100 YEARS AGO…
A special called meeting of the Austin Presbytery was held in Rockdale for the purpose of examining, receiving and ordaining Rev. D.C. Wallace, who was chosen by the Rockdale Presbyterian church as pastor.
Our fellow citizen, Lem Smith, was taken very ill and became unconscious. He was removed immediately to the Cameron Hospital where an operation for bladder trouble was undertaken about midnight. For more than 24 hours he was thought to be dying but rallied and was reported making an unusually rapid recovery for a man of his age, he being now in his 80th year. Uncle Lem’s many friends hoped to see him back with us again.
In our previous writeup of the Rockdale Public School in speaking of this school being probably raised to a Class A basis, it was intended to say in athletics. The Rockdale school had for many years been a Class A school as applied to scholarship. However, until the high school reached an enrollment of 120 it remained as Class B in athletics, as defined by the State Interscholastic League. It now seems probable that the enrollment would reach those figures for the coming term.
40 YEARS AGO…
Two men were sentenced to life imprisonment after they were convicted of the Sept. 1, 1981, armed robbery of Midway Grocery in Rockdale. Assistant County Attorney Charles Lance said Billy Joe Duncan, 36, and Lawrence Edward Johnson, 35, received the mandatory life sentences after a five-woman, seven-man jury returned a guilty verdict in 20th District Court.
A 17-year-old Rockdale man, already charged with two separate auto theft incidents, was arrested in Weatherford one day after he walked out of the Milam County Jail in Cameron. Ronnie L. Gilbert was being held without bond in the jail when he escaped, according to Sheriff Leroy Broadus.
“Word From the Wife” column writer, Peggy Cooke, was evidently on vacation 40 years ago. Under her usual column head was written, “Peggy Cooke was in France this week attending the cooking seminar, ‘Put Your Blender in the Microwave,’ sponsored by the extension department in the basement of the Eifel Tower.” Her column was to resume the following week.
20 YEARS AGO…
Finishing touches continued to be applied on the restoration of Milam County’s historic courthouse, built in 1891, and rededication cere monies have been scheduled for July 4.
A meeting was set at the city’s Wade Fatheree Softball Field to organize a coed softball league, according to spokesman Michael Bailey.
10 YEARS AGO…
Rockdale was one city council vote away from having its first-ever ordinance regulating parking recreational vehicles (RVs) in the city limits. The city’s Planning & Zoning Board (P&Z) unanimously recommended adoption of such an ordinance, with some minor language changes.
The Rockdale Downtown Association was to hold its regular monthly session on July 2 at Dyess Insurance Agency. Chris Dyess, RDA president, said the group would hear a report from Jim Carrillo of Halff Associates on the Rockdale Downtown Master Plan.
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