The Cherokeean. (Rusk, Tex.), Vol. 133, No. 47, Ed. 1 Thursday, January 6, 1983 Page: 1 of 18
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'"■K I -4- <
MICZIOPLSX , IN'C
P. o. BOX 45436
DALLAS, TX. 7^245
15c
Per Issue
The Cherokeean
Texas' Oldest Weekly Newspaper
Established as the Cherokee Sentinel, February 27,1850
Vol. 133, No. 47-
Rusk, Texas 75785 — Thursday, January 6,1983
Home of the
Texas State
Railroad
14 Pages
¡ News 1
¡ Briefs |
Firemen To Banquet
The annual Rusk Fire Department
banquet is set for 7 p.m. Monday at
the Rusk High School gym.
A catered barbecue dinner will be
served and special entertainment
provided, according to spokesmen for
the department.
Tickets Will Go On Sale
Tickets for the annual Rusk Cham-
ber of Commerce Membership
Banquet on Jan. 20 go on sale Monday
at the chamber office, according to
George Dodd, banquet chairman.
Dodd says banquet tickets are $6.50
each. The event, scheduled for the
fellowship hall of the First United
Methodist Church, will begin at 7 p.m.
A Citizen of the Year and other out-
standing citizens will be honored
during the banquet festivities.
Speaker is to be John Oakley Childs,
marketing officer for the Heritage
National Bank at Tyler. Childs, a
Jacksonville native, is in demand
throughout the area as a banquet
speaker. His style brings together the
right balance of humor and cogent
thought, Dodd says.
Two Vote Absentee
Only two persons have cast absen-
tee ballots in the upcoming Jan. 22
school bond election. The election has
been called for consideration of ap-
proval of a $2,975 million bond for
financing a new middle school; and a
band hall-music room and four ad-
ditional classrooms on the high school
campus.
Absentee balloting will continue un-
til 5 p.m. Jan. 20 at the school tax of-
fice. School officials urge all persons
who will be out of town on election day
to go by and cast a vote on the
proposal. Katherine Lindsey is absen-
tee clerk.
Heritage Meet Set
Members of the Cherokee County
Heritage Society will meet Monday at
the New Southern Restaurant at Rusk
to hear a program on "The Life of
Thomas Jefferson Rusk," presented
by Mrs. Charles Linney.
Directors are scheduled to meet at 6
p.m. Dinner will be served at 6:30
p.m. and the program will begin at 7
p.m. ,
Historic Hotel
The Renovated Thomas J. Rusk Hotel, According To Architect's Rendition
JUDGE MORRIS HASSELL, 2nd Judicial District Court, at left presided Thursday morning during swearing in
ceremonies for recently elected county officials. From left are District Clerk Mavis Parrott, County Attorney
Leland Sutton, County Clerk Fairy Uphsaw, County Judge Robert McNatt, County Treasurer Diann Norton,
Commissioner Precinct 4 Frank Ross, Commissioner Precinct 2 Toby Sartain, Peace Justice Precinct 4 Bobby
Caveness, Peace Justice Precinct 3 Buddy Lacy, Peace Justice Precinct 1 J.P. Acker III and Peace Justice
Precinct 2 Jack Phillips. -staff photo by gloria jennings
Game Warden Is Not Injured
In Shooting Incident Friday
A Cherokee County deputy was en
route Monday morning to Houston to
arrest a suspect in connection with a
Friday morning shooting incident that
left Game Warden Jerry McRae of
Rusk uninjured.
Arrested Friday was Cleveland C.
(Dale) Bradley of Wells. Rollie Skin-
ner Jr., 21, of Houston, formerly of
'Round Town
with Mrs. Roundabout
As New Year's weekend evolved
with its back-to-back telecasting of
football games around the nation, I
recalled a wall plaque slogan recently
seen. It read, "This marriage is tem-
porarily interrupted for the football
season."
Obviously, the inscription is sup-
posed to be humorous. And sometimes
the truth Is funny. Sometimes It is
even sarcastically funny. A woman
probably thought of It, a wife!
So...whether or not marqlage was
hurt or helped by the glut of football
becomes a matter for personal
opinion. It doesn't affect some of the
older, more seasoned wives. We un-
derstand reality...which comes
equipped with automatic hearing
devices. You can "tune out" that
which you choose!
It Is wonderful to escape to the
typewriter and not think too heavily
on the outcome of the present pigskin
contest. According to the other half of
this marriage, it Is, however, a
crucial game. If the Washington Red-
skins lose, that means they have to
play the Cowboys In Dallas. Bat...If
they wln...and It surely does look as If
they will...then the Cowboys mat
travel to Washington for the game
with the Redskins.
Decisions. Decisions My, My. Such
weighty matters Who thinks up the
rules for aU this game playing? Me.
