More Images of Old Sugar Land

Click the image to view an album of images of old Sugar Land. They come from postcards Tommy Laird found among his recently deceased mother's collection of memorabilia. Click the image to view the album.

 

Undated photo of the home economics building at old Sugar Land High School.

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.
 

More People of Old Sugar Land: SLHS Class of '48

My aunt (Mayme Rachiug Hause) sent me four snapshots from her high school days, which include two of her classmates who died recently: Frankie McFadden, and Charlie Tise. I added a later photo of another classmate who died earlier this month, Donald Brooks. There were 17 students in the Class of '48.

 

Frances Koon & Charlie Tise in the mid 1940s.

More People of Old Sugar Land

More photos of people in old Sugar Land. Click the image below to view the album.
 

Grave of Eleno Flores, Sr. in San Isidro Cemetery.

  

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Thank you, Kristin Lytle, for posting this photo on Facebook and alerting me that today is Frankie McFadden's 86th birthday.  Congratulations, Mr. McFadden (SLHS '48).

Way back in 1947.

 Today.

 
Some of you may know I'm a graduate of Rice University. I enjoy reading a Rice history blog that comes out daily. I was surprised recently to see a Sugar Land Gator turn up in the blog. The person in question is fellow Rice alum, George Salmon (SLHS '52), who had a remarkable career on Rice's track teams of the mid 1950s. If you'll click on the image below, you'll view the article. Scroll down to the third photo, and you'll see George, other members of a relay team with Emmett Brunson, Rice's famed track coach. They are standing on the track at old Rice stadium.
 

I've found the following images Facebook and took the liberty of reposting them here.  Thanks to everyone who contributed them.

The first shows Pam Schmidt Moore (DHS '64) on the right with sister Sabrina Schmidt Rust (DHS '72) at the '64 Texas Prison Rodeo in Huntsville.

  
The following photos shows the wedding party at Janice Jenkins (DHS '68) and Dexter Girard's nuptials. I don't know the date,  location, or all the people in the photo, but I do recognize Janice's two daughters on the far left, I don't know who the young girl is, but that's Janice, Dexter, Robert Allen (DHS '68), then a man I don't recognize, and Gary Horstmann (Janice's brother-in-law) on the far right.

 

 
The next photos shows members of Dulles High's Class of '65 enjoying themselves recently. From left to right that's Sherry Howard Davis, Diane Broughton Lundell, Joan Davis Kendrick, and Pat Schiller Bono.
  

The final image shows members of Dulles High's Class of '66 at the 2008 Mega Reunion.  I'll let you guess who is who.

 

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My brother Bruce and I had an opportunity to attend a Smith family reunion for the first time last weekend.  We had a great time and enjoyed a chance to meet some distant relatives.

The extended Smith family includes the Jenkins, Rozelle, and McCord families -- quite a few people in old Sugar Land. The matriarchs of those families (Minnie Jenkins, Monnye Rozelle, and Hattie McCord) were Smith sisters. They had more than one brother, but one (Walter) is where the Kelly family enters the picture. Our grandfather's sister Letha Mae Kelly married Walter. Mae and my grandfather (Charles or Chuck) were orphaned at a very young age and were estranged, so Bruce and I weren't really aware of our connection to the Smith family for many years.

Click on the image below to view a few photos from the reunion.  (Mae Kelly Smith was grandmother to the Stowells and Irvans, so that's why we're grouped together in one of the photos.) 

We're looking forward to the next one.
 

Betty Ann Williams, Claudia Rozelle Thornhill, & Ray Babineaux at the Smith family reunion on September 10, 2016.  (They are all DHS Class of '71.)

Interview With Ernest Trevino in 2011

I wanted to post another of the interviews Pat Pollicoff (City of Sugar Land) did with an old timers at Kempner Stadium in 2011.  Like the one with Wayne Boehm, Ernest talks about playing football with Ken Hall and the camaraderie of teams of that era.
  

Sugar Land High School's Class of 1940

I had a very enjoyable visit with Mr. Tom B. McDade, Jr. (SLHS Class of 1940) and his wife last week.  The object of his visit was to give me some records his father kept of cotton harvests in Sugar Land from 1928 to 1942. After I've scanned them, I will put them in the Sugar Land Heritage Foundation's document collection.  (I'll have more on them in the future.)

As I said, we had a very pleasant visit and talked about all kinds of things.  Here are a few other items he's donated to the SLHF. These relate to his high school graduation class.

 SLHS 1940 Commencement Program.

SLHS 1940 Commencement Program. 

SLHS 1940 Baccalaureate Program. 

 SLHS 1940 Baccalaureate Program. 

SLHS 1940 Class Photo. 

Cherryl Hughes Fikes has generously given me a scan of the class photo, which I posted earlier.  You see her father, Joe Bob Hughes, among the members of the Class of '40. I wanted to post it again due to an astounding story Mr. McDade told me.

He was in the US Navy during WWII.  He served as an officer on an LCI (landing craft infantry) in the Pacific theater of war.  He was on leave in the Philippines and went to an air base where he met his classmate, Joe Bob Hughes, by chance.  Hughes was a B-29 pilot and suggested Tom join him on a trip to Okinawa. Tom thought about it, but decided it was probably better that he decline.  As it turned out, he made the right decision.  A day or two later a monster typhoon hit Okinawa.  He would have had some 'splanin' to do regarding how he was stranded in Okinawa!

What astounds me is this is the 5th story I've heard about Sugar Land men/boys meeting up with each other in the Pacific theater during WWII.  (I know at least one occurred in Europe.)  Like my mother has said, the population of Sugar Land was about 2,500 people, yet in all but one, the meetings happened by chance.  

