Upon retirement most fire fighters would reminisce about the intensity or damage a fire caused or talk about a poignant traffic fatality they responded to, but the most memorable fire John Tom Lawhon fought stuck in his mind because of the cause of the fire.
“A woman was burning trash and brush in a barrel and she left the fire unattended for a few minutes because she had to used the restroom. Within those minutes the wind kicked up and blew some of the debris from the barrel and onto the grass on her land,” the corner of Lawhon’s eyes turned upward then he broke out into a hearty laugh and said, “The cause of fire was, ‘A woman had to pee.’ I’m not kidding that’s what we wrote down.”
‘CHARACTER’—Law-hon, 79, is not most firefighters.
“He’s a character,” said Jami Stringer, who took over his secretary duties when he retired in July. “He’s a funny guy, always cracking jokes.”
His eyes light up like a grass fire, whenever he jokes, which is every time he opens his mouth. He’s been cracking jokes at the Minerva VFD for 18 years. He joined the department in July 2001.
Lawhon attended Rock-dale schools in 1949 but graduated from Cameron Yoe High School in 1958. He was a born in Austin and after several more moves his family settled in Minerva after his retirement from IBM in 1995. He built a house on his grandparents land and ran cattle on his land.
“This is about the third or fourth time I’ve retired. Right now I’m running about 30 head of sheep. I’m getting too old to wrastle cows,” he said about raising Dorpers on his 55 acres.
“Cows being cows want to butt into you and knock you down. I could see myself being knocked down and all those cows tromping on me trying to get away. That’s what I’ll do now, play with sheep and aggravate my wife,” he said.
His wife, Denise Lawhon, is a retired school teacher, who substitutes at Thorndale ISD. He also has a daughter Sara Lawhon, from his first marriage to Mary Ethel Huth Lawton, who is an associate professor at Texas A&M’s school of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences.
HAY BAILER—Today, he remembered how he got roped into fire fighting.
“There was a hay bailer that caught fire and I grabbed my hoe to help put it out but the Minerva Fire Department was there,” he said. “Butch (Malone) hit me up to join. That’s how I became a fire fighter, then I became secretary.”
Stringer said she was filling some big shoes as secretary.
“When I took over the books at the July meeting, I had no questions or concerns. I was able to pick up right where he left and kept going,” Stringer said. “He did an excellent job holding the secretary position.”
Lawhon stressed the need for more volunteer firefighters. The Minerva VFD was established in 1974 by Paulie Jenkins, Andrew Jenkins and Butch Malone. The department has 13 active members, all of them are non-paid volunteers, who cover a 21 square mile service area.
“We’re always looking for volunteers and anyone can be in the fire department,” Lawhon said. “We’ll teach you to fight grass fires no problem. A lot of people don’t think they know how but it’s just watering on the edge of the fire and it’ll blow itself out.”
Rural firefighters, not only put out fires but help at car wrecks, help people in their homes who have fallen, assist other fire departments and light up landing sites for helicopters. They are usually first responders on emergency calls in Milam County.
“With our two hospitals closing in Cameron and Rockdale our EMS response times are hellacious,” Stringer said. “If EMS is tied up and busy, we (in Minerva) have to wait and wait.”
Anyone interested can contact her or Fire Chief Ernie Glenn.
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