The Winkler County News (Kermit, Tex.), Vol. 8, No. 17, Ed. 1 Friday, July 7, 1944 Page: 1 of 4
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i
Friday, July 7, 1944
Kermit, Winkler County, Texas
Volume 8; No. 17
Side
Issues
BY H. G. VERMILLION
in
.4
*
❖
the
X
9J
the
truck
U.
vs.
Betty Jo
vs.
McIver,
waterfalls,
Ramsel
7d
County Well Over
Top In Bond Drive,
Except E Quota
Water Use Sets
All-time Record
During June
Bobby Kennedy,
3 Others Accepted
By Army, Navy
Kermit Bank’s
Assets Climb Past
Half Million Mark
Claira Hendricks
Wins State Honor
field,
with
T. Anderson
Anderson.
Mrs. M. L. Spencer spent the
week end visiting her husband,
who is working in Seminole. She
returned Tuesday.
and
had
Kermit Woman’s
Birother Killed
WINK MAN FINED
$15 AND COSTS HERE
Mr. and Mrs. Ernest- Chapman
visited friends in Seminole over
the July 4th holiday.
total
million
deposits
dollar
NEWS OF OUR
MENw WOMEN
IN UNIFORM
the
of
off-
TEACHERS HAVE
JULY FOURTH PARTY
the
his
is
a
W.
Ford.
L.
1
The Winkler County News
An Institution Promoting The Interests of Winkler County
Tax Revenues
Of City Estimated
At About $12,000
E. R. Clifton, who has spent
the past six months in Rotan, is
here visiting his family.
Mrs. Earl Rowan received word
Tuesday that her brother, Corp.
Hugh Smith, had been killed in
the invasion of Normandy June
12.
Corporal Smith was married and
had a two-month-old daughter.
Mr. and Mrs. Rowan left .Tues-
day night for Chandler, Okla., the
home of Corporal Smith.
Service
following
Charlie Tipton, arrested in Ker-
mit on a drunkenness charge,
was serving out a $75 and costs
fine by Justice of the Peace B.
F. Sandel this week.
A group of teachers celebrated
the Fourth of July with a swim-
ming party and picnic Tuesday.
The group met at the school
swimming pool and later had a
picnic supper at the school ath-
letic field. ■■■’-
Those in the party were Rosa
Newcomer, Claribel Ford, Mary
Lou Iley, Elinor Brown, Uradeart
Drennan and Luanna Sunderman.
spending
She is
V * *
I was certainly in the groove
when Elie Lam condescended to
actually wait on me with his own
hands at his meat market the
other day.
He sold me some super-wieners
mf some kind and when questioned
said the price was 42 cents a
pound. Pretty high, I said, and
he agreed, but hastened to add
that it was strictly the OPA ceil-
ing. Yes I commented smartly, but
the ceiling is pretty hard to climb
up to.
After we had finished being
convulsed at this sally—well, after
I had, anyway—Elie went on and
figured up the total of my pur-
chases at the market. It was
$3.03, he reported. Three O three,
I said sadly. “Why just look at
that little mountain of meat you
are getting for $3.03,” Elie rat-
ionalized. “Brother,” I said quick!
as a flash, “that’s what I call
making a mountain out of a mole-
hill!” Then we went into hyster-
ical laughter again—or rather I
did. When I wiped the tears from
my eyes Elie was waiting on an-
other customer and had recover-
ed from laughing. In fact he had
-a slightly pained look, which I
guess was because his jaw mus-
cles hurt from laughing too much.
probable,
pass the
With only two months of op-
erations behind it, the Kermit
State Bank this week on its first
bank call report showed total
assets of $596,484.81, and total
individual deposits of $480,946.40.
Both totals exceeded the best
hopes of the founders of the bank,
which opened for business May
I; in fact, it had been freely said
that the bank would be doing ex-
ceptionally well if deposits reach-
ed the half million dollar mark
by next Jan. 1. Now it appears '
that individual deposits, not in-
cluding those by the city and by
other public agencies, will reach
that figure long before the year
is up.
If county and school funds go
into the bank early next year, as
seems
would
mark.
* * *
Oscar Maples and I ran into -a
near cloudburst this side of
Odessa the other day. But it did-
n’t rain a drop in Kermit. Since
I quit the rain-making business
we have had even less rain than
when I was doing the job. And
ive had darned little then.
