100 YEARS AGO....
It was all war news. Leroy Pickens, the first Milam County soldier to be wounded in France, sent his mother on Rockdale Rural Route 3, a grim souvenir, a piece of metal from a German airplane stained with the blood of an enemy officer “who was shot with a rifle at very close range.”
Cpl. Charles Duffy reported the transport ship taking him to France saw a German submarine surface, was able to run over, and cripple, the sub and then “our destroyers made quick work of it.”
Frank Hicks of Rock-dale was promoted to lieutenant colonel. Col. Hicks was field artillery instructor at Officers Training School at Camp Zachary Taylor Kentucky.
The Rockdale area was already assured of beating its goal for the Fourth Liberty War Loan. Goal was $68,200. That amount of pledges had already been reached, $48,700 in the city of Rockdale alone.
FORTY YEARS AGO....
The Texas Railroad Commission approved the application of Shell Oil Company for a lignite mining permit about two miles east of Rockdale.
Rockdale Junior-High School organized its first-ever student council, according to Tonette Bernstein, faculty advisor.
The Rockdale Fair Association hosted a weekend of horse racing at the park track, with 13 races on the two-day card.
Punt returns by Gene Grayson set up two quarter TDs and RHS rallied from a 2-point deficit to edge Giddings 22-21 on the road.
TWENTY YEARS AGO....
Rockdale ISD trustees okayed a 5.5-cent increase in the school tax rate, from $1.42 to $1.475.
Former RHS standout athlete Virgil Clark was named the new Rockdale ISD Juvenile Probation Officer.
John Lawhon, an employee of Country Disposal was being called a hero after he went to the aid of a Sharp area man who had an epileptic seizure and fell, unconscious, into a mound of fire ants.
In a record that can’t be broken, the Rockdale Tigers drove 99 yards—(and, The Reporter added: “two feet”)—to the clinching TD in a 21-7 victory over Bur-net.
TEN YEARS AGO....
Alcoa announced it was shutting down the remaining three potlines at its Rockdale smelter. The company had shuttered three of its six potlines in June. The shutdown was expected to throw an additional 660 employees out of work.
Rockdale police were searching for two assailants who tied up, pistol whipped and robbed a 50-year-old Rockdale man in what was described as a “home invasion.”
Four persons charged with separate incidents at Rock-dale Walmart—including one where it was alleged a couple had used their eight-year-old daughter to steal electronic equipment—were indicted by a Milam County Grand Jury.
World class distance runners Jacob and Hellen Rotich of Manor, and natives of Kenya, easily won the annual Run For the Kay’s 5K men’s and women’s divisions. Only three of the more than 200 runners crossed the finish line ahead of Hellen Rotich.
- Log in or Subscribe to post comments.