A longstanding Rockdale tradition will age a little this year when the annual Rockdale Homecoming is held June 11 at Patterson Civic Center.
Way back in 1933, Ira Perry, rancher and former Rockdale resident, gathered a group at the present- day fairgrounds for a picnic and those folks formed The Rockdale Homecoming Association.
The group decided that day that they would meet the next year and every year thereafter for a homecoming of past and present citizens on the second Sunday in June.
Over the years, the gathering grew and when the 1936 event was held with a Texas centennial theme, there were 175 in attendance with 100 of them being from out of town.
During the planning for that year’s event, it was decided that a graduating class would be honored. They chose to honor the class of 1886 that year, all six of them. Three of them made it to the reunion.
Then 50 years later during the state’s sesquicentennial, they decided to honor the Rockdale High School class of 1936. That was the birth of highlighting the class celebrating its 50th reunion at the annual gathering of those with ties to the city of Rockdale.
The reunion in 1986 attracted 400 visitors to the Knights of Columbus Hall which has also served as the venue for the gathering along with Fair Park and, in recent years, the Patterson Civic Center.
This year’s event will get started at 9 a.m. with coffee, donuts, registration and visiting.
There will be homecoming histories to look through before the meal is served to those who made food reservations in May.
After the meal, the graduates of the classes of 1948 and 1973 will be recognized.
The honored business is McVoy Grocery & Feed Store which opened in 1946 and was sold in 1999. The business was started by A.A. Sr. and Lula Mae McVoy when they bought the business in 1944 along with A.A.’s sister, Winnie McVoy, and Adolph and Hilda McVoy.
Adolph and Hilda’s daughters, Janice, Mary, and Lori, as well as Winnie’s daughter, Melanie, all worked at the store, along with Adolph and Hilda’s grandchildren, Hillary and Justin Bennett and Jenny Gebhart.
The location of the building is also historical. McVoy Grocery & Feed is the bottom story of the Mundine Hotel, which burned in 1888, killing eight people. The building’s top two stories were removed after the fire.
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