The Baytown Sun (Baytown, Tex.), Vol. 95, No. 169, Ed. 1 Sunday, September 6, 2015 Page: 4 of 16
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Pit
4A The Baytown Sun
Viewpoints
Sunday
September 6, 2015
LEnERS TO THE EDITOR
Ode to Bayer
Thank you to Bayer for the years of challenging, en-
couraging employment.
My career at Bayer (Mobay) began in 1966 and into
1967 as a summer engineering intern working in New
Martinsville, West Virginia and at the Pittsburgh Engi-
neering office. The integrity and the can-do attitude of
the Bayer (Mobay) staff encouraged me to complete my
chemical engineering degree and chemical engineering
master’s degree (University of Pittsburgh; University of
California at Santa Barbara).
Bayer hung in with me and accepted me back after mil-
itary service and after completion of the master’s degree
thesis. In fact, facing the financial strains of our marriage,
I was tempted to drop the thesis work and head immedi-
ately to Bayer Pittsburgh where my job awaited. Needless
to say, Bayer indicated that no MSChE, no job!
Best advice that I received in my entire career. August
of 1971 Jan and I trundled across America on honeymoon
to report to Bayer for work in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
We worked for Bayer engineering with trips to Leverku-
sen, Germany and at various sites including West Virginia
and finally settling down to Baytown, Texas.
Always, Bayer insisted upon absolute integrity and hon-
esty in dealing with the Environmental, Safety and Health
permitting. My work with the Baytown team included the
addition of “Tower Biology” and a seven mile water dis-
charge pipeline out to the ship channel. Bayer sponsored
all of this with the hope that the facility would achieve the
“spirit of the law” for sustainability and total compliance
with environmental laws and rules. Upon completion of
these projects, I was privileged to retire in 2003.
Thank you Bayer. As you proceed with the IPO for
Covestro, I have your back, I am your cheerleader. May [
this change enable Covestro to continue the Bayer tradi-
tion of encouraging and building careers and families that
benefit the entire Baytown community.
Harry W. Heinlein
Baytown
Don’t forget GCM
There is another high school located at 6001 E Wallis-
ville Road. Last week you might as well have forgotten
it existed. As per usual, the media in Baytown focused
on the once storied rivalry known as “The Game.” Per-
petuated in the minds in the older generations and hyped
in the media, it seems that Goose Creek Memorial is still
relegated to stepchild status and is left home on Friday
night while the other two are dancing at the ball.
As a Robert E. Lee Gander alumnus, you would think
this would not bother me. However, in just one year I will
be a Goose Creek Memorial parent. I think it is totally
unfair that GCM is practically ignored the first week. As
long as Lee and Sterling play each other the first Friday
night every football season, GCM is stuck to having their
first game either away or on a Thursday night. Stallworth
Stadium belongs to GCM also. They deserve a home
opener every other season under the lights of Stallworth
Stadium the first Friday night. They should not have to
continuously yield the first week year after year to the
other two schools for a cross conference pre-district U1L
game “just because.”
For all of its proclaiming of the great news of RSS’s
third victory in a row over REL, The Baytown Sun should
note that the “stepchild” GCM has some accomplishments
in their rivalry against the Ganders. They defeated Lee in
their first outing. This is something that took RSS five at-
tempts to do. For RSS to regain any winning prominence
over Lee, it took REL to drop to a lower UIL conference
and to have approximately l ,000 less students. Let’s not
forget the four in a row GCM victories over Lee certainly
bests the current winning streak of Sterling.
Something needs to be done to make sure all things are
fair. If the Lee-Sterling game is to continue, then perhaps
it needs to be played in week one or two instead of zero
week therefore allowing GCM to have a home opener.
Lee and Sterling could play a Saturday day game. Fair is
fair. Then there is this to consider. What if GCM bumps
up to 6A in the upcoming realignment? That would cer-
tainly change the dynamics of things. RSS and GCM
would be district rivals. A GCM-RSS district game would
have more importance. According to the older genera-
tions and the media though, I am sure the Lee-Sterling
game would still be more important even though in reality
it wouldn’t be.
Even with the so-called “Baytown Cup,” too much
emphasis is put on the Lee-Sterling game. The Baytown
Sun says the rivalry is still alive and says horse hockey
to those who disagree. Until they recognize GCM is an
integral part of this town, I say to them horse manure!
Then again, I hope one day the powers that be realize that
UIL divides schools by conferences based on enrollment
for a reason. Schools with enrollments of 1,000 less than
another school should not be playing each other. That’s
the real horse manure.
James Kingsmill (REL Class of 1987)
Baytown
TODAY IN HISTORY
Today is Sunday, Sept. 6, the 249th day of 2015. There are
116 days left in the year.