I'd feel more happy Uda afternoon
contemplating the new year that ia
now In Ita second day (as of UUs
writing i And typical« ma, thoughts
art luudng ta lha past What a way la
hartn a Naw Year!
But...remember that we must,
should, need...to look at the past to
appreciate the present and plan for
the future. All of this got started when
I picked up an old ledger book. It was
what we called a "job book" when we
came to Rusk June 1, 1950. In it we
kept a running record of the orders
placed for commercial printing. This
was hot-type-days and all country
weeklies offered the auxiliary ser-
vice of printed envelopes, letterheads,
statements, business cards and
almost any other kind of form
required.
Actually, we arrived in Rusk the
last week of May, but our official
assumption of the business was the
first day of June. Therefore, that ex-
plains why on May 29, the first job or-
der for us was placed by J.H.
Schochler. He needed 500 letterheads
for which he was charged $4.50.
(There was no sales tax then.)
The second order was placed by
Mrs. Bill Vlning. She needed 175
cocktail sise napkins with the names
of the honorees to be printed In gold.
Now...can you Imagine how difficult It
would be to remove ALL of the black
ink from a handfed printing press and
replace It with goldT Virtually im-
possible then. 8a, like other printers,
we had found a substitute technique.
The napkins were handprinted,
meanlag each one was picked up by
hand aad fed Into the press for Imprln-
ting. As it was withdrawn from the
pma, another person was standing by
to immediately dust the wet. Mark Ink
with gali powder, especially designed
•MeeM MHH T,p 11
Alto, came in later and gave himself
up in connection with the charges, ac-
cording to Sheriff Allen Horton. Hor-
ton says the two have been charged
with aggravated assault on a peace
officer and fleeing from arrest. Bond
has been set for both at $10,000 for the
aggravated assault on a peace officer
charge and $2,000 for the fleeing from
arrest charge.
Bloodhounds from the Texas Depar-
tment of Corrections tracked the men
to downtown Wells, where they
allegedly had someone pick them up.
Horton says the incident began
around 1 a.m. when McRae answered
a call in Nacogdoches County regar-
ding an alledged shooting in a rural
area, when he was returning to Rusk
on U.S. Highway 69.
McRae is said to have met the car
and they started attempting to flee.
McRae chased them across the river
into Cherokee County, turned on his
siren and lights and one of the suspec-
ts is said to have fired a shotgun out
the car window. McRae was not in-
jured.
Horton said the three men then fled
from the car across a pasture about
four or five miles north of Wells. He
said they allegedly had a shotgun and
another firearm when they fled the
vehicle. Two shotguns and one rifle
were left in the vehicle.
Horton says there was a small
amount of a substance believed to be
marijuana left in the vehicle The
substance is being tested to determine
whether it is marijuana and if it con-
tains four ounces or more or less.
Assisting in the incident were
members of the sheriff's department,
the Department of Public Safety, the
Texas Department of Wildlife and
police departments from Wells, Rusk
and Alto.
Eagles Move to 8-7
The Rusk Eagles improved their
season record to 8-7 with a 98-73 win
over Central Consolidated and in the
process captured third place in the
Rusk Holiday Tournament. In other
games in the tournament, the Eagles
defeated Alto 64-55 and lost a hear-
tbreaker to Lufkin Hudson 62-60. Don
Garner was named the Outstanding
Defensive Player in the tournament.
Logansport, Louisiana High School
won the championship of the tour-
nament with a 54-47 win over Hudson.
The Eagles return to action Jan. 4 in
Maydelle and return home Jan. 7 with
a non-district game against 17AAA
District foe Malakoff. The Eagles
open the district slate Jan 14 against
the Malakoff Tigers in Rusk
E-Gals Win Trophies
The Rusk E-Gals won two trophies in
tournaments over the holidays to im-
prove their season record to 10-4.
In the Jacksonville Jaycee Tour-
nament the E-Gals won the con-
solation trophy with a close 52-51 vic-
tory over Bullard. The Ruak girls had
previoualy loat to Jacksonville 44-37
and won over Latexo 46-29 to advance
to the conaolatlon game Wyvonne
Session was named All-Tournament
In the Kuak Holiday Tournament,
the K Gals wan second placa as they
fall It* Jacksonville Ji a in lha charo
Cunship game The K Gals had
«ten T K Gorman (Tyler 1143
and Douglass 40-30 to advance to the
final game Michelle Christopher was
awarded the Sportsmanship Medal by
tournament officials
The E-Gals return to action Jan. 4
with a road game in Maydelle and
begin Distric 17AAA action in
Palestine Friday against district
favorite Westwood. Westwood ia
currently rated third in the state and
the lady Panther* have a 161 season
record.
