The Baytown Sun (Baytown, Tex.), Vol. 63, No. 60, Ed. 1 Thursday, January 10, 1985 Page: 3 of 24
This newspaper is part of the collection entitled: The Baytown Sun and was provided to The Portal to Texas History by the Sterling Municipal Library.
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Many flock
to Blocker
gravesite
DeKALB(AP)
Blind man sue
in work as scu
“I hated it,” Williams said. “I
didn’t believe I had a problem. I
was on the drawing board every
day, pushing it. It shocked me,
all right.” i
Williams says it took awhile to
get used to the idea.
“You have to learn to accept
it. It took me a long time. I kept
finding myself saying, ‘I can do,'
it, 1 can do it.’ One day you learn
you can’t do it.”
Williams started attending
classes at a school for the blind
in Austin shortly after being
declared blind. His training as a
draftsman helped his sculpting,
he says.
“They asked me what I
wanted to do, and I told them I
wanted to do some carvJnp&Hhe
said, "ffhey said, ‘Fintf, here’s a
piece of rock. Make it into a
HOYSE CITY (AP) - To Ray
Williams, art and beauty are in
the mind’s eye as well as the eye
of the beholder.
For 25 years, Williams has us-
ed his hands and a touch that
comes from within to transform
ordinary pieces of wood and
stone into sculpture, even though
he is legally blind.
“It’s Just feel,” he said. “I get
a picture in my mind, feel it and
make it come out that way. I like
to design and create. It gives me
the ability to use my mind.”
Williams was a draftsman for
10 years before gradually losing
his sight to a degenerative
disease.
In 1956, he was told he was
legally blind after failing a driv-
ing test.
It has been a
decade since the man who
played big Hoss Cartwright
passed away, but he is still
remembered in this Northeast
Texas town.
Blocker died in 1974 at the age
of 42 of blood clots in his lungs,
after undergoing gall bladder
surgery. The body of television’s
“Bonanza” series was flown
from California and buried in his
birthplace.
The grave has become a
tourist attraction in this farming
community of 2,100. Each year,
hundreds come to visit.
“They want to see where he’s
buried,” said cafe owner Roy
Blankenship.
“I’Ve had people from Maine
and California stop in here look-
ing for Hoss Cartwright,” Orval
Miller, owner of Miller’s
Grocery, told the Dallas Times
Herald.
DeKalb looks nothing like the
fabulous Ponderosa Ranch,
where the Cartwright family liv-
• ed in rough-hewn splendor.
And the tombstone that marks
the Blocker family plpt, is
unremarkable.
“It’s a simple , tombstone,
nothing big or outstanding, ” said
Norene Bates, a close friend of
the Blocker family.
But tourists keep coming.
Strangers who stop at Roy’s
Chicken Shack usually haye*one
question.
“It’s Hoss Cartwright they ask
for — not Dan Blocker,” said
Blankenship, restaurant owner.
Blocker is buried in Woodman
Cemetery beside his father,
Shack, and sister, Virginia. His
grave is covered with a sprinkl-
ing of clover.
“Most visitors come here in
the summer months,” said
funeral director Robby Bates.
“A lot of them are retired people
pulling trailers.”
Blocker’s funeral was the big-
gest event in DeKalb history.
Television networks and Time
magazine covered the funeral.
“It was a nationwide shock,”
said Bates, who handled the
burial,arrangements. “A man of
his size, his vitality — to die so
Coqnty officials said Blocker busters, crimebusters and a Thomas said. ' *
at birth was the largest baby in variety of sportsbusters For the first time, the Hunters
Bop;ie County, weighing 14 (baseball’s National League included a list of foreign-
pounds at birth. Blocker wore playoffs had both Goosebusters language phrases on their list,
custom-made combat boots, size ;and Cubbusters) the Unicorn Other English banishments in-
14EEE, during the Korean War. Hunters decreed that “busters” eluded:
His build helped him land a part should be banned. • -“Near-miss,” which Robert
in the TV series. The 10th annual Dishonour K. Hancock of Fort Lauderdale,
ShortlyDefore the diagnosis, piece of rod
Williams said he could see only shape.’ They were very surpris-
directly in front of lftn. ed at what I did. ”
DONNA LOWERY, left, won first plac^ith a typ- Also pictured, from left, is Sharon Mills, who was
ing speed of 105 words per minute in the Muscular the highest fund-raiser with $139 and 91 words per
Dystrophy Association’s Type-off held at B&B Of- minute; Susan Baker was the second-highest
fice Supply, 3923 Garth Road. Ms. Lowery was also money raiser with $70; Carrie Porter wa?the
the third-highest fund-raiser in the event with $50. second-fastest typist with 100 words per minute.
She was sponsored^)? Personnel Resources Inc. (Sun staff photo by Angie Bracey)
Don't call them ‘wordbusters’
‘Unicorn Hunters’ guard English
List, was based on more than Fla., said should be a “near-
3,000 nominations from as far hit.”
away as Japan and Saudi -“Overcrowded.” James L.
Arabia, said Rabe, a journalism Knight of Nashville, Tenn., said,
instructor at Lake Superior “We have not had a simply
State College, where the Hunters crowded prison here in Ten-
are based. nessee since 1982.”
Sharing top billing was a word —“Vertical access device,”
that ranks right behind “consti- said John Constantino of East
tuent” in many political Lansing, is bureaucratese for
vocabularies: “Mandate."
“There were- hundreds of
nominations of ‘mandate,’ and
not all from disappointed
Democrats,” said Rabe. “I sens-
ed a general feeling that all
politiciana~-are using the
stronger ‘mandate’ when less
forceful words would suffice. ’ ’
Peter Thomas, chief herald for
the Hunters, which claims a
worldwide membership of
30,000, said the club followed the
suggestion of Canadian Press
editor Joseph J. Dary and
banished “Star Wars” unless us-
ed in reference to a trilogy of
science fiction films.
The term is misleading when
used to describe a space-based
military defense system,
A special commendation went
to Martha Kerns of Sandusky,
Ohio, for “banishment nomina-
tions above and beyond the call
of duty.”
rnd*ozC
^>c!
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Brown, Leon. The Baytown Sun (Baytown, Tex.), Vol. 63, No. 60, Ed. 1 Thursday, January 10, 1985, newspaper, January 10, 1985; Baytown, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1101281/m1/3/: accessed April 25, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Sterling Municipal Library.