Chili Champs!
Lady Broncos grab two more victories
CVFD responds to two fires Saturday
The Clarendon Volunteer Fire Department was called to a blaze in the southeast part of town late Saturday night for a structure fire.
Fireman Chuck Robertson said the department was paged out at 11:10 p.m. to a storage building that was on fire in the alley between Third and Fourth Streets off of Hartzell Street.
Four firemen and two trucks responded to the fire and stayed on the scene until about 12:45 a.m.
The danger of fire spreading through heavily wooded area presented a threat to other nearby structures, but the fire was contained to the immediate area. The contents of the building were destroyed, he said, and the cause of the fire was not known at press time.
Also on last Saturday, the CVFD was called to a structure fire on North Sully Street, north of the county barn. First Assistant Chief Glen Wright said three firemen responded to the afternoon call. Old tires were found to be burning in an old block building well house. Wright said the fire was extinguished quickly with no real damage to the structure.
Chamber Banquet to have 1950s theme
Get out those poodle skirts and leather jackets ready for an old fashioned Sock Hop when the Clarendon Chamber of Commerce hosts its annual awards banquet Thursday, February 23, at the Bairfield Activity Center.
Tickets are on sale now for the 1950s-themed event, which will recognize several outstanding citizens in Donley County. The awards to be given will be the Saints’ Roost Award for a lifetime of service to the community and the Man and Woman of the Year, and Business of the Year in addition to recognitions for outstanding youth from Clarendon and Hedley.
Musical entertainment for the evening will be by Jackie Haney & the Geezers Gone Wild, which features Clarendon native Charlie Clinton on the keyboard. It will be rockin’ good time that you won’t want to miss.
The evening will begin at 6 p.m. with hors d’oeuvres and hospitality including the annual Chamber silent auction and gift box pull. The banquet, entertainment, and awards will follow at 7 p.m.
Those attending are encouraged to dress up like the 1950s, and businesses are also invited to purchase blocks of tickets by sponsoring tables at the event. Table sponsors will get to decorate their tables to reflect their business and the theme of the banquet with a prize given for the best table decoration.
Tickets are $25 per person and must be purchased in advance at the Visitor Center. For more information, call 806-874-2421.
Brake Time holding contest for artists
The Brake Time convenience store at US 287 and Jefferson is looking for local residents wanting to release their artistic expressions with a new art contest.
Idea submissions are being accepted until February 28, and six winners will be selected, with the public’s help, to each paint a section of fence on the Brake Time property, roughly eight feet by 16 feet.
Brake Time officials say they are looking for something fun with a positive energy. Those interested are asked to bring a sketch of their idea to the store with their name and phone number. Submissions will be posted at the store and online.
Once the six winners have painted their sections of the fence, another round of judging will be opened. The winner of the second contest will get to paint the west side of the Brake Time building.
Artists must provide their own supplies. Visit the local Brake Time store with questions or for more information.
Jackson seeks to protect ag from foreign interference
US Rep. Ronny Jackson last week along with Abigail Spanberger (D-VA-07) and Vicente Gonzalez (D-TX-34) reintroduced the bipartisan, bicameral Foreign Adversary Risk Management (FARM) Act to help protect America’s ag industry from malign foreign investors.
The bill would also bolster the US supply chain by reforming the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) – the governmental body that oversees the vetting process of foreign investment and acquisition of American companies. Senator Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) introduced companion legislation in the US Senate.
“Today, America faces numerous threats to its national security, and the agricultural industry is no exception,” Jackson said. “Our adversaries, especially the Chinese Communist Party, continue to increase their presence in America’s food industry and agricultural supply chains.”
This bill will help to combat foreign investment into, and interference of, the American agriculture industry by modernizing the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) to ensure that the US monitors this investment and understands the national security implications.
Specifically, this bill would reform CFIUS by: Ensuring CFIUS recognizes the agriculture industry and agriculture supply chains as critical infrastructure, Adds the Secretary of Agriculture to CFIUS, and Requires CFIUS to review any investment that could result in foreign control of any US ag business.
