Marion Wilson would not let a troop train pass through her town without being on hand to greet the soldiers, and on a cold Christmas Eve she brought most of the town with her.
Author: Edward Southerland
Edward Southerland from 2006-2010 was Texoma Living!'s editor-in-chief. He is currently retired, writing freelance articles and working on a book and a treatment for a television show. He grew up in Bonham, Texas. He spent several years on the road touring the nation before he settled down in Atlanta, GA where he earned his law degree. He returned to Texas and worked as a feature writer for the Herald Democrat newspaper before taking over the editorial department at Texoma Living!.
Cowboy with a Camera
Photographer Erwin Smith of Bonham, Texas was to the American cowboy what Matthew Brady was to the Civil War. Smith captured the life of the cowboys of West Texas and New Mexico in a time when the West was changing forever.
The Way North
The way north was an old trace that lay along the great wrinkle in the earth that separated the Blackland Prairie to the east from the Southern Plains to the west. The trail ran from Southwest Texas north to present day St. Louis, Missouri, and for centuries it served as a conduit for trade and war and migration by peoples ancient and modern. It went by many names. Most referred to it as the Shawnee Trail, for the ancient Indian village of Shawneetown near present day Denison.
Cowboy Radio
“With so much trauma and stress over our country’s situation, it’s nice to have a little happy, and you’ve got to be happy around goats and Western music,” said Waynetta Ausmus. “Goats will make you laugh, and Western music will make you tap your feet.”
John Sutton Shelton
“When I was 12, I began studying under Silvio Scionti, and he taught me how to make music come alive,” said John Sutton Shelton in an interview in 2003. Shelton was a child prodigy at the piano. During his senior year at Sherman High School, Shelton won a music contest that earned him a chance to play with the Houston Symphony.
Things I Learned at the Movies
– The odds of a successful, long-term romantic relationship increase by the square of the level of initial hostility between the two parties involved.- Once you think you have killed a monster, you would best be advised to do it again; otherwise it will come back to life.
Four Rivers Outreach
The weekly Tuesday evening gathering at Four Rivers Outreach is a combination camp meeting, pep rally, Alcoholics Anonymous session, gospel song fest, and tent revival—sans the tent—with a leavening of motivational self-help positive thinking thrown in for measure. It starts with introductions. “Who’s here for the first time?” says the woman with the microphone. “Stand up and tell us who you are and how you got here.”
Dinner on Deck
Sometimes it is interesting to deconstruct an idea and trace how it came to be. The dinner party afloat featured in the following pages started out a long way from the tranquility of a sleepy cove on Lake Texoma. It began in early May as an idea for a party at a yet to be found Victorian manse.
Building Denison Dam
In 1937 Congressman Sam Rayburn led a contingent from Denison to a meeting in Louisiana that would lead to the construction of one of the largest man-made lakes ever.
My Best Summer
Summer seemed longer when we were young. It stretched from the end of May into the far distant September, and the prospect of using up that apparently endless collection of days seemed almost impossible. Each week seemed like a month, each month like a year.