Archives for June 2021

For most Clarendon High School graduates, commencement in Bronco Stadium on May 21 was the culmination of about 13 years of work and the steppingstone to their futures. But for one graduate, it was more meaningful, and the wait had been much longer… 78 years, in fact.

Jeane Spencer Bartlett’s family moved to Clarendon when she was just a young girl. She and her twin sister, Imogene, had started school back home in Pittsburg, Texas, but their father’s work as a highway construction superintendent drew them to the Panhandle. The girls and their siblings settled in, attended Clarendon public schools, and made friends as they advanced through the grades. Then just days before graduation in 1943, the unthinkable happened.

“Daddy got an assignment for job in Okmulgee, Okla., that took him there in April,” Bartlett said. “When we moved, Daddy promised us that we could come back to Clarendon for graduation. But when the time came, he said, ‘No, you can’t go.’ We sat in the stadium in Okmulgee and watched those kids get their diplomas, but we hadn’t gone to school there long enough to graduate with them. I got my diploma from Clarendon by mail a few weeks later.”

The broken promise bothered her a lot at the time; and, as the years went by, she would sometimes face the regret that she never got to have that experience in a cap and gown with her friends.

The Oklahoma job only lasted a short while, and the Spencer family returned to Clarendon, the place that Jeane would always refer to as her hometown as she lived out an impressive professional career.

In 1945, she took a job in the classified department of the Amarillo Globe-News. Five years later, she became the secretary to the publisher and held that job for 25 years before being promoted to lead the Globe-News’ human resources department and putting in another 25 years there. For 30 years, Bartlett led the Globe-News’ spelling bee contest. Her work made her a legend in Panhandle journalism circles; and after her retirement in 2001, she was inducted into the Panhandle Press Association’s Hall of Fame in 2004.

“I didn’t look at as something big,” she said. “It was just a job I loved.”

Bartlett had entered the workforce with no intention of ever getting married. She felt like it just wasn’t something for her. But a few years after starting at the newspaper, a young man in the paper’s production department started pursuing the young Jeane Spencer. In 1959, she and Harry Bartlett were married and would remain inseparable for nearly 62 years.

In recent years, the couple moved into a retirement center. As Harry’s health failed, he was moved from their apartment to a room of his own, and Jeane would go stay with him during the day. Last year, in the throes of the COVID-19 pandemic, she made the choice to give up her apartment in order to have a room next to Harry’s, so that she could continue their daily companionship. And there she would stay, isolated from her family, as Harry slowly slipped from the bonds of earthly life, passing away in March.

Now 94 years old, she reflects on a long, full life, but recently the pain of that lost graduation nagged at her, and she told the story again to her niece. Together, the family decided to do something for their Aunt Jeane, and they contacted Clarendon School Superintendent Jarod Bellar. He and CHS Principal Larry Jeffers agreed to honor Bartlett and her late sister along with the Class of 2021.

It was all a big surprise for Bartlett, who thought she was just coming to Clarendon to impart some family history.

“These kids told me they wanted to see where our family lived,” she said. “We went and saw the house and different places. They told me at the restaurant about graduation that night.”

The family presented Jeane with a corsage with her sister’s name on it and had arranged for her to have a cap and gown to wear. Then they went to Bronco Stadium.

Students stood on either side of Bartlett’s walker as she moved across the grass and helped her to the stage, where she was recognized as a graduate, and presented with a bouquet from the Class of 2021.

“They were the sweetest kids,” she said. “They were so nice to me. I felt so honored. For a 94-year-old to wear a cap and gown, what an honor!”

Jeffers recognized Jeane and her late sister and then drew cheers from the crowd by stating, “We truly believe, ‘Once a Broncho, always a Bronco!”

With the sun setting beautifully in the west, the crowd applauded as Bartlett waved and blew kisses.

A week later, Bartlett still got misty-eyed as she recalled her long awaited high school graduation.

“Clarendon was always important to me,” she said. “It was such a nice town and still is. This is really an honor, and I am just so grateful for what they did for me.”

Donley County emergency personnel were kept busy with multiple accidents this past weekend, beginning Friday morning with an accident between Hedley and Lelia Lake on US 287.

DPS Trooper Lynn Mays said a man driving with a group of motorcyclists was on his way to Amarillo when he went into the median and rolled his bike. The man was fortunate to have only suffered a broken leg, Mays said.

Later that day, a pickup traveling eastbound on US 287 in Lelia Lake drifted into the curb then went across the center line into oncoming traffic and was hit by a westbound semi-truck. Mays said no injuries were sustained in that accident.

Mays said another accident on Saturday in Hedley was a single vehicle rollover involving a car with three people. The driver, who had an open container, had to be transported to the hospital. Sunday evening, Mays said another accident occurred at Greenbelt Lake when a car rolled over on the road to Kincaid Park in a case of Driving While Intoxicated. There were no injuries in that case, Mays said.