Well, it has been two months since I wrote a NEWSLETTER and Mike and I have had a website update. Two months seems like a hundred years! So much has happened. I am thinking that anyone in two hundred+ miles of PA has been affected by Hurricane Harvey in some shape or form. I don't think I have talked to anyone that someone in their extended family hasn't been flooded. SE Texas will be hurt for years to come. Port Arthur was hit really, really hard. The videos are hard to watch, even now. So many classmates that do not live around this area have reached out to find out about their many friends who do still live in the area and I'm also talking about the Houston area. There is no way that I can report on who all has been touched by Harvey! Too many for sure and my brain cannot remember all that have contacted me by mail, texts, or phone. What I have seen and heard is the outpouring of love and kindness to help others even by the ones that have been desvastated themselves. Schools, churches and businesses are still in dire need. Contact them to see how you can help with donations or financial help.
MAIL CALL
from James Leland Hebert in Waldorf, MD
August 8, 2017
I retired two weeks ago for the third time. I was drafted in 1969 and was a Vietnamese linguist. 20 years in the Air Force when I picked up a bachelors and masters in EE, and my wife of 34 years (grin). She's an Air Force Academy Grad and we met at graduate school. I worked for Standford Research Institute for a few years then joined the Navy as a government Civilian. 19 years later I retired again with two more degrees a MS and PhD in Systems Engineering from George Washington U. Along the way we had 4 great kids, CJ who works for Microsoft, Amanda with a MS in genetic counseling, Chuck with a MS in Mech Engr and Katie with a PhD in micro bio and immunology. Along the way I have been blessed so many times in so many ways for which I am truly grateful. One of those blessing is the wonderful people I knew and grew up with in Port Arthur. I look forward to hearing more about them and their families.
jim_pat.hebert@verizon.net
from Harvey Whitton in Newburg, OR
I've been living in Oregon since 1979. I will be coming back to Texas for a visit this fall and would like to locate some of my old buddies.
whittonharvey@gmail.com
REUNION NEWS
No more “tenative” dates. These are finalized.
July 27, 2018 SOCIAL to be held at the Museum of the Gulf Coast
July 28, 2018 Dance/Mixer to be held at the Singles Club of Jefferson County
July 29, 2018 Breakfast Buffet at Luby's
Donations have been received for the REUNION fund given by Betty Steck and Vicki Plaia. Thank you for your generosity.
MINI REUNION LUNCHEON
A luncheon was held on Saturday, September 23 at the Wheelhouse on the River restaurant at Port Neches Park. Around 50 guests showed up and enjoyed the comaraderie mingling with classmates and guests. Several “first timers” were able to attend. I don't think it will be their last. Of course, Hurricane Harvey was the topic heard around the room until the conversations finally changed to just “catching” up. Laughter, hugs, and picture taking was a must. Excitement about the upcoming 50th class reunion was also noted. Thanks to Ernie Castaneda Bullion and Marilyn Jackson Williamson for heading up this endeavor.
PS Send your pics to Mike Lawson and please include the names of the persons in each one.
HURRICANE HELP NEEDED
from Sheridan Jones Thornell
Oct. 6
(The LAKEVIEW area was hit extremely hard during Hurricane Harvey.)
I went to Travis Elementary today. I sat down with the Asst. Principal, Dimitra Crowell. The easiest way to help these children is to send Gift Cards or a donation check to:
Dimitra Crowell
C/O. Travis Elementary
1115 Lakeview Ave
Port Arthur, Texas 77642
Checks should be made out to Travis PTA. She is personally going to purchase these items. Also helping will be the principal, Mr. Israel Taylor.
Let's all join together. Please help these children, many who have nothing and many of them are living in tents at the PA Civic Center parking lot.
