News

The Busy Bee Quilters of Huffines recently raised funds to purchase a defibrillator for Cass County Emergency Services District 1 (ESD 1). The quilters, ESD staff and county officials gathered at the Citizens Journal office in Atlanta last week for presentation of the new piece of life-saving equipment. Shown are, from left, Annie Moore, Novelyn Philpot, Fire Chief Don Blackwell and Donna Wylie.

The Texas Workforce Commission’s Julian Alvarez presented a check for $69,986 from the Jobs and Education for Texans (JET) program to Linden-Kildare CISD last week. 
The grant will help the district purchase and install equipment to provide 60 students with training for careers in the food services profession. 
“One of our goals at Linden-Kildare is to prepare our kids for life after school so that if they want to go to college, we want to do everything we can and have all kinds of dual credit options and those kinds of things -- but if they want to go to work we want to give them skills needed to get to work,” said Linden-Kildare Superintendent Trevor Rogers.
“I would be remiss and probably shot if I don’t give Mary Dowd the credit for writing the grant,” Rogers continued. “We are very blessed to have Mary Dowd and I also want to thank Keri Winters, our high school principal, for working with us to create a vision and plan for the JET grant.”

Cass County Clerk Jamie O’Rand recently spoke with the commissioners court about starting an archiving project to preserve vital Cass County historical documents.
“I am here today asking that I continue the preservation of these documents and I have found a company that does the preservation of these historical documents, and they are the most reasonable and very detailed,” O’Rand told commissioners.  
During the Cass County Commissioners Court workshop on Thursday, Feb. 23, O’Rand spoke about what the project entails and said it is her responsibility to take care of the documents. The state requests that county clerks preserve and restore documents to the best of their abilities.
“Preservation is something that every county clerk maintains and does -- back when my mother was clerk in the 80s they went to microfilm,” and the previous county clerk continued preservation efforts, O’Rand said.  

Special to the Sun

Each year the Four States Bandmasters Association hosts a clinic in Texarkana involving outstanding high school musicians from Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Louisiana. Students are selected through an application process, then rehearse together three days before presenting a concert at Texas High School. This year, after many years of absence from the event, Linden-Kildare was represented by Courtney Givens. Courtney is currently a junior at L-KHS playing bass clarinet in the band. When asked about the event she said “I had a lot of fun! It was great to meet and work with so many really good players from so many other schools. I hope to come back again next year and bring more L-K kids.”
The event, geared primarily for juniors and seniors, finishes with a concert Saturday afternoon. Two concert bands and one jazz band perform, usually with a guest performance by an area college band.

Bill and Bess Ray of Quitman, Texas were honored by the Worldwide Marriage Encounter Group for being the longest-married couple in Texas on Feb. 18. 
The celebration included the reading of the Congressional Record with their names, an award from the Marriage Encounter Group and a letter from the Bishop of Tyler. 
There were four generations of the Ray family and Bess’ niece from Cleveland, Ohio in attendance. 
The couple lived in Linden for around 30 years. They were married Nov. 2, 1940 in Nashville, Tenn. and are the parents of John Ray of Bremond.  
Bill was 101 on Nov. 6 and Bess was 100 on Oct. 11. The awards were presented by Tom and Lisa Linnebur of Sherman, from the Worldwide Marriage Encounter Group.

By John Dilmore
john@casscountynow.com

By Lee Ellen Benjamin

By John Dilmore
john@casscountynow.com

By Ben Woods
bwoods@casscountynow.com 

International Paper Company gave J.K. Hileman a $4,000 grant for its Outdoor Reading Nook. 
The reading nook will be available for teachers to allow their students time to go outside, sit comfortably and read their favorite books.
The funds will be used to purchase benches, books and a book cart.  
“We want to say a big thank you to International Paper for their generosity and also to our counselor Mrs. Williams for writing the grant. We now have the funds to provide a great space for our students to enjoy outdoor reading,” Principal Dave Estes said.