Kennedy,
Hawkins,
Mrs. Ed
Mrs. Stanley Hammond and
daughter Sandra returned Thurs-
day from Houston, where they
visited Mr. and Mrs. Ira Davis
for two weeks.
Betty Lou Andress, daughter
of Mr. and Mrs. E. O. Andress,
was operated on for appendicitis
at the local hospital Saturday.
Court Of Honor
To Be Held Sunday
The Court of Honor for the
local Boy Scout troops will be
held at the evening services of the
First Baptist Church Sunday.
Among those on the program
will be Rex Palmer, district Boy
Scout executive from Monahans,
B. F. Meek, Scout chairman for
Kermit, and Rev. Byron Bryant,
the pastor.
Absentee
Winkler
officials
obtainable for those who will be
out of town on the day of the
primary election July 22 until
July 19.
The ballots may be obtained at
the county clerk’s office.
Hester Quits Rationing Board After
Clerks Threaten To Walk Out
.__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________-------_
Office Reopened
Friday After Being
Closed For Day
son, who is attending
school at Texas Tech.
City Granted
Permission To Buy
Garbage Truck
The City of Kermit this week
received governmental approval
on the purchase of a new truck
in which to collect garbage.
Members of the City Commiss-
i ion in the past have discussed
putting a universal garbage tax
into effect when the new truck is
put in operation. The tax, to be
perhaps $1 per month to start,
would be paid with water bills,
and would finance garbage coll-
ections perhaps once a week in
all parts of town.
City Secretary Fred Pearson
pointed .out to members of the
Commission this week, however,
that before any such collection
system would work, some of the
alleys in Kermit would have to
be cleared of trash and obstruct-
ions and graded so
I could have passage.
Mr. and Mrs. William Yeokley
and son Bill of San Francisco
are visiting Mr. and Mrs. Tom
Franks. Mrs. Yeokley is Franks’
sister. Sergeant Yeokley has been
in the Coast Guard 25 years.
DIVORCE SUITS FILED
E. Ford vs. Opal Ophelia
Mrs. Everett Mason of Crowell
arrived Monday to visit her par-
ents, Mr. and Mrs. Jimmie Stone.
She will be accompanied home by
her children, Tommy, Joanne and
Sue, who have been visiting their
grandparents for the past three
weeks.
Miss Maxine Evans is
the week in Lubbock,
the guest of Miss Betty Jo Stin-
summer
Absentee Balloting
Begun In County
balloting began
County this week, and
sail the ballots will be
discussions
resignation,
ser-
vices as a board member had
not been satisfactory. Instead, the
chief charge was that he created
friction by his attitudes and man-
nerisms.
Mrs. Crowley
Re-elected Head Of
Legion Auxiliary
Mrs. W. G. Crowley was re-
elected president of the Ameri-
can Legion Auxiliary when the
Auxiliary met Tuesday night in
the Legion Hut.
Mrs. Jack Nelson was re-elected
vice-president, Mrs. Ramsel Rol-
ston secretary, Mrs. Irving Cole
Jack
Hugh
and
Winkler County went far over
the top on its Fifth War Loan
campaign this week, but the E
bond total still was considerably
under the $95,000 quota.
When the county was credited
with $50,000 in bonds purchased
by Shell Pipe Line Corporation
to match ten times the amount
of purchases by the firm’s Wink-
ler County resident in the drive,
the total purchases of bonds be-
sides the E series reached $266,-
350. This was nearly $100,000
over the county’s over-all quota
of $175,000.
But on Monday, when County
Co-chairmen Lee Johnson and S.
M. Halley gathered data for their
next to final report on the drive,
only $77,470.75 had been sold in
E bonds. This was nearly $20,000
short of the quota of $95,000 in
this series.
The drive will end Saturday.
Judge Halley said the quota in
the county was met more by the
efforts of large corporations with
interests in the county than by
purchases of individuals in the
county, and he urged an awaken-
ing on the part of resident to
the continued need for buying
bonds to “back the attack.”
A look at the casualty lists
should convince even the most
optimistic individual that the war
is far from over, he said.
the
Rev. Maynard
of the
Church of Mona-
J. A. Kidd, district
Leon Woods, pastor
and Rev. Bernard
Mrs. M. L. Turney, Jr.,
daughter, Sammie Sue, who
been visiting Mrs. M. L. Turney
here for three weeks, left for
their home in Brownsville Thurs-
day.
to give any assistance,
at present convalescing
Ninth Air Force hospital.