Thank you all and God Bless.
fredtoy2010@hotmail.com
NEWS FROM THE HOMEFRONT
Not so much of a happy time around here for the last month. Of course, Hurricane Harvey showed it's ugly head in Rockport and decided to linger around for awhile to see what else he could destroy. My dad was evacuated to Harbor Hospice in Beaumont the day after the hurricane hit Rockport because the weathermen kept saying that the storm was not going away. Dad's assisted living felt that due to him having an open pressure wound on his heel that he would not be able to travel in case of an evacuation. As it so happened, his assisted living did flood and the residents did have to evacuate in the middle of the night in pouring rain to the owner's home! So, from Friday, August 25 through September 3, Dad was in Beaumont. I was unable to see him from Sunday, August 27 through September 3 due to first, water on the feeder roads and then after the flooding started here in SE Texas, no way to get out of Lumberton. My dad passed away peacefully on Sunday, September 3. Moving elderly out of their familiar place is not to their best interest. Their mind and body just doesn't tolerate the change very well, as many of you already know.
The following is what I wrote to read at Dad's funeral:
A Tribute to Dad from the Children
September 9, 2017
Dad spent a long, long time on this earth. He wanted to beat his sister's time who reached the age of 98. He did by 3+ years. Longevity ran in the Ozaire DeCuir family. Our dad was so healthy that he only had two surgeries in his lifetime; a hernia repair in 1962 and a gallbladder surgery in 1972. He was too busy to be sick. Even when he was sick, his threshold of pain was off the charts! He never complained about pain. Maybe it didn't exist to him. That's the recipe to making it to 101. We called him SUPERMAN.
Our parents had three children. The first two took after our mom's Hollier side in looks and they both had mom's eye color. Then, came the baby with the same blue eyes as her daddy and even being born under the Taurus the Bull sign just like he was. I even looked like the DeCuir side of the family. It was meant to be. I was a DADDY'S girl from the very first day. Still am and always will be. The bad part is that momma always accused me of being hardheaded just like my daddy! Daddy and I hung out together watching the Yankees baseball games on the black and white tv with the 3 channels. We were both diehard Mickey Mantle fans. That instilled my LOVE of the game. We also liked to watch the Saturday night boxing matches sponsored by Gillette. Dad was in Golden Gloves during his high school days in Loreauville, LA. He also made my favorite Couche Couche when I would bat my eyes. It was kind of a me and him thing. I remember for years walking to the corner and waiting for him to be dropped off from his ride home from working at the Gulf. He would let me carry his lunch kit and we would walk back home together. Just the two of us. He watched me march in the TJ band playing the clarinet. He and my godfather would stand by the fence and I could see him smile when I turned his way. He wasn't affectionate, though. I would rub his head and then kiss it and he would shake it and say, “LINDA SUE!” wiping his head off. I know he liked it but, of course, he wouldn't admit it.
Growing up, we spent Sundays at Cow Bayou at Claude Plessala's camp. We went to 6:00 am mass and packed a picnic lunch, headed over to Bridge City and spent the day with many of our friends and their families. The men would spend a lot of time building a dock, diving boards with a high platform and also a boat shed when we didn't even have a boat. That wasn't all he did. In the winters he went duck hunting at the Sea Rim. If the water and muck was too deep he carried Danny Boy on his back. When they were bored, Danny Boy tried to bother raccoons by throwing at them. I can still smell the ducks as we burned off the pin feathers. They also went spotlighting for rabbits. When he was back home, he spent hours cleaning his shotgun to perfection. Did I mention he was a perfectionist? He also loved to fish from an early age since he lived near the bayous. One of his favorite things to do was go fishing in Black Bayou and catch gar. When others were eating salmon crochets, we were eating GAR BALLS. They were yummy, though. He fished many hours with his Gulf buddies, Leger and Choate. He passed his love of fishing onto Danny Boy, his namesake; also a perfectionist! My dad had a motor but no boat. He would put it in a big drum filled with water and run it. We thought we were rich!
