The Baytown Sun (Baytown, Tex.), Vol. 76, No. 36, Ed. 1 Friday, December 12, 1997 Page: 1 of 16
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®je ^aptoton Sun
Friday, December 12,1997
50 Cents Per Copy
Telephone Number: 422-8302
Volume 76, No. 36
Baytown, Texas 77520
Bus chase ends in Baytown
honors
Wilhite
Doctor plans to seek District 25 seat
47,018^0
...$30,000
Wilhite, who has supervised Sterling
Library’s growth and evolution for more
Ptiofo by
Christian Messa
By CHRISTIAN MESSA
The Baytown Sun
By EMILY EISEN
The Baytown Sun
ty CHIEF GOODFELLOW
A few years ago, life seemed like a
dream come true for John Jefferson, his
wife Liz and their children. But the dream
ing in the 25th District.
Sanchez said he will, if elected, bring
strong fiscal conservative values to Capitol
Hill and a focus on less government. “We
need people to fight for a limited form of
government because every time you increase
government, you decrease freedom.”
Sanchez also said he advocates more pa-
The bus, however, continued on its
eastbound path, finally stopping at the
intersection of I-10 and Sjolander
Road. Police negotiators were called in
and a perimeter was set up around the
bus, Cannon said.
“Police still didn’t know (at the time)
if the guy was armed,” he said.
Metro police convinced the driver to
surrender at about midnight.
Charges are pending against Joshua
Burgos, 34, who has been driving for
Metro since September 1995, Cannon
said. He was off-duty at the time of the
Friday: Partly cloudy
with highs in the 40s.
Saturday: Partly cloudy
with highs in the 50s.
Art by Erica Reyna
for the March 10 Primary elections. Volun-
teers will meet at 8:45 a.m. in the Nations-
Bank Building lobby on Garth Road to walk
local neighborhoods from 9 a.m. to noon as
they attempt to gather the necessary 500 sig-
natures that will place Sanchez’s name on the
Republican ballot.
Although Sanchez was the fifth runner-up
in the election last year, he says he plans to tient freedom, indicating he would seek laws
capitalize on his first political experience.
“I think I had a good showing last time,
and I built up a base,” Sanchez said Thurs-
day. “I’ve had encouragement from a lot of
people and I continue to think the 25th can
be won by a Republican.”
Sanchez, who has been practicing medi-
cine in Baytown since 1989, said he is more
representative of the majority of citizens liv-
Leaming leadership
Seminar pairs local
leaders with students
Police Beat.
Calendar..
Classifieds...
Comics ....
Sports...
Obituaries
Opinion..
Television
A 70-mile police pursuit of a run-
away Houston Metro bus ended Thurs-
day night in Baytown with the driver
under arrest and the bus disabled.
The chase began just before 10 pan.
when a Houston police officer attempt-
ed to pull over the bus driver after the
bus just missed hitting two pedestrians
and a car near the intersection of Scott
Street and the Gulf Freeway, said John
Cannon, Houston police spokesman.
The driver refused to stop and the
chase wound around Loop 6IQ, threw the stinger that ended the pursuit
through Houston and then to eastbouhd at the intersection of I-10 and Garth
Interstate 10. Road, said Baytown Police Sgt. Dennis
As police officers heard the pursuit Hughes.
GOODFELLOWS CONTRIBUTORS
■ Mr. and Mrs. Consepsion Estrada, in lieu
of local Christmas cards............$25
■ From the family, in memory of H.L El-
lender, Ervin Ernst & Velma Ernst.. .$100
■ Crusaders Class, Cedar Bayou
Methodist Church ..................$25
■ Mr. & Mrs. Perry Whatley, in memory of
D.B. & Helen Whatley & D.T Mayfield $75
■ David A. Jentho
■ Anonymous...
■ Anonymous...
Total
Goal
Martha Mayo, who has known Wilhite
ever since the two both arrived in Bay-
town on May 24,1965, said her friend
was the perfect choice for the Exxon
award. “She deserves it. She’s given her
life, love — everything — to the library
Goodfellows
1997
over the radio airwaves, they began to
follow the bus, he said. Some patrol of-
ficers traveled ahead, blocking en-
trances to the freeways to keep citizens
from becoming injured, Cannon said.
Throughout the chase, it was un-
known if the driver had weapons or
passengers on the bus, so police offi-
cers had no idea what they were up
against, Cannon said.
As the chase neared Baytown, local
police picked up on the scent, gearing
up to deploy tire-puncturing devices, or
stingers, on the interstate.
Baytown Police Sgt. David Alford chase.
Houston police reported there were
no injuries during the chase, however, a
civilian’s tires were flattened by police
spikes, he said.
that would prevent insurance companies
from limiting the number of doctors and the
types of care Medicare patients are currently
receiving.
Sanchez lives within the district in south-
west Houston. He has two sons, Michael and
Joseph, who attend the University of St.
Thomas and St. Thomas High School, re-
spectively,
Ron Embry, Exxon’s public affairs co-
ordinator, observed Wilhite joins a long
list of Bay town civic leaders who have
earned the award—including former
Baytown Sun Publisher Fred Hartman,
who won the first award, Robert Gillette,
Eddie Gray and Fritz Lanham.
