Citizens Journal (Atlanta, Tex.), Vol. 105, No. 44, Ed. 1 Thursday, August 25, 1983 Page: 1 of 4
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MR. ALOINZO MORRIS
P.O. BOX 307
LINDEN, TX. 75563
104 I/ears Old—Andj^ew ZwiceSaeh Week
Crews Scramble
THURSDAY, AUGUST 25, 1983 105th Year, No. 44
ATLANTA, TEXAS 3 Sections, 36 Pages
25 Cents
em
•m
The y 're All In Their Places
FIRST GRADE TEACHER Sharon Magee moves like
water about her students, a teacher who seems, literal-
ly, to be everywhere at once. Students, from left, are
Heather McCoy. Todd Green, Jason Lance and Crissy
Sawyer. See story, page 2.
State's 'First'Republican Steps Down
On a day when there was no gravity,
a day when an elephant leaped like a
deer on the moon, a republican was
elected as a senator from Texas.
In 1961, Sen. John Tower became the
first republican elected to a state-wide
office since the days of re-
construction.
Once asked where he learned
politics, Sen. John Tower quipped, "I
was raised in a Methodist parsonage."
In addition to the parsonage, there
was the summer camp near
Douglassville, where his mother
brought the children each summer.
A one-lane gravel road splits through
a pine and sweetgum forest to "The
Anchorage," a log cabin, a focal point
for the Tower family.
HIS GRANDFATHER, C.A. Tower,
was a Methodist minister in
Douglassville and owned the 300-acre
tract where Tower's mother, Mrs. Ben
Z. Tower, now lives.
Ben Z. Tower was a pharmacist who
later turned minister. He met the
senator's mother while attending
Southern Methodist University.
"My husband was much in demand
as a minister," Mrs. Tower said.
"Everybody talks about the senator
this, the senator that, but it was his
father who was the great one."
John Tower grew up in places like
Houston, Wichita Falls and Beaumont,
places where his father's career in the
ministry led the family.
In 1934, Ben Z. Tower built the log
cabin where his widow now lives. For
years, it was a summer home.
"This became 'The Anchorage,'"
Mrs. Tower said. "We floated all over
the world until we anchored here."
John Tower was 9, his sister, 6, when
Mrs. Tower began bringing them to
East Texas to spend their summers.
"There was no electricity then,"
Mrs. Tower said. She sat in a wicker
rocker on the cabin's screened-in
porch, a fan blowing a lazy breeze
across her.
For a month or six weeks each sum-
mer, she brought her children here.
AT 17, JOHN Tower went into the
Navy, served his time during World
War II. Like his parents, he was
graduated from SMU before going
abroad to study at the University of
London.
"He was within a year of his doc-
torate," his mother said, "but it's hard
for a man with no income to stay in
school."
Tower came home to Texas and
began teaching political science at
Midwestern University in Wichita
Falls.
"He always loved politics," his
mother said.
She remembered the scene when he
was four years old, during an election
year. Tower came down the stairs lug-
ging his father's brief case and an-
nounced that he was going to vote.
In 1961, Tower slipped through the
back door of the senate
In the election of 1960, Lyndon B.
Johnson defeated Tower in the Texas
senate race. But in the same election,
Johnson was elected as vice president
on the John F. Kennedy ticket. There
was a special election in the spring of
1961 and Tower won the election from a
field of more than 70 candidates.
Some 23 years later, Tower, known
for his British three-piece suits and his
strong stand on national defense, is the
Senate's second ranking republican
and chairman of the Senate National
Defense Committee.
Tower's announcement Tuesday
that he would not seek re-election next
year, has rocked the political scene
both in Texas and Washington.
In Texas, there's been a mad scram-
ble among Democratic and
Republican hopefuls alike.
Political writers Wednesday were
already raising the question of the im-
pact of Tower's announcement on
President Ronald Reagan's potential
(See TOWER, Page 10)
To Cover First Day
Schoc! Prob'erns
The first day of class wasn't predic-
table, but then, it's never expected to
be, Administrative Assistant Chester
McClure said.
"After machinery and equipment is
idle all summer, you expect some
break-downs," McClure said at noon
Tuesday. He checked his watch.
"We're just waiting to see what else is
going to happen in the next three
hours.
There were a a number of
maintenance scrambles at the schools
Tuesday.
At mid-morning, the high school lost
25 percent of its air conditioning. An in-
consistent power demand kept throw-
ing an electrical breaker at the junior
high where half the air conditioning
went down.
A sewer pipe couldn't stand the
demands of day one at the primary
school. The pipe stopped up, backing
water into bathrooms and hallways.
City and school maintenance crews
worked for two hours to handle that
one.
There were refrigerator failures at
the primary and elementary schools.
But for McClure, the former Atlanta
Elementary School principal now in
his second year at the administration
building, it was all in another day's
work.
By afternoon, the breaker box at the
junior high school had been beefed up
to handle the fluctuation in electrical
demand created by air conditioning.