Kempner Memorial Stadium & Athletic Field

I received a request recently from the City of Sugar Land about the history of Kempner Stadium.  I thought I'd post some of the research I've assembled.  

Sugar Land had an athletic field beginning in the very early part of the 20th century. Baseball was the principal sport until 1927, when Sugar Land High School started a football team.  They played in an open field roughly where the outfield of the baseball diamond was located.  Fans roamed the sidelines - there were no stands or amenities of any kind.  All games were played during the day - there were no lights.

The Sugar Land Gators won their first district championship in 1938, which earned them an upgrade to their home ground.  They got lights, wooden stands (on the east side of the field), concession stands, and restrooms. The new stadium debuted in September 1939 when the Gators played Eagle Lake.  You'll see below, the home team downed the visitors 21-0.

In 1958, the stadium was upgraded with cement stands (on the west side of the field) and an electric scoreboard.  The stadium has changed further over the years, but it's still used today.

Here are images of two plaques dedicating the stadium and the scoreboard.  I've posted info on Stu Clarkson in the past.  Click here and here to view those entries.

 I. H. Kempner, Jr. plaque.

 Stuart Clarkson plaque.

I want to thank Ralph McCord's family for letting me scan the following items, which chronicle the opening game of the 1939 season.

Ralph McCord in 1939. 

Newspaper article about new stadium.  

Photo from the Eagle Lake game in 1939.  

Gator record of the 1939 season.  

Gator line up from the 1939 season.

The stadium also served as a venue for school graduations.  Here are items from the 1941 graduation ceremony on Kempner Field.  (My thanks go to the Kadlecek family for these images.)

1941 SLHS Commencement.

1941 SLHS Commencement Program.

1941 SLHS Commencement Program.

The following photo shows construction of the west-side stands in 1958.

Construction at Kempner Stadium in 1958.

W. H. Louviere, Sr. (President of Imperial Sugar Company) and Dr. Leslie Wheeler, Jr. (school board member) on the night of October 3, 1958 when the new stadium was dedicated and renamed in honor of I. H. Kempner, Jr.

Mr. Louviere (left) and Dr. Wheeler at Kempner Stadium on

October 3, 1958.

More from the 1947 Gator Yearbook

  

I've posted a few more images from the 1947 Gator, Sugar Land ISD's student annual.  I received a note recently from John Rhodes, son of Jack Rhodes, who was head coach (all sports) in the 1946/47 school year.  John was very young when the Rhodes family lived in Sugar Land, and he has never seen these images, so I've posted those in which his father appears.  There are some interesting shots of class rooms, the cafeteria, and the grounds - well worth a look if you wonder what the Lakeview campus looked like 70 years ago.

Click the image to view the album.

  

Jack Rhodes, SLHS Football Coach 1945/46

I received a kind letter from John Rhodes, whose father was head coach of the Sugar Land Gator football team in the 1945/46 school year.  I'll have more to say about Coach Rhodes and his son in later postings, but I thought I'd post a few excerpts from the April and May 1946 issues of The Alligator Splash, the school's monthly newspaper.  

The first clipping deals with the administration's consideration of organizing a student council.  The April issue included student opinions, and this one was from Blanche Cruse.  (Linda Cruse Wilson asked me recently about her older sister who was a student at Sugar Land High, and I coincidentally came across this clipping.)

  

  

The next item concerned prospect form next fall's football season.  I knew the '45 team was good, but I didn't know they finished second in the district race.  I'll have to check to see which school came out on top. (Maybe Boling or Richmond.)  

  

  
As some of you read in a post above, Dorothy Vavrecka Raska (SLHS '46) died recently.  The May issue of the Splash had short profiles of graduating seniors.  Here is Dorothy's, which included a funny story.
   

   

This final clipping was also in the May issue and comes from Coach Rhodes.  It's his parting congratulations to graduating seniors.

  

More People of Old Sugar Land

 

Old Sugar Land High School published a student newspaper called The Alligator Splash.  (The school's mascot was an alligator.  Their colors were green & white.)  Our family scrapbook had a copy of the February 6, 1942 issue, which you can view by clicking on the image below.

I noticed a few things.  First, a front-page article says my father had a pretty good night against Beasley in the last game of the 1942 season.  (Maybe that's why my grandmother kept this issue.)  Another front-page article says Ronald Miller (a third grader) won a contest and got to meet Gene Autry who was headlining the Houston Rodeo.  I recall asking Ron about this a few years ago.  I think he said he has a vague recollection of meeting Autry, but his dominant memory is of the fancy cowboy outfit he (Ron) got to wear on the big occasion.  (I may have this wrong, or confused with another story I've heard.)

On page two you'll see a short essay by Wayburn Hall (SLHS '43) on Patriotism.  In a couple of years Wayburn would be a Marine in the South Pacific.  In 1945 he would participate in the Battle for Okinawa.  (In a year my father would be in the US Navy, and in 1945 he would be at Okinawa, too.)
 

  

I want to thank Mark Schumann (DHS '76) for sharing the following photos of his Uncle Max Schumann, Jr. (SLHS '40).  Max Schumann was born in 1922 and died in 2012.  As you'll see in some of the photos, he grew up on 4th Street.

 

Max on left with brother Herbert around 1923.

 

Max in the center with brothers William on left and Robert on right with the family cows which were pastured about where 7th St. is today.  (I presume they are standing in or near 4th St.)

Max and Robert on 4th St. sometime during WWII.

Max and wife Hilda with Max's step-mother Hattie in the center. (They are standing in their yard on 4th St.)

Max during WWII.

Max and Hilda in later years.

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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?