“We have another great recipient
tonight,” Embry said.
After graduating from the University
of North Texas in 1953, Wilhite served
as engineering librarian at Lamar Univer-
sity in Beaumont. The Port Arthur native
moved overseas in 1955 to Germany to
become the command librarian for U.S.
Army libraries.
Five years later, she moved back to
Texas to become a head librarian in Or-
ange before eventually settling in Bay-
Postseason kudoi
Lee's Olin, Wooley
honored at dinner
Librarian named
‘Refiner of Year’
Another page was added Thursday
night to the lengthy history of Flora Wil-
hite’s public service in Baytown as the
Sterling Municipal Library’s head librari-
an was honored by Exxon with the com-
pany’s Refiner of the Year award.
The annual award honors a Baytonian’s
contributions to the community.
Exxon officials and the rest of the
community showered Wilhite with ap-
plause as she accepted the award and its
accompanying hard hat from Exxon Re-
finery Manager Sherri Stuewer at the
Goose Creek Country Club.
Stuewer said Wilhite — who became
the 10th recipient of the award—exem-
plified Exxon’s objectives in Baytown.
“Giving the Refiner of the Year award
to her is recognizing someone who has
been a partner in education and literacy
in the community for a long time,” she
“It’s a difficult time for all of them,” Jane
said. “They are too young to understand
why their mother left and why they just
can’t have everything they want for Christ-
mas.”
The Goodfellows depend on your dona-
tions to help make Christmas better for
families like John’s. Can you help?
Rease send your contribution to:
Goodfellows
1301 Memorial Drive
Baytown, Texas 77520
and Baytown. They’ve been her family,” town in 1965.
the library’s public information director Those three decades here have brought
many accomplishments to Wilhite, but
she was particularly pleased with two of
them.
“The bookmobile service to economi-
cally deprived neighborhoods in town
and to senior citizens of the community
and our literacy program,” she said. “The
thing I’m most proud of is the way the
community has supported the library
through the years. That enabled us to
progress with the technological changes
we’ve had with the library.”
After she retires in January. Wilhite
said she and her husband. Ross, will trav-
el around the country before they move
to their new home, just north of Jasper, in
East Texas. Ross will be doing a lot of fly
fishing during their travels.
And as for herself?
“I’m going to read a lot,” Wilhite said.
Flora Wilhite,
at right, ac-
cepts her
Refiner of the
Year award
and its ac-
companying
hard hat from
Exxon Refin-
ery Manager
Sherri
Stuewer at
the Goose
Creek Coun-
ty CHRISTIAN MESSA
The Baytown Sun
Dr. John Sanchez, whose first foray into
the political arena as a 25th Congressional
District Republican can-
didate was unsuccessful,
said he plans to run again
for the district seat cur-
rently occupied by De- IW*') S <1
mocrat Ken Bentsen. /' Im
Bentsen last Friday
said he will seek a third .Jw
consecutive term.
Sanchez, who was one HL_
of 11 candidates running John Sanchez
for District 25 in the No-
vember 1996 election, is seeking volunteers
on Saturday to help him run a petition drive
than three decades and will retire Jan. 31,
was equally complimentary of Exxon.
“Exxon has been my ‘Refiner of the
Year’ ever since I came here,” she said.
“They’ve made wonderful things happen,
not only at the library but also in the
community. I’m an ardent Exxon fan.”
For example, Wilhite pointed out
Exxon donated a $28,000 marble circula-
tion desk to Sterling with the library’s
credo inscribed on it: “Awaken the intel-
lect, ignite the imagination.”
The company also significantly en-
riched the library’s service by starting a
youth science book collection there, she
Even with work,
dad finds money
in short supply
Brian Brock:
Baytown diversity a
strength of the city
try Club.
Standing be-
hind Wilhite
is Ray Floyd,
Exxon •„
Chemical
plant manag-
* Photo by John Rowlanc
Police look over the Metro bus that was disabled in Baytown after its driver led authorities on a
wild chase Thursday night.
came to an end
when Liz, not her
real name, walked
out on the family,
leaving John, an
electrician, to raise
three boys and one
girt alone.
John, not his real
name, has a steady
job, but it is difficult
for the family to make ends meet. ~ I
Jane, a fiiend of the family, heard about ‘ ]
the Goodfellows program through a flier ]
that was sent home to parents from the <
school the children attend. .
“I’m just trying to help them out for j
Christmas, as well as myself,” she said.
“Their father couldn’t take the time off to (
come sign up so I’m doing it for him.”
Jane went to sign up her children for the (
program and decided it would be a good {
idea to sign up John’s as well.
“I understand what the family is going ,
through, and I wanted to help out the best i
way I could,” she said.
Without the Goodfellows, John’s chil- (
dren, including a set of twins, face a bleak ]
Christmas—and all of their birthdays fall in
the months of December and January, as (
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Dobbs, Gary. The Baytown Sun (Baytown, Tex.), Vol. 76, No. 36, Ed. 1 Friday, December 12, 1997, newspaper, December 12, 1997; Baytown, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1176178/m1/1/: accessed July 17, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Sterling Municipal Library.