Sergeant Strange, whose wife,
Mrs. Mildred Strange, and daugh-
ter, Carol Ann, live in Kermit,
is first sergeant of a Ninth Air
Force Service Command unit. He
was employed by the Magnolia
Petroleum Company at Seminole,
Texas, prior to enlisting in May
of 1942. He graduated from Iatan
High School and attended Abilene
Christian College.
* * *
Tommy Vincent McGannon, Jr.,
son of Mr. and Mrs. T. V. Me- 1
Gannon of Wink, has been com-
missioned a second lieutenant in
the infantry on completion of the
officer candidate course at the
Infantry School at Fort Benning,
Ga., according to an Army news
release. He served with
Coast Artillery with rank
corporal before entering the
icer school.
With water and sewer connect-
ions at an all-time high, water
consumption in Kermit in June
also set a record, city records
showed this week.
Water connections, which hit a
peak of over 525 in 1942 and then
started going back down, had
reached 5158 in June and still were
on the way up. This figure com-
pared with 470 in June last year.
Sewer connections, which have
shown a fairly steady rate of in-
crease since the system was in-
stalled, reached 230 in June, com-
with only 134 a year ago.
Water use in June was over
11,716,000 gallons, compared with
consumption of 7,920,000 gallons
in June of 1943.
City Water Supt. Clyde White
said the city’s large water pump
has hardly stopped since the
hot weather brought a heavy use
of water. Larger pumping equip-
ment has been ordered, but the
manufacturer indicated lately that
delivery could not be made until
September at the earliest, when
the heaviest demand on the city
water system will have passed.
Bobby Kennedy, star halfback
on last year’s Kermit High foot-
ball team and guard on the
championship basketball team, has
been inducted into the Army, it
was announced this week.
Leslie G. Davis also has been
inducted into the Army, William
E. Doziex1 into the Navy and
Barney- Roark into the Marine
Corps.
The local Selective
Board announced
reclassifications:
2A to 1A
i Robert. O. Mealer
Thomas Lester Bates
1A to 2A
Woodrow W. Lott
Macon V. Smith
Thomas A. Beck
1A to 2B
Gilbert E. Perry
Siscero W. Stephens
4F to 2AF
Louis D. Griffin
1A to 1AL
Tommie L. Bonner
1A to 1C
Robert C. Kennedy
Leslie G. Davis
William E. Dozier
Barney R. Roark
1A to 4F
Johnnie L. Sapp
2C to 2CF
Thomas A. Kelly
2A to 2AH
Howard E. Davis
2A to 2AH
Jessie Johnson
George F. Bentley
Robert D. Hord
2B to 1AH
Charles R Norris
1AH to 2BH
Edward B. Mouser
Lavile H. Kay
Merrin E. Anderson
1AH to 4A
John C. Whit#'
*
The field, with 17 derricks
ablaze with lights at night by
someone’s count—I forget whose
certainly is the most impressive
oil drilling sight seen in this
part of the world in a long while.
There is nothing, I believe, to
compare with it in West Texas,
ajid possibly not in the nation.
Of course there have been in
the past vastly greater drilling-
plays, but not many recently and
certainly not many in the midst
of war.
Of course the fact that the big
oil experts talk of the Keystone
■ deep pool as the greatest oil find
of 1943 and possibly for a number
of years speaks for itself.
Judge J. B. Salmon the other
day repeated my earlier obser-
vation in this column that the
Keystone Field where they are
drilling all the deep wells surely
is a sight to see at night.
I backed him up wholeheartedly,
Whereupon Mrs. Birtciel said she
was sure our observations were
correct, but where did we get the
gas to make the tour of northern
Winkler County required for such
first-hand information?
So it developed, of course, that
both the judge and I had business
of the most vital nature in that
direction, and just happened to
see the wells, and our observat-
ion of them was wholly incidental
to our trips.
72 Lions Attend
Installation Dinner
Seventy-two Lions from Kermit
and Wink Thursday night attend-
ed a joint installation banquet
and ceremony in the Bluebonnet
Cafe dining room in Kermit.
Rev. Byron Bryant was install-
ed as president of the Kermit
club and R. A. Lipscomb of the
Wink club.
Installing officer was Lee John-
son of Wink, retiring president of’
the Wink club and recently elect-
ed president of Lions District
2-T.
* * *
Seaman first class L. R. “Red”
Nutt, former Kermit service sta-
tion operator, visited friends here
this week. He is in the Navy
stationed near San Francisco. He
was accompanied *back to Calif-
ornia by his wife and family,
who will live there.