Today’s Highlight in History:
On Sept. 6,1925, the silent film horror classic “The
Phantom of the Opera,” starring Lon Chaney, had its world
premiere at the Astor Theater in New York.
Ten years ago: The California State Legislature became
the first legislative body in the nation to approve same-sex
marriages, but Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger later vetoed
the bill.
Thought for Today: “The lesson of history is rarely
learned by the actors themselves.” — James A. Garfield,
20th president of the United States (1831-1881).
Red Golemon’s bad baby brother
This column on June 24 recapped
the life and crimes of T J. Golemon,
known as the “Red Fox of the Big
Thicket” for his ability to out-fox the
law, playing hide and seek with his
pursuers in the mysterious, pristine
forest near Kountze.
Although closely connected with
Kountze in Hardin County, the Gol-
emon family - because the father
built drilling rigs - once lived near
the Goose Creek oil field. Red’s
brother Darious, 14 years young-
er, was bom in Baytown in 1923.
Red was the oldest of six children
of Henry and Agnes Golemon, and
Darious - bom 14 years after Red -
was next to the youngest.
The Golemons had numerous well
respected relatives in Baytown, in-
cluding a branch of the family of
Pelly Mayor Fred Pelly.
Unfortunately, Darious grew up
with one goal - to follow in the foot-
steps of the black sheep of the fami-
ly or, shall we say, the Red Fox.
Hoping that he and Red would
become partners in crime, he had a
plan. He and his big brother would
“take care” of a Beaumont cab driv-
er who had been abusing their sister.
OK. Red had nothing else to do
except run from the law on previous
criminal charges so he agreed to join
Darious in an act of revenge.
Pretending to be ordinary custom-
ers, they called the cab driver to pick
them up in Beaumont. Then some-
thing extraordinary happened. When
the cab arrived, they jumped the un-
suspecting driver, beat him to a pulp
and shot him.
The cabbie survived to tell the tale
and, of course, the additional crime
WANDA
ORTON
made officers all the
more determined to
capture the Red Fox
of the Big Thicket.
Red fled (as usu-
al) but officers ar-
rested Darious.ln
fact, he was still in
jail on the attempt-
ed murder charge
when his brother
died in the gun battle with lawmen
on April 11, 1940. Authorities re-
fused to grant him a “compassion-
ate leave” to attend Red’s funeral.
They probably should have let him
go anyway, though, because the at-
tempted murder charge was dropped
for lack of evidence.
Eight years later:
On Sept. 28, 1948, a 32-year-old
housewife made the fatal mistake
of giving a ride to two strangers
on the outskirts of Beaumont. The
hitchhikers were Darious Golemon
and his newly designated partner in
crime, Alex Leviness.
Clois Eloise Twitchell was re-
turning to her mother’s home in
Colmesneil near Woodville, where
she and her 3-year-old child had
been staying. Preparing for her hus-
band’s return home from sea duty,
Twitchell had been to Beaumont to
rent a house.
On Oct. 4, 1948, in the Big Thick-
et section of Hardin County, her
badly decomposed body was found.
Her gray Kaiser sedan had been re-
covered earlier in Harris County.
Before leaving Beaumont, Gol-
emon and Leviness had purchased a
pistol at a pawn shop, and according
to Leviness, Golemon shot Twitchell
twice and then beat her to death with
that pistol - so hard that the weapon
broke.
The victim had begged for mercy,
telling them to take her car but let
her live for her family’s sake.
(To read more details of this sense-
less crime, Google Alex Leviness v.
State of Texas.)
Both Goleman and Leviness re-
canted their confessions, claiming
their statements had been forced,
but their appeals were denied. The
“smoking gun” was the broken pis-
tol that lawmen found buried in an
armadillo hole. It matched the se-
rial numbers on the pistol the pair
bought in Beaumont.
Alex Leviness was sentenced to
life in prison, while Darious Gole-
man received the death sentence.
On Feb. 4, 1953, the younger
jD-other of Texas outlaw Red Gol-
<®tnon died in the electric chair in the
state prison in Huntsville.
Bartee Haile in his book, “Tex-
as Depression-Era Desperadoes,”
reported the last words of Darious
Goleman:
“Pull those damned straps tight
and give me all the juice you got,
because I’m not going to die easy.”
In that way, the two Golemon
brothers — despite their age differ-
ence - really were alike. With one
of them gunned down in shootout
and other one electrocuted years lat-
er in prison, neither faced an easy
death.
Wanda Orton is a retired manag-
ing editor of The Sun. She can be
reached at viewpoints@baytownsun.
com. Attention: Wanda Orton.