He didn't just fish, though. He spent long hours standing in front of a 55 gallon bbq pit that he welded himself from a drum. He cooked chicken. Lots of chicken. Never sausage. Mom, our sister Gerry, and Danny Boy liked dark meat. Daddy and I....you guessed it. We both liked white meat. Goodness, he liked the outdoors. But, many times you would find him in the kitchen making the best duck gumbo ever. He would cook duck gumbo anytime you asked. Mom cooked other things....the duck gumbo was his. I onced asked if he would make a gumbo for some of my college friends. 12 guys showed up! College guys have appetites. Dad smiled the whole time.
Dad didn't just love to hunt, fish, and cook. He loved to dance and boy howdy he could. Mom and Dad went dancing on Saturday nights at the Rodaire and other clubs. They loved cajun music and danced the night away with a large group of friends. After the dance they would show up at our house and eat DUCK GUMBO until after midnight while laughing and talking and having a grand old time. Many times Danny and I were in from our dates way before they ended their nights of fun. They threw a “empty nest” garage party and dance on the same day I got married. They were so loud that a neighbor called the police station to complain of the noice. They didn't get in trouble though because the Lakeview police chief who everyone called “Neighbor” was at the party! In his later years, Dad would sit out on the patio and listen to his boom box drinking a beer while patting his feet to Zydco and Cajun music. He also loved to listen to classic country. He would whistle along with the songs. He could sit our there for hours or until the beer ran out. He played his “dementia card” when asked how many beers he drank. “Only one,” he would reply. He also looked forward to the Mardi Gras celebrations in downtown Port Arthur. He enjoyed people and wanted to share what he had with them. Many times there were friends and family invited to our small shot-gun house to eat and have fun. He enjoyed having a good time and watching others do the same. Crawfish boils were a must. The more people the merrier. We had parties with themes such as Mardi Gras, Luau's, “America” and even a casino party with all types of game tables. Everyone wanted to be invited to our gatherings.
Daddy didn't always party and hunt. He had a side that he wanted to stay busy. In fact, he was very hyper. He didn't like to pass the time at work while peddling around. He was a Gulf Oil welder and he wanted to WELD. His work gang nicknamed him CLECO after a Cleco welding machine that was noisey. It was always going just like him. One time he was trying to get the group of workers around him to get to work and stop wasting time so they tied him up!
He taught us the same at home; be the best you could be, never settle and always to things right, never, never half way. He taught us by example to always look ahead and strive to do better. And most of all to be respectful to others and be responsible. Maybe that is the Perfectionist coming out in him. He was a loyal OCAW 4-23 member during his 30 years at the Gulf. He walked those picket lines every other year when the Gulf went on strike after Christmas. He never complained or ever crossed a picket line.
When Dad retired in 1980, he found new hobbies. He loved to go to the YMCA and work out by swimming and using the machines. He rode his bike for hours in Lakeview. He had a blind poodle named Susie that would ride in his basket. Many neighbors watched for them. But, before he ever retired he said, “If you ever see me picking up cans on the side of the road, shoot me!” He had to eat his words. That became one of his new “hobbies”. Some of the Lakeview neighbors even starting leaving bags of cans by the curb for him. I would take him and the cans to sell down on Memorial drive. He started saving his “can money” for the casino. Oh, I haven't mentioned his newest hobby! Road trip!
I haven't mentioned the most important part of Daddy's life. He loved his church life and he never missed mass. Remember he was never sick! Of course, he sat in the same row on the right side. He did not wait to get there at the last minute. No, they headed out about 30 minutes before mass started and they only lived a few blocks away. He was a charter member of St. Joseph and attended mass in the Lakeview Grocery Store while getting the church established. He was proud when he welded the bell that is in the front of St. Joseph when they built the new church. Dad kneeled down on his arthritic knees to say his night prayers until he was unable to get up by himself. Even with dementia he could say his prayers by rote. A few years ago, I overheard him saying at the end of his prayers, “and God, please watch over my son and daughter.” The funny thing is he has two daughters. I kidded my sister that he was asking God to watch over me not her. He took communion until the end and knew to say Amen when it was the right time. He also would try to say the Our Father when they said it in unison. Three years ago he had a mini stroke while sitting on my daughter's patio. He started mumbling the same words over and over but we couldn't understand what he was saying. My nephew from New Iberia was there and leaned close to his mouth to try to hear what he was saying. My dad was saying in Cajun French, “Hail Mary, full of grace, Hail Mary, full of grace,” over and over.
