10-20-40-100 YEARS AGO 100 YEARS AGO… Rockdale’s beautiful new high school building was formally received and Supt. J.H. Hodges opened school with every grade in its proper place in the new building. (Editor’s note: This is the three-story building on the elementary campus which was torn down years ago.) While all the new furniture had not yet been received and placed, Mr. Hodges was managing very nicely for the present.
A new membership and support drive was decided upon as being the most important matter confronting the Chamber of Commerce at the regular meeting of the directors. The membership of the board was divided into two teams with L.B. Jones and W.E. White as opposing captains, for the purpose of putting on the drive which was to be launched in the near future.
The Trade Day Committee reported a plan of action to rehabilitate regular second Monday trade day events and an announcement was made that the plan would be put into effect for the second Monday in November.
40 YEARS AGO… Grand opening of the new Rockdale Inn Restaurant, located at US 79 just east of Rockdale and near the US 77-US 79 intersection, was scheduled for Oct. 18, according to Wesley and Betsy Duncan, owners, and restaurant manager Anita Koehler.
The Strawberry Pickers, a unique five-piece, all-woman band was to provide free musical entertainment in the Rockdale State Bank lobby as a special event during the Rockdale Fair Days.
20 YEARS AGO… Rockdale astronaut was coming home for the weekend. Ken Cockrell, who had commanded three space shuttle missions, and had flown in shuttles five times, was set to deliver an address to students in the Rockdale High School auditorium.
Milam Opry headliner Dave Alexander was a multi-talented hit at the KC Hall backing up his Western Swing renditions with a trumpet. Alexander also sang and played guitar in the monthly Opry. Others appearing were Sally Cowen, Ted Crouch, the Texas Gold house band and Opry founder Brian Davenport who served cake and cookies as the October Opry fell on his birthday.
Rockdale’s second annual Relay for Life—an allnight fundraiser for cancer research—reached its goal of raising $20,000 American Cancer Society. “We are so pleased with the turnout,” Gaye Bland, co-chair said. “We were wondering if we had set our goal too high, but the support was tremendous.”
10 YEARS AGO… Apache Pass was a time machine and the El Camino Real de los Tejas National Historic Trail was the road that took you back through the centuries. Speakers, including U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, echoed that theme in a ceremony at the historic crossing on the San Gabriel River, dedicating the first signs along the historic 2,500-mile route which stretches from Louisiana to the Rio Grande.
Vying for the title of Miss Rockdale Fair Queen 2012 were Allyson Steinbecker, Yency Guzman, Emily McCoy, Autumn Davenport, Jacey Jerman, GiGi Perez; Sheila Jones, Kaley Dodd, Ansley Jenkins, Miranda Oldham, Kayleigh Montelongo. The winner would be crowned during the pageant in the RHS auditorium.
St. John’s United Methodist Church was to hold a 12-hour prayer vigil for 2-year-old Dustin John Pickel and his family, on the day he was to have surgery at Sloan Kettering Hospital in New York City.
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