By the second day of class, he ex-
pected the high school air conditioners
to be operating again at 100 percent
capacity, as they were when they were
tested about a week ago.
The refrigeration problem was
handled by moving food to other units.
"School maintenance is a never en-
ding job," McClure said.
McClure inherited such respon-
sibilities last year with the ad-
ministrative shuffle that began with
the retirement of former high school
principal Caver Johnson.
Gary Watson was moved from the
administration office to the high
school. Assistant high school principal
Waymon Burleson was moved in as
principal at the elementary school,
replacing McClure, who was brought
to the administration building.
SCHOOL MAINTENANCE swung
into high gear this summer beginning
with a list of requests for maintenance
projects from school principals. Mc-
Clure went through all four lists and
set priorities.
"Our objective this summer was to
complete as much of that work as
possible," McClure said. He said about
80 percent of the work requested was
completed.
There were some "emergency" pro-
jects that slowed up already requested
work.
All the gas lines leading to the high
school had to be replaced after several
leaks were discovered in the line last
spring. The leaks, McClure said, oc-
curred at joints in the line where the
pipes were not wrapped.
That project cost $1,026.
Later in the summer, when the
school board approved construction of
a $25,000 bus barn, school maintenance
crews were again pulled off other jobs
to help prepare the foundation for that
building.
A major annual project is re-
painting hallways, classrooms,
restrooms and playground equipment
at the schools.
The board this summer approved
McClure's request to use a single
brand and color of paint throughout the
district and also approved the pur-
chase of an airless spray painter that
saves both paint and labor.
"I hope we can cut back on both
labor and material expenses," Mc-
Clure said. Using only one color will
allow for easier touch-up work, he
said.
The painting done at the schools this
summer cost about $3,500, McClure
said.
THERE WAS CONTINUED ren-
novation at the junior high school, a
facility built in the 1950's as the high
school. All ceilings in that building
have now been insulated and lowered
and windows have been closed in and
are scheduled to be insulated. That
should cut back on the cost of heating
and cooling that building, McClure
said. Closing in the windows also pro-
vides new space for badly needed book
shelves at the school, McClure said.
The cost of lowering ceilings at the
junior high was about $5,500 for
materials and labor. Closing in the
windows cost about $3,000.
At the primary school, carpets were
shampooed rather than replaced.
The cost of that project was $4,000
and the district saved over $1,000 there
by having school personnel move fur-
niture, McClure said.
Also at the primary school, a row of
closets were torn out to create a new
hallway.
Astroturf has been installed at the
entrances to all school buildings.
Leaks in ro'.fs have been repaired
and stained ceiling tiles replaced at a
cost of $1,100, McClure said.
For now, the beginning of the school
year, McClure said the district is in a
"wait and see" situation where
maintenance is concerned.
"We anticipate that we'll have
several emergencies before the first
two weeks are up," he said.
Highs 'N'Lows
H
L
Rain
Sunday
97
71
.00
Rain to date for August
1.35
Monday
96
71
.00
Average for August
2.80
Tuesday
97
75
.00
Rain to date for 1983
33.96
LAKE WRIGHT PATMAN
Average for year
50.09
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
225,84
225,80
225.75
FORECAST - Partly cloudy and
hot. Highs in the upper 90s. Lows in
the middle 70s.
Singing Cowboy
Makes Home
In Bloomburg
ByRUANSEELEY
Not many people who have dreamed
of becoming a cowboy hero on the
silver screen have ever woken up in
the middle of a movie set on a horse.
Fewer still ever really became a
singing cowboy to boot.
The dreams and the memories still
sparkle in a little studio house near the
outskirts of Bloomburg where "Fron-
tier Marshall" Art Davis has retired
"to smell the roses."
Davis starred in the cowboy movie
series "Frontier Marshall" and played
in 45 movies with Gene Autry. He acted
with the original "Lone Ranger," Lee
Powell, and Bill "Wild Bill Hickock"
Elliot.
When he wasn't saving the ranch or
the gold mine for the lovely lady in
distress, he had his fiddle or guitar
ready to blend with his melodic voice.
"In these cowboy pictures, there
wasn't much opportunity for romance.
The cowboy usually kissed his horse
and rode off into the sunset," Davis
said.
DAVIS WAS playing a lively fiddle
over WRR radio in Dallas when Autry
heard of him and got Davis to play fid-
dle on some songs he was recording.
Before Autry left he invited Davis to
the west coast to make pictures with
(See SINGING COWBOY, Page 2)
Frontier Marshall
TUMBLE WEED TRAIL is one of the classic "B"
westerns that thrilled young kids on Saturday after-
noons. Art Davis, front and center, has got a no good
polecat down for his just deserts. Lee Powell, punching
at the right, was the original Lone Ranger. Davis'
other sidekick Is Bill Boyd, punching to the left.
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Citizens Journal (Atlanta, Tex.), Vol. 105, No. 44, Ed. 1 Thursday, August 25, 1983, newspaper, August 25, 1983; Atlanta, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth336087/m1/1/: accessed April 28, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Atlanta Public Library.