* * *
Lt. Ernest Clifton of the Mar-
ine Corps is visiting his parents,
Mr. and Mrs. E. R. Clifton. He
is stationed at Grosse lie, Mich.
* * *
Radioman third Class Councel
B. Morgette is here on furlough
visiting his parents, Mr. and Mrs.
C. E. Morgette, and brothers and
sisters. Young Morgette, radio-
man on a landing craft, has seen
action in the South Pacific, where
his duty was to go ashore after
a beachhead had been established
and maintain communications
with naval forces offshore.
* * *
Flight Officer Charles
Mrs. McIver and their young dau-
ghter were here this week visiting
relatives and friends. Mrs. Mc-
Iver is the former Shirley
Barnes. McIver received his wings
as fligh officer at Deming, N. M.,
last week ,and expected to be
assigned to a crew training
school in California or Nebraska.
He is a bombardier.
* * *
OAKLAND, Calif.—Marine Cpl.
Earl Anderson of Kermit, Texas,
who helped wrest the Marshall
Islands from the Japanese last
February, has been returned to
a naval hospital here for .treat-
ment of a tropical ailment.
The Texas Leatherneck landed
with an assault wave an Engebi,
where, as he describes it, “we
had no more than hit the beach
when the Japs pinned us down
with a barrage of mortar and
Following adjustments by the
equalization board, the City of
Kermit tax roll now shows an
assessed valuation of property in
the city of $854,000, City Secre-
tary Fred Pearson said Thursday.
This compares with last year’s
total of approximately $600,000.
Neither figure includes the var-
ious lots in the city whose own-
ers are listed on the tax rolls as
unknown.
At the old rate of $1.15 on the
$100 valuation, the new valuat-
ions would bring in a total of
$9820, figured on 100 per cent
collection. Even with some of
the taxes uncollected, the total
ad valorem revenue would be the
largest in the history of the city.
Figuring in an anticipated re-
turn from the two per cent gross
revenue tax on utilities of about
$1500 and other incidental in-
come, the city’s general fund
income for the year should be in
i the neighborhood of $12,000, said
Pearson.
* * *
This is written on the grand
and glorious Fourth of July, and
the kids growing 'up during this
war certainly are getting cheated
of some of the things that made
life worthwhile to me when I
was a kid growing up.
When I was small I never was
allowed to shoot off fireworks
unsupervised, and thus I have a
full complement of fingers and
hands and such. But Dad almost
always would lay in a supply of
fireworks to shoot off on the ev-
ening of the Fourth before the
family group, or sometimes we
would take in the municipal fire-
works display with huge blazing
American flags, waterfalls, and
such.
Of course our kids are missing
'fireworks while those in much of
the world are missing food and
clothing and homes and parents.
But still it’s a shame.
machine gun fire. We stayed
there until the tanks went in
and knocked out some of the
nests so we could advance and
clean them up. Being pinned
down by Jap fire isn’t exactly a
pleasant sensation, either.”
Corporal Anderson was employ-
ed by the Magnolia Petroleum
Co. at Kermit before he enlisted
in the Marine Corps Jan. 26, 1942.
His parents live on Rt. 1, Atwater
Calif.
Lonnie Wright, . formerly of
Levelland, came to Kermit this
week to work for Gardner Broth-
ers.
Workers’ Meeting
Of Baptists Set
For Tuesday Here
The Workers* Conference of the
Pecos Valley Baptist Association
will meet with the First Baptist
Church in Kermit all day next
Tuesday, with lunch to be served
at the church.
The theme for the program is
to be “We are well able . .
Speakers for the day will in-
clude Rev. Arthur DeLoach, pas-
tor of the First Baptist Church
of Odessa, who will bring
morning sermon;
Lund, associate pastor
First Baptist
hans; Rev.
missionary;
at Wickett,
Guy, pastor of the First Baptist
Church of Pecos.
The afternoon program will be
held under auspices of the W.
M. U., and will be closed with
a talk by Mrs. Wallace McCarver
of Iraan, associational W. M.
president.
Conley Grey Ellis of Wink, arr-
ested in Wink for being drunk
and disturbing the peace, was
fined $15 and costs by Justice
of the Peace B. F. Sandel this
week.
The case was transferred from
Justice of the Peace S. A. Bailey’s
I court in Wink when Judge Bailey
* disqualified himself.
treasurer, Mrs.
chaplain, Mrs.
sergeant-at-afms,
Birtciel, historian.
