Texas Youth Commission Notes, Winter 1986 Page: 11
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Fort Worth House named for Mrs. Willoughby
TYC's ninth halfway house
program will be for girls
The Texas Youth Commission will
open a halfway house for girls in Fort
Worth with a formal ceremony March 12.
The facility, located at 8100 Elizabeth
Lane, will be named in memory of Mrs.
Clara Pope Willoughby of San Angelo,
an activist in improving and supporting
the juvenile justice system in the state.
The residential program is designed to
address the needs of adolescent girls
aged 15 to 17 years who have been com-
mitted to the agency, primarily because
of non-violent' offenses.
Speaker of the House Gib Lewis will
be the keynote speaker at the open
house and dedication from 4 to 6 p.m.
Wednesday, March 12. Dr. George Beto,
TYC Board Chairman, will give the dedi-
cation speech.
The program is under the direction of
the TYC volunteer council in Fort Worth,
and several of its members will take part.
Dionne Phillips-Bagsby, chairman, will
emcee the event; Bill McKay will intro-
duce Speaker Lewis; and Rev. Jerden
Davis will give the invocation.
Ray W. Willoughby Jr., and Mrs. Clara
Willoughby Cargile, children of Mrs. Wil-
loughby, will be present for the dedica-
tion ceremony.
Girls who live at the TYC program will
learn daily living skills and receive train-
ing designed to help them cope with the
family and with social problems which
brought them in contact with the juvenile
justice system.
The house will be the only one of
TYC's nine halfway houses which will
have its own teacher and classroom. A
teacher from the Fort Worth Independent
School District will be assisted by Wil-
loughby House staff and volunteers in
teaching the girls.
"As the girls progress in the on-site
schooling, they will be allowed to attend
public schools," said L. Lynne Parra,
Willoughby House superintendent.
During their stay at the house, which
will average between four and six
months, residents will receive individual
and group counseling in the areas of
drug abuse, problem solving, and physi-
cal and sexual abuse problems. Girls will
also receive technical training, career
counseling, and on-the-job training
in cooperation with neighborhood
businesses.
"Our goal is to teach positive behav-
iors which will help each girl develop theClara Pope Willoughby
self-esteem necessary to lead a happy,
productive life," said Parra.
The physical plant, a 6,800 square foot
building in West Fort Worth, provides six
bedrooms and three bathrooms for three
girls each, a spacious living room/recre-
ation room, kitchen and three offices for
staff members.
TYC Board members will also attend
the event. They include Dr. George Beto
of Huntsville, chairman; Susan Bush of
Athens, vice chairman; Richard Abalos
of Odessa; Judge Jorge C. Rangel of
Corpus Christi; Rev. Floyd N. Williams
Sr. of Houston; and Larry York of Austin.
TYC's other halfway houses are lo-
cated in Austin, Dallas, El Paso, Harlin-
gen, McAllen, San Antonio, Corpus
Christi and Richmond.
Mrs. Willoughby began actively sup-
porting juvenile programs in the early
1930's, and culminated in her 1981 ap-
pointment to a six-year term on the
Texas Juvenile Probation Commission,
which she was serving on at the time of
her death last August.
"Juvenile delinquency is a serious
problem," she was quoted as saying in
1965. "It strikes at the roots of our soci-ety and can leave us with a shaky, un-
healthy core on which our nation must
struggle to survive."
She served as a board member for the
Girl Scouts in San Angelo, helped estab-
lish San Angelo's child welfare unit of the
Texas Department of Welfare, and
helped establish the graduate School of
Social Work at the University of Texas.
Her late husband, Ray W. Willoughby,
was a prominent West Texas rancher
and national leader in the livestock in-
dustry. Mrs. Willoughby served with nu-
merous agencies and committees.
In 1949, she worked with then-presi-
dent of the UT Board of Regents Dudley
Woodward and former Senator Dorsey
Hardemann to obtain appropriations in
the legislative budget for a graduate
School of Social Work.
The UT School of Social Work
honored her for her contributions during
a commencement convocation in May
1983. UT awarded her a plaque and cita-
tion in 1967 for distinguished achieve-
ment in establishing the graduate school.
The former Clara Starr Pope was born
Sept. 2, 1902, in Marshall to a family with
financial interests in real estate, banking,
stocks, bonds and oil and gas
properties.
She was given the Governor's Award
in September 1980 for donating her an-
cestral home, Maplecroft, to the state.
The historic mansion was built by her
grandfather in 1871.
Mrs. Willoughby was a third-genera-
tion Christian Scientist and an active
member of the San Angelo Church of
Christ, Scientist.
She has also been honored by the Na-
tional Council of Juvenile and Family
Court Judges, the UT. System Chancel-
lor's Council, the UT Austin President's
Associates, the Tom Green County Bar
Association, the Texas State Sheriff's
Association, and the Governor's Board
of Status of Women.
WTCH staff honored
West Texas Childrens Home employ-
ees were honored with an appreciation
day at Pyote Baptist Church February 9.
Pastor Delton Flowers praised the re-
habilitative efforts of the staff at a fellow-
ship luncheon.11
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Texas Youth Commission. Texas Youth Commission Notes, Winter 1986, periodical, Winter 1986; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1031677/m1/11/: accessed July 16, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.