Daddy wasn't a cryer. I guess that wasn't a “manly” thing to him. The first time I ever remember him crying was when he was sitting on the steps of his sister's home in Loreauville, LA where we had evacuted. He was listening to a transistor radio and hearing that Port Arthur was “blown off the map” during Hurricane Carla in 1961. Of course, that was falsh report but we didn't know until we were back in Port Arthur. Dad cried the second time when Momma died in 2010. He mourned for her. They had been married 69 + years. He cried again recently when I took him around driving to the old haunts in Port Arthur. When I dropped him off at his assisted living they asked him where all we went. I ended up telling them that we went by the usual places....his house on the 50 hundred block of 8th in Lakeview, the graveyard to see Momma, St. Joseph's Church, the Gulf refinery. A tear fell down his cheek while I was talking. Maybe he knew it was getting close to time for him to leave us. It's kinda ironic, but it was now our turn to be crying during a hurricane, not just for the devastation of what was happening in TEXAS during Hurricane Harvey, but for the passing of our father who died after being evacuated in 2017 just as he had been 56 years before.
Dad, you did right by us by teaching us to take care of ourselves, our friends, our family and to help those who need us.
Fly high and tell Mom she doesn't have to worry about you anymore. You are now reunited with your family where you belong.
Until we meet again.
Your devoted children,
Gerry, Danny Boy and Linda Sue
Postnote to the funeral:
Dad couldn't be buried in the ground after the funeral service due to the recent rain levels. They stored him in a tempory musoleum vault until the ground was ready. I guess that is just like being “evacuated” for a little while longer. So this week, a month after he passed away, my brother and Murphy and I went to Greenlawn Cemetery and he was buried where he belonged; right next to my momma. RIP sweet Dad.
Other homefront news:
We did not flood at our home but our only daughter and two teen granddaughters and their golden shepherd were flooded 5 miles away here in Lumberton. They waded through water to the corner of their long block and was picked up by the military cargo vessels. Once dropped off at a staging area, my husband picked them up and they are living with us while their home is being “fixed” back up. We know all about that; we went through it in 2008 during Hurricane Ike and we evacuated to their home for several months before purchasing a home here to be near them. I guess things just work out for the best. We feel blessed to be able to return the favor.
SUPPORT
Oct. 4th
from Vicki Plaia Michaels
I'm asking all prayer warriors for prayer. One week ago I underwent anterior cervical discectomy and fusion surgery (neck surgery with fusions.) I'm in rehab now suffering extreme pain. I'm in a neck brace and will be for several weeks. I suffered a fall a year ago last July. I haven't driven a car in over a year. The next step in recovering from the fall is total right knee replacement. I thank you all with all my heart for your prayers. Vicki.
PS - your prayers have worked on my left knee. Again, thank you.
vsm9876@yahoo.com
23731 Eagle Bend Ln.
Parker, CO 80138
Oct. 5th
Anthony Roccaforte got a 4th heart stint. He and his wife, Marilyn are staying with their daughter due to damage to their home from the storm.
amrock@swbell.net
3603 Gary Ave.
Nederland, TX 77627
Sept. 5th
from Debbie Borres Desmond
I have been diagnosed with Chronic Leukemia and Mantel Cell Lymphoma. Both are treatable. I am taking chemo treatments locally. I have just finished my two weeks off and will start again this week. I haven't had any ill effects from the treatments. Thank you for all your support and prayers.