After the business meeting, re-
freshments of ice cream and cake
were served as the Auxiliary was
joined by members of the Legion
for a social hour. Those enjoying
the occasion were Mr. and Mrs.
Hugh Hawkins and children, Mr.
and Mrs. G. C. Olsen and daugh-
ter, Peggy, Mr. and Mrs. Jay
Hahn and daughter, Helen, Mr.
and Mrs. Irving Cole, Mr. and
Mrs. Jack Nelson and son Benny,
Mr. and Mrs. Jack Kennedy and
children, Mr. and Mrs.
Rolston, Mr. and Mrs. Charles
Fountain and son, Mrs. W. G.
Crowley and daughter Ann, Mrs.
Ed Birtciel and daughter Joanne,
Doris Ekas, Joe Boudreaux and
W. E. Brooks.
A NINTH AIR FORCE SER-
VICE COMMAND UNIT, ENG-
LAND—-First Sgt. Wade L. .
Strange of Kermit, Texas, was ]
one of four soldiers who recently i
risked their lives to remove the j
pilot of a crashed fighter plane ,
somewhere in England.
While riding in a jeep on one
of the country roads bordering a
Ninth Air Force Service Command
station, Sergeant Strange noticed ,
a fighter plane in trouble. The
plane, engine aflame, was headed
toward the side of a hill.
Sergeant Strange, along with
Staff Sgt. Frederick A. Fox of
Lowell, Mass., Corp. Homer G.
Lewis of Atlanta, Ga., and Lt.
Richard Wood of Montpelier, Vt.,
hurried toward the burning air-
craft as it crashed against the
hillside. With the flames licking
at the gas tanks and .50 caliber
shells bursting, the quartet hack-
ed open the canopy and pulled
the injured pilot from the plane.
Although still conscious, the 1
pilot was suffering from back
and leg injuries and was unable
He
in
Clara Hendricks of the Junior
Department of the Baptist Train-
ing Union of the First Baptist
Church here, was a first place
winner in the state scripture
memory contest at the Texas
Baptist Encampment at Palacios.
She went to the encampment
with Mrs. J. A. Slaughter, dir-
ector of the Training Union in
the Kermit church.
Hal Hester resigned from the
Winkler County War Price and
Rationing Board Friday morning
to end a crisis that had resulted
in the ration office here being
closed for nearly a full day.
Hester handed in his resignat-
ion to M. D. Lakey, OPA repres-
entative in this area.
The action left the board with-
out a tire panel, since the other
two members of the panel, Lin-
coln Riley of Wink and Roy
Charlesworth of Kermit, had re-
signed previously. Riley’s resig-
nation had been handed in last
week, while Charlesworth turned
his in as of July 1.
However, Lakey Friday pre-
vailed on Charlesworth* to stay
on the panel at least until July
17 so he could help break in any
new members that might be app-
ointed. :
County Judge J. B. Salmon said
i it was hoped that Riley’s resig-
nation might be reconsidered.
The crisis in the board office
arose Thursday when Misses
Doris Storey, chief clerk, and
Billie Jo Anderson, rationing
clerk, protested against criticisms
they said Hester had made
about their handling of tire cer-
tificates and said they would not
work any more while he was a
member of the board.
Mayor Lester Prater of Wink
was in the Courthouse, and May-
or Kenneth Burrows of Kermit
was summoned and the two, with’
Judge Salmon, had a conference
at which it was decided to close
the board office until some sol-
ution could be reached, The three
form the county defense coordina-
tion council.
Judge Salmon then called Lub-
bock, and the OPA "office there
got in touch with Lakey, who was
in Fort Davis, and he came to
Kermit forthwith.
Lakey conferred at length with
Hester and others Thursday night,
and Hester’s decision to resign
came the next morning.
The action apparently ended a
period of unrest on ' the board
that was marked three weeks ago
by a request that Hester resign,
made by Vance Apple, , adminis-
trative officer in the Lubbock
OPA office.
Hester refued at that time, and
obtained a number of letters from
people here to be sent to OPA
officials in backing his stand.
A petition also had been cir-
culated asking his removal from
the board.
However, in
that ended in
there was no hint that his
as a board member
was
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Vermillion, Henry G. The Winkler County News (Kermit, Tex.), Vol. 8, No. 17, Ed. 1 Friday, July 7, 1944, newspaper, July 7, 1944; Kermit, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1227096/m1/1/: accessed July 16, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Winkler County Library.