lot as the M. R. Wood home.

1918.

The next photo shows the Sugar Land Elementary School's first grade class in 1925 1931. My father, C. E. Kelly, Jr., is the boy standing at the far left on the back row. 

 

1925 1931 first graders.

School buses looked a lot like armored cars in the old days.

 

An undated photo (probably 1930s or '40s) of a Sugar Land school bus.

The next photo shows the Hispanic School located on Ulrich St., just north of the new bridge over Oyster Creek.  I don't know the exact dates when the school operated, but I think it was still in operation into the 1950s.  My understanding is that it was bi-lingual and encompassed the first through fourth grades.

This building also served as headquarters for the Freeman Post of the American Legion before the current building was constructed in the late 1960s.

  

An undated of the Hispanic School in Mayfield Park.

The next image is of the Lakeview cafeteria when construction was completed in 1953.

1953.

The next photo comes from the Fort Bend Mirror and takes the biggest stretch. Although these boys aren't shown at Lakeview Elementary, I'm certain most, if not all, of them were students there.

  

1968.

More People of Old Sugar Land

Why are older brothers shorter than younger brothers?

Wayne Boehm (SLHS '55) & Jerry Boehm (SLHS 59) at the 2015 Brock family reunion.

 

Thank you, Stephanie Youngblood Wilson (DHS '65), for sending me the following set of photos.  They connected some dots for me.

Stephanie's mother, Barbara Ann Dreier, on the left with her sister (Stephanie's aunt), Betty Lou Dreier at Barbara's graduation from SLHS in 1938.  (It appears they are in a yard on the north side of  Lakeview Drive.)

Barbara Ann Dreier Youngblood in her SLHS pep squad uniform.

L to R: Muffet Guenther Gideon (SLHS '41), Mary Norton Shelton (SLHS '39), and Barbara Ann Dreier Youngblood (SLHS '38) on Brooks Street in 1940.

The 1937/38 SLHS Girls Tennis Team.  L to R: (front row) Anna Belle Richardson Friddle, Jean Lee Davidson Wynne, (second row) Dorothy Schultz Gandy, Barbara Ann Dreier Youngblood, Mary Norton Shelton, MayDoll Douglas Stokes, Mary Gene Logan and Viola Boehm Stapelfeldt, (back row) Elizabeth Gentry and Blanche Boehm Prikryl.

H. L. Dreier in his back garden.

Etna Schindler, Stephanie's aunt and long-time Sugar Land telephone operator, in 1940

These next two photos are rather timely since the Class of '65 at Dulles High School will celebrate their 50th anniversary this year.

L to R: Carol Ann Waldrop, Joyce Foitik, Carol Jean Alaminsky, and Betty ? in 1956 when they were in the 3rd or 4th grade.

Mrs. Boyer's kindergarten in 1953. We can identify Bruce Edwards, Jr., Janie Wheeler, Susie Kuykendall, and Stephanie, but the others are a problem.  Any help?

A Correction

I want to thank Betty Jean Parker Prasatik (SLHS '53) for pointing out my misidentification of her mother, Frankie Park, in the following photo.

I have no excuse.  Mack & Frankie Parker were my grandmother's (Mamie Rachuig's) backyard neighbors on Belknap Ct.  I knew Mr. & Mrs. Parker fairly well.  I've included a couple more photos of Mrs. Parker below.  They come from the '53 Gator yearbook.

More People of Old Sugar Land

I forgot to mention in my last set of posts that long-time Sugar Land resident and teacher, Jimi Neal, died late last year.  Unfortunately, I don't have an obituary, but I wanted to send my condolences to David (DHS '67), Henry (DHS '69), and Emily (DHS '73).  Mark Schumann has the only photo of her I could find.  It shows her as his first grade teacher in 1965.  (Thanks, Mark, for this and the additional photos.)

 

 

Here's another photo of Mark and his sister, Karen, standing on 6th St. in 1961.  You can see Kempner Stadium in the background.

 

 

This photo shows Robert Schumann (SLHS '41), family friend Babe Fischer, and Herbert Schumann (SLHS '37) at the home of Max Schumann on 4th St. in 1941.  (Max was Robert and Herbert's father.)  Robert is wearing an A&M Corps of Cadets uniform.  Herbert is wearing his US Army uniform.

I received this final picture from Sandy Rogers at the Texas Prison Museum.  (They have a surprising number of Sugar Land items.)  It shows a Mrs. Horton, wife of an employee at the prison farm, in front of Pike's Cafe in Sugar Land.  The date must be around 1939.  (I tried identifying the truck but had little luck.)  The photographer was C. C. Springfield, who worked for the Texas prison system.  (Thanks, Sandy.)

More People Of Old Sugar Land

Who knew the '64 Dulles Band had a bass fiddle? (Thanks Linda Hagler Mosk, DHS '68 for this image.)

This is an undated photo of employees at Visco, later known as Nalco.  Jean McCord Babineaux (SLHS '47) thinks it was taken in the late '30s.  L-to-R: Benny Kinard, ? Koch, Kirk Kirkpatrick, Don Wilson, ?, and John McCord (Jean's father).  (Thank you Mrs. Babineaux.)

These following images come from the 1961/62 Viking Log, which was the Sugar Land Junior High yearbook.  My thanks to Rick Kirkpatrick (DHS '67) for letting me scan his copy.

Technically speaking, he's not an old Sugar Lander, but we'll break the rule for a neighbor.  I think this comes from the spring of 1970.

My thanks to the Helmcamp family for these images.  I think they show members of Dulles High's Class of 1970.  I think I see Pam Tise, Sheryl Gary, Waylon Gandy, Gary Buis, and Shannon Frierson.  Can anyone peg ids in these photos?