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Ethel Starkey
and they had moved from Tennessee to southern Missouri and northern
Arkansas. And there are still Lycurgus Starkeys, and all of them are called
"Curg." And they are mainly Methodist ministers. They were a big Methodist
family, like the Rees family was. And so that's where that name came from.
But his second, really third, son was Alonzo Lycurgus. And then Edwin
Starkey, who was the youngest in the family. In fact Edwin was 14 years old
when his father died in 1891. The family always continues their education,
interest in education, government, and Curg today - my Curg - is active and he
was president of the UGRA (Upper Guadalupe River Authority) for seven
years, I think, and things of that nature.
FRANCELLE: And of course Starkey School....
ETHEL: Well, their father died in 1946. Two years later, or a year later, the school
came to Mrs. Starkey, Junior's mother, and wanted to buy some land for an
elementary school. And she said, well I'll give it to you, she gave 10 acres of
land, but I want it named after my husband. So that's how they called it
Starkey Elementary. They just all believed in education.
FRANCELLE: Now where did you and Junior live in Kerrville? Where was your home?
ETHEL: He built us a home on Lois Street. And so we, it's real funny, he built this, it
was a two bedroom, one bath, but huge rooms, it was an Austin cut stone
house. So we lived there until Curg was 14 months old. He was building a
house next door on the east side of our home to sell. It had a family room. So
we decided to move into that house and sell where we were. And that's where
Curg grew up. We lived there 14 years. He was a freshman in high school.
And now he lives on the other side of that house, on the east side of it. Junior
sold a lot to him and Mr. Austin Poe --
FRANCELLE: I know where the Poe house is.
ETHEL: They built that. He had the same architect that designed the hospital building.
He became -- Charley Peterson lived in back of that house. And Mr. Poe and
Charley Peterson became good friends, so he recommended this architect. And
he had a foundation that was very unusual and made an excellent top of the
line foundation. And so when Curg was four years old we were living next
door, of course, Junior took Curg over there and said Curg, now I want you to
look at this foundation. This is very a very good foundation. I want you to
remember it. Well, today Curg lives in that house!
FRANCELLE: Is that the Poe house, then he lives in the Poe house?
ETHEL: Oh yes. He lived in three different houses in a row on Lois Street in the stages
of his life.
FRANCELLE: Mrs. Poe was my algebra teacher.
Kerr County Historical Commission 15 Oral
History Project