Wilma Ruby Lahr Kyle
Wilma Ruby Lahr Kyle was born in Hedley, March 28, 1926, the 2nd youngest of nine children to Chalmer and Lydia Isabel Kyle. Her parents came from Oklahoma in a covered wagon during the Dust Bowl times. They stopped in Hedley because it was raining. While there, her papa looked around and rented a farm, and did share cropping. As a young girl she picked cotton in the Texas fields with her family.
Wilma was born in a one room house, as the 8th child born. Her younger sister, Velma, also born in Hedley in 1928. She attended school in Clarendon, one room, called Bairfield School House. She was the only one in her grade, with only five children attending, two of them her sisters. The schoolhouse was relocated to Lubbock, Texas as a museum. Just before WWI, the family moved to Amarillo, about 1940. All four of her brothers went into the service.
They were only supposed to be gone a year, and she recalls a song, “I’ll be back in a year lil darling, don’t you worry, don’t you cry, I’ll be back in a year.” But of course, it was years before they all made it back. She graduated from Amarillo High School, in 1945, and later went to business school to be a secretary and learn shorthand. Her first job was at Kraft Cheese.
Wilma was raised as a God-fearing Baptist girl who continued to love God and family her entire life. She attended Buchanan Baptist Church of Amarillo, where she met and later married Robert John Lahr, an army medic veteran in WWII. They had four children together, the first three born in Amarillo and the last one in Los Angeles, Calif. They went back and forth from California to Texas until they finally settled in Calif. in 1955. Wilma lived in California until 1994 when she traveled back home to Texas with her daughter and be near her sister. They settled in Fort Worth, and remained there until the time of her death, January 22, 2023.
She was a homemaker for the first 25 years of her marriage raising her four children. She then worked as a secretary, bookkeeper until she retired in 1993.
She lived a fulfilled live, leaving a legacy with her four children, Timothy, Esther, Elizabeth & Dawn, and 32 grandchildren and great grandchildren. She continued to love God and family her whole life. She never missed a day reading her Bible or praying for her family.
She is survived by her younger sister, Velma Kyle Gilliam.
The memorial service will be graveside at Rowe Cemetery in Hedley. The cemetery was originally a garden in a rancher’s homestead. It was later donated and established in 1892. Her great grandmother Aldecka Bradley was buried there in 1929, and her older Sister Augusta Latimer in 1996. Hedley is where Wilma, “Grandma” as she was fondly called by everyone, wanted her final resting place. The family will meet there to celebrate her 97th birthday in March.
City continues search for new administrator
The Clarendon City Council continues to narrow its search for the next city administrator following interviews conducted last Thursday, January 26.
Meeting at Clarendon College’s Bairfield Activity Center, the council conducted virtual interviews with Brian Barboza – City Administrator at Knox City; Fred Ventresco – Town Administrator at Pine Tops, North Carolina; and Vance Lipsey – former Town Manager at Lake City, Colorado. The council also met in person with Terry Schilz – a District Manager for Southern Methodist University, who lives in Azle, Texas.
The council met again in called session Monday night and agreed to bring Barboza and Lipsey to Clarendon for in-person interviews at City Hall this Thursday, February 2, starting at 1 p.m.
Aldermen also agreed Monday night to hold a second virtual interview with Ventresco. That interview is scheduled to be held February 9 at the Bairfield Activity Center.
Dockery announced last spring his desire to retire as city administrator this April.
CHS students do well at meet
Clarendon High School took twenty-four students to compete in eleven contests at the West Texas High Academic practice meet January 21 in Stinnett.
Cate Word earned a second place finish in Ready Writing and a third place in Copy Editing. Avery Halsey received first in Copy Editing while Davin Mays finished third in Feature Writing. Toby Leeper came in fifth in Science.
The next practice meet will be in Canadian on February 11.
Crash takes life of driver
A Fort Worth man lost his life Friday night in a one-vehicle accident near Ashtola.
The Texas Department of Public Safety reports that John Albright, age 39, was driving a 1996 Buick Park Avenue at about 11:30 p.m. westbound on US-287 when the vehicle veered off the roadway and entered the north ditch.
The Buick traveled through the ditch and continued north. It struck the railroad tracks, vaulted over them, and landed on the north side of the tracks, where it caught fire. Albright was pronounced dead at the scene by Donley County Justice of the Peace Pat White.
The crash remains under investigation.
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