100 YEARS AGO....
Locally famous wrestler Elbert (Pee Wee) Fannin returned home to Rockdale from France where he had been serving with the American Expeditionary Force. Fannin “continued to wrestle in the Army and made quite a name for himself.”
The Rockdale City Council, at the request of the school board and after receiving a petition “signed by nearly every registered voter in the city,” ordered an election to determine if a new school facility should be constructed. (City and school government were together at that time.)
Friendship Baptist Church Pastor Rev. Ed Gunn escaped serious injury when an acetylene light he was cleaning exploded in his face. An attending physician said Rev. Gunn’s hat, which was pulled down over the top of his face, may have kept him from being blinded.
G. L. Marshall, new superintendent of Rockdale schools had moved from Rogers to Rockdale with the family taking up residence in the old G. M. Ryan home on North Rice.
FORTY YEARS AGO....
Rockdale ISD school trustees accepted the low bid on a new portable building to house district tax and business offices.
School trustees had whittled the 52-candidate field hoping to replace Supt. Walter Vincent down to nine. Board members were to interview the nine “semi-finalists” in a marathon weekend session.
The Rockdale Civic Center Board was contemplating bidding when the old J. L. Lockett home was offered in a June 30 auction. The Rockdale landmark was the official emblem of the town’s centennial celebration five years previously.
Steel was up on Rock-dale’s newest building and it was unique one. Community Bank & Trust was being built in the shape of a parallelogram. (The building now houses Rockdale City Hall.
TWENTY YEARS AGO....
The Texas Dept. of Transportation announced it was beginning a massive renovation and reconfiguration of US 79 through downtown Rockdale which would disrupt traffic during the summer months.
The husband-and-wife musical team of James and Jessye Whitis were leaving Rockdale for Bell County positions. James had been Rockdale High School Big Blue Band director and Jessye a piano instructor and University of Mary Hardin-Baylor teacher.
About 200 Lee County area resident packed into the Lexington High School cafeteria to hear about Alcoa’s plan to depressurize groundwater from beneath Lee and Bastrop counties to sell to San Antonio as part of the company’s Three Oaks Mine plans.
Texas Football picked Rockdale second in District 19AAA for the upcoming grid season behind top-10 ranked Manor.
TEN YEARS AGO....
Kelvin Knauf of Conroe was named Rockdale’s new city manager, replacing T Flemming, Knauf has been assistant city manager at Baytown.
Gordon Currin 76, of Milano, received a life sentence from a 20th District Court jury after he was convicted of murder in the 2008 shooting death of 48-year-old Milano resident Greg Storey.
The I&GN Depot-Museum hosted an exhibit on the life of the late Dan Kubiak of Rockdale, a 21-year state representative.
Windthorst ended the Thorndale Bulldog baseball team’s season in the final four, defeating THS 11-0 in a state semifinal at the Dell Diamond.
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