The Junior Vanity K Gals raauroe
action in the Husk JV Tournament on
Thursday Friday and Saturday They
iwilhUvelady all IIpm Thur
Opening Soon
The Thomas J. Rusk Hotel in down-
town Rusk should be ready to open in
February, according to owners. Diane
and Richard Lowder
Officials
Take Oaths
Of Office
Oath of office was administered
Thursday morning to 11 Cherokee
County officials by District Judge
Morris Hassell.
New officials included County
Judge Robert McNatt. Commissioner
Precinct 4 Frank Ross and Justice of
the Peace Precinct 1JP Acker III
Other officials sworn in were Coun-
ty Attorney Leland Sutton, County
Clerk Fairy L'pshaw, District Clerk
Mavis Parrott, County Treasurer
Diann Norton, Commissioner Precin-
ct 2 Toby Sartain, Justice of the Peace
Precinct 2 Jack Phillips, Precinct 3
Buddy Lacy and Precinct 4 Bobby
Caveness.
In making their remarks both Mc-
Natt and Ross asked for the
cooperation of citizens of the county
McNatt noted that he was not a native
and asked for the help of all in
fulfilling his duties.
Ross said he was looking forw ard to
his term of office.
Both men introduced their families
Acker was also introduced by Judge
Hassell as a new county official His
family had not attended the swearing
in ceremony.
The Lowders purchased the
building early last year and have been
busy renovating the stately old
building for use
The hotel, located on the north side
of the square, occupies a historic
location Verme Minter of Rusk says
she operated the hotel from January,
1938 to June. 1947, at which time
Houston and Don White assumed the
management
Mrs Minter reports that the
Snellings family owned the building
when she first took over its
management. It was later sold to Ide
R Hall, who owned it when she gave
up the position. She adds that the bus
station operated from the hotel at the
time she began service there The
telegraph office was also located at
the hotel
A total of 18 rooms were rented by
Mrs Minter. There were three
private baths and another bath for
other guests. Rooms rented for $1 and
$1 50 pe: day Meals were served for
35 cents each with diners given all
they could eat
Bill Vining, Rusk resident and
historian, reports that John Henry
Alien ran a Wells Fargo Express of-
fice at the site of the hotel, also Prior
to that time, he states, Gene Harkins
operated a candy store there, where
candy, peanuts and popcorn were
sold
The old Claiborne Hotel, built
around 1882, was located on the same
side of the square Vining says it had
some 40 rooms with a fireplace in
each of them. There were no
bathrooms and customers availed
themselves to outdoor facilities
Patrons had to carry their own
firewood to the rooms
•See HISTORIC HOTEL, p.14
Court F avors Union
Hearing Representation Allowed
The Texas State Supreme Court
ruled Friday that Rusk State Hospital
employees are entitled to have union
representatives present at hearings
on patient abuse allegations
The state high court refused to act
on the hospital's appeal, letting stand
a lower court decision in favor of the
Texas State Employees Union
The union had won an injunction
against the hospital, operated by the
StateMental Health/Mental Retar-
dation Department. An Appeals Court
judge said Rusk gets an inordinate
number of patient abuse complaints
because of its section for the
criminally insane
I'nder hospital rules, an employee
could be called before an in-
vestigating committee after a patient
alleged abuse, but the employee was
not allowed to have a union represen-
tative present
The hospital did, however, allow
union representatives to sit in on
grievance proceedings which oc-
curred after a preliminary ruling was
made by the hospital supervisor
RUSK CHAMBER President Charles Hassell. center, outlines the
year's plans with Will Cumber, left, treasurer and Larry Long, right,
vice president. Herbert Bell, president-elect, is not pictured.
staff photo by gloria Jennings
Grand Jury Gets Case
suay
Information obtained in the in
veatigation of a Rusk State Hospital
Maximum Security patient was
among several cases presented to a
Cherokee County grand jury when it
convened Tuesday
One hoapital Maximum Security
patient, two unit supervisor* and MSU
Chief Charles Taylor are among those
subpoenaed lo testify before the grand
jury District attorney Charles
Hetaxnb *au! earlier the case will be
thtfeult la gal an tmhvtment and even
more difficult to prosecute since State
menu I patients will have to provide
most of the testimony
The grand jury case is presentad aa
a culmination of the investigation into
the hanging death of Mark Wayne
1>rry, at, of Tarrant County, who waa
found lead at I a m Dar at*, nearly
otgbt itaur* attar ha was believed
MH0ad
4 u >*ar old hoapital Manmuro
Scv«i ilji i<aiMMit has claimed respon-
sibility lot Tarry'«death
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The Cherokeean. (Rusk, Tex.), Vol. 133, No. 47, Ed. 1 Thursday, January 6, 1983, newspaper, January 6, 1983; Rusk, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth151573/m1/1/: accessed April 25, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Singletary Memorial Library.