rgdesmond@att.net
503 37th Street
Nederland, TX 77627
update on Jack Etheredge's granddaughter, Sydnee:
Sept. 19th
The Neurosurgeon doesn't feel like Sydnee needs surgery at this time. This will have to be monitored throughout her life and we follow up in 6 months with another MRI of her brain/spine. She does have to see a Neurologist, Opthamologist, and Otolaryngologist at TCH for her headaches and Bell's Palsy. They will all collaborate and work as a team to monitor her condition and make decisions from there.
thejet68@hotmail.com
450 Gilmer
Bridge City, TX 77611
from Peggy Fontenot Mundschau
Aug. 15
It's the day after my hip replacement and I am on the road to recovery. I will get to go home today, I hope. I have been here at the new Methodist Hospital in the Woodlands. I have been very happy with the service, great room and the staff is excellent. Thank you for all the well wishes.
pafflyer@msn.com
151 Mount Laurel Dr.
Montgomery, TX 77316
from Pat Trahan Knox
Aug. 19th
The hand dr. says that surgery would not fix this problem. He will ask my occupational therapist to make a new hand brace. I will do all exercises given to me. My right hand is rather deformed, but we are hoping with time that it will get better. The hand doctor has made it clear that any improvement will be very slow.
patknox@hotmail.com
925 Brandywine Dr.
Beaumont, TX 77706
CONDOLENCES
Two classmates gone too soon!
Patricia Polidore
July 20, 1950 – August 22, 2013
(We sadly just found out about her passing while researching our addresses for the upcoming reunion.)
Cynthia “Cindy” Duplantis Roberts
February 2, 1950 – October 7, 2017
(This following is a note posted on FB by one of Cindy's former students. Cindy taught at Marble Falls HS.)
My sophomore year I joined the debate team, I had Ms. Roberts the year before for speech and already knew how amazing she was, but debate really showed me how much she cared about her students. She was there for me when I ripped my skirt, when debate was scary and new, and for anything else I needed. She was such a beautiful soul always caring for her students as if they were her own children and making sure we were always doing our best. She made us question everything and expand our minds as much as we could. She saw talent in everyone of her students, even if it wasn't school related and wanted them to be the best they could be. She impacted many people's lives with her vibrant smiles and kind words. She had a special fire in her soul that not many people have. If it were not for her, I wouldn't be the person, debater, or thinker that I am today. Ms. Roberts, I will always remember you as one of the best teachers I ever had. Rest in Peace.
Support notes may be sent to:
Jennifer Roberts
500 Saddlehorn
Horseshoe Bay, TX 78657
Charles Brinson
(death of his mother, Myrlene Brinson)
5713 South Fannin
Amarillo, TX 79110
ctbrin@suddenlink.net
Darlene Turner Landry
(death of her brother, Sandy Turner, TJ '67)
3195 Williamsburg Ln
Port Neches, TX 77651
gran090@yahoo.com
Sheridan Jones Thornell
(death of her father, Sam Jones)
19314 FM 92 S
Spurger, TX 77660
fredtoy2010@hotmail.com
Linda DeCuir McFadden
(death of her father, Dan DeCuir, Sr.)
7699 Boardwalk
Lumberton, TX 77657
lindadmcfadden@yahoo.com
I had trouble finding some humor to incorporate in this NEWSLETTER. But, I do have one bit that I will throw in. I got a call from Greenlawn Cemetery telling me that a check I wrote for Dad there BOUNCED! Well, I realized that the checking account that the check had been written on had me only as a POWER OF ATTORNEY which ends in his death. Sorry! I bet Mom and Dad were not happy that I ruined their CREDIT!!!! All that work they did over the years and I screwed it up on the first day he was gone!!! I can just imagine seeing Dad talking to St. Peter at the GATE and trying to explain. I don't know if I'm still the favorite!
Take care and contact a classmate,
Linda DeCuir McFadden
lindadmcfadden@yahool.com
www.tjhs1968@yahoo.com