Rio Grande Herald (Rio Grande City, Tex.), Vol. 31, No. 22, Ed. 1 Thursday, June 28, 1973 Page: 1 of 28
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U* •
RIO GRANDE
Serving over 5000 readers over 55 years
TPA Award Winning Newspaper
Ten Cents
Vol. XXXI
No. 22
Thursday June 28, 1973
Rio Grande City, Texas
.
!•
by TISSA PETERSON
Herald Staff Writer
Lino Perez Jr. of Rio Grande
City 'will be honored at a testi-
monial dinner at the Knights of
Columbus Hall this Saturday
night at 7:30 in appreciation of
his two years of service as State
Deputy of the Texas State Coun-
cil of te Knights of Columbus.
June 30 will be his last day to
serve in that office. Many State
officers and other dignitaries of
the Order will be present for
the occasion.
Perez had an early interest in
the Knights of Columbus. As a
youngster, Lino served as altar
boy, along with Roberto Margo,
at Mass on January 31, 1926,
of Rio Grande City, organized by
Cleofas Calleros. His fattier,
Lino Perez Sr., was a charter
member in the local organiza-
tion.
Lino Perez Jr. joined the Or-
der himself in 1935, encouraged
by N, A. Quintanilla, and start-
ed up the steps in the local
Council, subsequently serving
in all the positions. In 1943 he
became Grand Knight of ttie De
Saules Council and served three
terms in that office.
On the District level, Perez
served for seventeen years as
District Deputy. He is the only
member of the Catholic fratern-
al order who can claim the title
of International District Deputy.
He served as a District Deputy
for councils on both sides of the
Rio Grande River simultane-
ously— District 2 in Texas, in-
cluding Webbs, Zapata, Jim
Hogg, Duvall, and Starr Coun-
ties, and District 26 in Mexico,
along the border from Reynosa
to Nuevo Guerrero.
Lino worked for twenty-five
years as Captain of the Guard
in the Ceremonial Degree Corps
made up of twelve men on a Bi-
district level. Over 9600 mem-
bers in Texas and Mexico were
initiated into the Order during
his service as Captain of the
Guard.
Perez served as a State com-
mitteeman for nine years, was
elected to the office of State
Warden in 1949andservedthree
years, served as State Trea-
surer for three years, State
Secretary for two years, and
has headed the 35,000 man or-
ganization as State Deputy from
1971 to 1973.
He has represented Texas at
Supreme Conventions in Pitts-
burgh, Boston, New York, Hous-
ton, and Toronto, Canada. This
August he will attend the Sup-
reme Convention in Seattle.
With the theme of his two
Perez to be honored
by testimonial
years of service as State De-
puty being, "A Time to Care,"
Perez points out that tliefunda-
mental points of the Knights of
Columbus are charity, unity,
fraternity, and patriotism. His
program of the last two years
has focused on efforts to get the
Knights of Columbus in the State
involved in civic endeavors in
their communities and in lead-
ing drives against pornography,
drug abuse, and abortion. Ef-
forts have continued on behalf
of youth and in support of obtain-
ing more priests and nuns.
Perez's pet project has been
the State Deaf Community Pro-
gram, helping the "forgotten
people." As he explains, "The
State takes care of the education
of the deaf, but no attention has
been paid to their need for re-
ligious instruction." The State
Council's "1492 Campaign" has
undertaken a program of urging
all denominations to raise funds
to train people in teaching the
religious word to the deaf. This
project, begun in Texas, is on
the verge of spreading through-
out the nation.
As outgoing State Deputy,
Perez automatically becomes
Chairman of the Past State De-
puty Committee, ari advisory
committee to the State Council,
and will also serve as chair-
man of the committee in charge
of the 1492 phase of the State
Deaf Community Program.
Lino says fondly, "These two
years and all my years in the
Knights of Columbus have been
very rewarding, I have learned
a lot and met a lot of wonder-
ful people. I have visited almost
all of the 209 councils in Texas
and had many enjoyable exper-
iences."
Perez will be succeeded as
State Deputy by William D. Cox
Jr. of Dallas. Reasserts, "Cox
is a wonderful guy and is going
to do very well."
As mementoes of his service
in the Knight of Columbus, Lino
has a State Deputy's pin, a
watch, and a ring with insignias
of the third and fourth degrees,
as well as a dazzling collection
of pins and medals and an im-
pressive scrapbook of clippings
and photographs dedicated to his
wife, Dora, who he says, "real-
ly deserves it for supporting and
putting up with me."
Lino Perez Jr. was born in
Rio Grande City in 1914 to Lino
Perez Sr. and the former
Cristina Margo, Lino Jr. has
one brother, Romeo, a retired
Naval Captain who lives in O-
cean Springs, Mississippi, and
a sister, Mrs. Julietta Wals-
chak of Rio Grande City.
The late Lino Perez Sr. was
the organizer and president of
Ice Water and Light Co. which
later was replaced by Central
Power and Light Co. He also
had a brick yard and handled
wholesale groceries. Lino Sr.
was the last Mayor of Rio Gran-
de City and served for twenty
five years as Postmaster here.
When Big Lino retired as Post-
master in 1957, Lino Jr. was
sworn in to fill that position.
Lino Jr. has worked for thirty-
eight years in the Postal Ser-
vice, starting as a Special De-
livery messenger and janitor
and working his way up. lie was
sworn in as a Postmaster on
December 31, 1957 by Postal In-
spector C. Lee Smith.
Lino Jr. had graduated from
Rio Grande City High School in
1931, after helping orgainizethe
first Rattler football team
there. He was Captain and
Quarterback of that famous
team which was undefeated and
unscored against. He was also
Valedictorian of his graduating
class at the accredited Stephen
K. Austin High School in Austin
in 1933.