PRESIDENT TRUMP... THE GOVERNMENT IS
BANKRUPT... THE IRAN WAR IS A DISASTER..,
CONGRESS IS PLANNING* A coup... AND So
MANY JOBLESS AMERICANS ARE CROSSING
THE BORDER THAT CHINA IS LOANING MEXICO^
THE MONEY tb BUILD A WALL/
Read about it: Until death do us part
I have this hang-up about newspa-
per obituaries. It’s almost a drug of
the mind, an obsession.
As you may remember - and if
you don’t shame on you - I’ve been
compelled to write about this quirky
quirk before. Indeed, several years
ago, I typed quite elegantly about an
obit that had the strangest twist of
all. It was spooky is what it was, and
I’ll review that for you momentarily.
Speaking of obits, you may have
heard the Old Person’s joke that
goes something like this: “I woke up
this morning and read the obituaries.
My name wasn’t in there so I’ve had
a good day.”
That’s a real knee-slapper. But
only if you’re old(er).
For instance, this wouldn’t go
over well with a younger group. Say
the Tyler Junior College Apache
Belles drill team.
BELLE No. 1: I woke up this
morning and read the obituaries. My
name wasn’t in there so I’ve had a
good day. Haha.
BELLE No. 2: Huh?
BELLE No. 3: Looks like Matilda
has been hitting the sauce again. Her
leg kicks haven’t been all that good
lately, either.
Personally, I simply can’t help
myself when it comes to Obit Re-
view. Not that I read every one. I
more or less peruse a few and glean
what I can.
(NON-EDITOR’S NOTE: Using
the words “peruse” and “glean” is
pretty high-brow journalism. It’s
meant to impress engineers, doctors,
and educators.)
JIM
FINLEY
What I do is —
besides reading
The Sun -1 check
obits in The Bra-
zosport Facts (be-
cause I grew up in
Brazoria County),
The Bay City Tri-
bune (because I
worked and lived
there and it’s Wife
Margie’s home-
town), The Kilgore News Herald
(because I was bom there), and The-
Big-City-Paper-To-The West (be-
cause it offers a wide range of obit
selections).
It was while reading the big town
paper that I spotted something that
caused me to get on this kick again.
(It doesn’t take much.)
I noticed that a woman named
Nancy was bom March 14, 1941,
and died on June 6 of this year.
A few obits later, I read where
Tom was bom March 21,1941, and
also died on June 6.
They were bom a week apart and
passed on the same day. That struck
me, probably because their obits ap-
peared the same day.
That brings me to the spooky obit
I mentioned way up there on the sec-
ond floor of this column.
This happened five years ago
when I was reading the Kilgore pa-
per on the Computer Box. I spotted
an obit for a woman named Carolyn
Minton.
You can’t imagine the shock when
I read further and noticed that she
had been bom on Sept. 3, 1938. In
Kilgore - my birthplace.
Wait, I thought. That’s also MY
BIRTH DATE!
Wow! Same date, same city!
Sure I’m intellectually sound, as
you know, but you can’t imagine the
thoughts rushing through my brain-
stem. It was eerie.
Let me share some of them (eerie
thoughts) with you, using the words
I wrote in that 2010 column:
“Did our parents exchange pleas-
antries? Did they offer one another
congratulations? Were our [hospital]
rooms next to one another?
“I figured we would’ve been
school friends if I’d not moved [at
age 4], Maybe we would’ve attend-
ed one another’s birthday parties.”
Weird.
I just hope Carolyn had a happy
life, there among the oil derricks.
By reading the obit, I did learn she
was a nurse and enjoyed quilting,
and was preceded in death by her
husband of 49 years, Robert.
Continuing with the column, I
said:
“After thinking about it, I sent my
condolences to the family of this
woman I’d never laid eyes on. 1 told
them a little bit about myself, just so
they’d know I’m not some kind of
nutcase.
“I felt better after that.”
So it has been and so it will con-
tinue. Reading obits, that is.
Jim Finley is a retired managing
editor of The Sun. He can be reachea
at viewpoints@baytownsun.com,
Attention: Jim Finley.
Thf%aytown Sun
Main office:
281-422-8302 • Fax: 281-427-6283
1301 Memorial Drive, Baytown
Look for u> online:
www.baytownsun.com
—■
MANAGEMENT
Publisher....................i.......Janie Gray
Managing Editor...........David Bloom
Advertising Director......Brenda Bun-
Circulation Manager...Gregg Sanford
Business Manager............April Jones
BILLING QUESTIONS
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EDITORIAL BOARD
Janie Gray
Jim Finley, Jay Eshbach
M. A. Bengtson
David Bloom
Tony Polumbo
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Bloom, David. The Baytown Sun (Baytown, Tex.), Vol. 95, No. 169, Ed. 1 Sunday, September 6, 2015, newspaper, September 6, 2015; Baytown, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1066185/m1/4/: accessed July 13, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Sterling Municipal Library.