He married his wife, the for-
mer Dora Garza of Weslaco, in
1937. They have four children^
Lino Perez III of McAUen; who
is married to the former Mar-
garita C. Perez; Rebecca, the
wife of Richard L. Guerra of
McAUen; Ricardo, who attends
Texas A&M University; and
Carlos, a freshman at Rio
Grande City High School.
Perez's sons are following in
their father's footsteps, in that
Lino III is an active Knight of
Columbus and has served two
terms as Grand Knight in the
Rio Grande City council.
Ricky is presently Deputy
Grand Knight at the Texas A&M
College Council of the Knights
of Columbus. Charlie will soon
be eligible to join the Columbi-
an Squires, the Junior Orderof
the Knights of Columbus, for
boys aged 14-18.
Lino Perez Jr. is also a mem-
ber of the Rio Grande City Ro-
tary Club, Disabled American
Veterans Chapter #174, Ameri-
can Legion Post #106, and the
National Association of Post-
masters of ttie United States,
for which he once served as
State Parliamentarian.
During his leisure hours, he
LINO PEREZ JR.
Who are the KC's
The Knights of Columbus is
a fraternal society establish-
ed in 1882 by Father Michael
J. McGivney in New Haven,
Conn. Its purpose is to organize
Catholic men for religious and
civic usefulness.
The Knights were formed, also,
to aid the families of Catholic
men who has died leaving little
or no protection for their wi-
dows and families.
While a secret society, the
Knights of Coiumbus do not have
an oath. Their four degrees
emphasize the principles of
charity, unity, fraternity, and
patriotism. Membership is li-
mited to Catholic men of eight-
teen years and older. There
are two kinds of membership,
insurance and associate.
The Knights of Columbus is
set up in jurisdictions starting
with the supreme council in New
Haven, governed by a supreme
knight, a staff of elective and
appointed officers, and a board
of directors. Each state juris-
diction has a state council
governed by a state deputy, the
past state deputies, and a staff
of elective and appointed of-
ficers.
The state of Texas is divided
into 57 districts and 209 coun-
cils, with over 35,000 members.
Each district is governed by a
district deputy. He heads from
two to five councils. These are
governed by a grand knight and
elective officers.
One of the many youth groups
sponsored by the Knights of Col-
umbus is the Columbian
Squires, the junior organi-
zation of the order. The pur-
pose of the Squires is to gen-
erate responsible leadership
in its members.
its members.
Ttie junior organization was in-
stituted in Tennessee. Austin
Council 1017 sponsored the first
circle. There are presently
over 127 Squire circles through-
out the country.
Ttie Knights of Columbus has
developed from its small band
of original founders to the larg-
est fraternal benefit society for
Cattiolic men in the world. Its
nearly 1,200,000 members
through ttie operation of approx-
imately 6,000 local councils in
the United States, Canada, Mex-
ico, Philippines, Puerto Rico,
Guam, Guatemala and the Vir-
gin Islands join forces to part-
icipate in a multi-faceted pro-
gram of activities.
This program is designed to
enable all members to contri-
bute most effectively their tal-
ents, skills, financial and spi-
ritual resources to the achieve-
ment of one common goal—the
improved welfare of their fel-
lowmen.
In times of peace and prosper-
ity, war and affliction, the full
capacities of this great body of
men have been consistently em-
ployed to alleviate suffering,
fulfill the requirements of the
needy, provide educational and
other temporal advantages to
all peoples, regardless of race,
creed or color.
enjoys working with cattle on
his ranch ami watching all kinds
of sports, in person or on tele-
vision.
Los Olmos takes
in rains
The Oimitos-Garcias Creek
Watershed project took the
brunt of heavy rains last week
in the La Puerta, Garciasville
and La Casita areas and pre-
vented costly flood damages.
A check made early Monday of
flood prevention damson Oimi-
tos-Garcias Creek showed that
all were holding back massive
amounts of water that would
have otherwise rushed down the
creek with devastating force.
All structures caught from 4
to 5 feet of water which is now
tieing released slowly to pre-
vent downstream flooding. Site
7 near La Puerta community
caught the most water.
The heavy rains underscored
the value of Conservation work
done by farmers and ranchers
in preventing erosion and sedi-
ment damage. Cultivated land
witti a cover of either a grow-
ing crop or crop residue had
little damage.
Brush infested rangeland had
massive scour damage and soil
loss while grassland with a good
cover was not damaged.
Conservation treatment of
farm and ranch land in the wa-
tersheds above ttie floodwater
retarding dams is also a vital
but often overlooked part of
the project.
Sponsors of the Olinitos-Gar-
cias project include the Starr
County Soil and Water Conser-
vation District, and the Starr
County Commissioners Court.
Watershed sponsors secure all
land, easements, and rights-of-
way needed for the project.
They also operate and maintain
completed project measures.
In Los Olmos-Sandia Creek
Watersheds, rainfall amounted
to 6 to 8 inches during the per-
iod of June 13th thru 24th. The
Olmos Creek flowed at a depth
of 2 to 3 feet deep, but was con-
tained within its banks. No
flooding occurred in these Wa-
tersheds.
1 believe it is appropriate at
this time to say that prelimin-
ary investigation reports on
these Watersheds have been
completed and will tie reviewed
with the interested public ami
sponsoring organizations dur-
ing the week of August 20.
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Trejo, Raul. Rio Grande Herald (Rio Grande City, Tex.), Vol. 31, No. 22, Ed. 1 Thursday, June 28, 1973, newspaper, June 28, 1973; Rio Grande City, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth194413/m1/1/: accessed April 30, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Rio Grande City Public Library.