The Winkler County News (Kermit, Tex.), Vol. 9, No. 21, Ed. 1 Friday, August 3, 1945 Page: 1 of 8
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The Winkler County News
$
Friday, August 3, 1945
Vol. 9—No. 21
2
Marshall Lancaster Flower & Gift Shop
Dies Suddenly
5 IN UNIFORM
re-
d
production activity
<1
93
a
reporting to
age of all fats, pork,
sugar, soap,
etc. Grocers
Pyote Army A ir Field Celebrates
Air Forces Day Wednesday;
Large Crowd Sees Show
Awakened Citizenry Petition
OPA for Revision Upward
Of Rationed Commodities
Local Committee
Completes Survey
For Presentation
Oil Field Worker
Seriously Injured
To Hold Formal
Opening Saturday
NEWS OF OUR
MENawWOMEN
parents, Mr.
Molen, before
Legion Post Plans
Early Construction
Of Memorial Hall
Kermit Housing
Corp, to Build
More Homes Soon
The Kermit Flower and Gift
Shop will have a formal open-
Mrs. L. M. Scott, who under-
went surgery at the local hos-
pital Monday is resting nicely.
। an
Fla.,
3 to
oc-
Horace (Smiley) Wiles under-
went surgery at the local hos-
pital Sunday.
O. N. Justice Jr..
Recently Discharged,
Joins Father Here
air base at Miami Beach,
for reassignment.
An Institution Promoting The Interests of Winkler C ounty
Kermit, Winkler County, Texas
! Many Local People
Attend Spectacular
Air Forces Show
Local Legion Post
To Honor Kermit’s
First War Casualtv
for closing the Lubbock office;
Kerr said. The office employs ;
qe2
K
total of 123 persons.
There will be no change so far
as local boards are concerned
Kerr said, other than that they
will work under the direction of
the Fort Worth office after the
effective date of the change.
Miss Etta Mae Kolb
With Sanders
Beauty Salon
Miss Etta Mae Kolb of Cole-
man came to Kermit this week
to make her home after accept-
ing employment with the San-
ders Beauty Salon.
Miss Kolb received her train-
ing as a beauty operator in San
Angelo at the Jolly Salon and
before coming to Kermit was an
operator in a Coleman beauty
shop.
Mrs. Lucille Sanders, proprie-
tress of the Sanders Beauty Sa-
lon, invites Kermit women to call
at the shop and meet Miss Kolb
and give her an opportunity to
serve them.
report they are un-
ing Saturday afternoon from
6 in the building formerly
cupied by Hord’s Studio.
The Hord Building was
PYOTE ARMY AIR FIELD,
Texas, Aug. 3.—Crowds of vis-
itors from the near-by communi-
ties of Monahans, Pecos, Kermit,
Wink and Pyote thronged through
the gates of Pyote Army Air
Field on Wednesday, Aug. 1, to
take part in the open house pro-
gram in honor of Air Force Day,
the thirty-eighth anniversary of
the Army Air Forces.
The visitors were conducted on
a tour of the field where they
saw the civilian personnel sec-
tion; the parachute departvent;
a display of planes, including the
and Mrs. Claude
128
3
1 •
ri
"A
since 1940-41,
nessing oil
Marshall Earl Lancaster, 42,
Winker County Oil Company em-
ployee died suddenly of acute in-
digestion Sunday, July 29, at 3:45
a.m. at a M.-B.-K. Drilling Com-
pany well where he was work-
ing two and one-half miles north
of Amon Carter Camp.
Lancaster, who was in appar-
ent good health when he went to
work at 12 midnight, had a light
attack at 1 o’clock and another
at 2 o’clock before the stroke
that proved fatal.
The body was carried to San
Angelo in a Maples Funeral
Home ambulance, where burial
and internment services were
held Wednesday, Aug. 1.
G. C. Callaway, commander of
the local American Legion Post,
announced plans were going for-
ward at a fast clip for the build-
ing of the American Legion Me-
morial Hall.
A meeting was called this week
by Chairman Maury Alberts of
the building committee, at which
plans were formulated to hasten
the beginning of construction of
the building, to be located 150
feet north of Austin Street
across from the courthouse.
famous B-29
B-17 Flying
fighter plane,
in population
and is now wit-
The following dispatch is re-
printed from the Hardin-Sim-
mons University Bulletin:
Capt. C. L. Simmons is the
first overseas veteran to return
to school from ranks of the more
than 1,400 exes. He is enrolling
for final courses in his work to
receive a bachelor of music de-
gree, majoring in theory.
He is leaving the Army under
the point discharge system with
176 points, of which 85 are on
decorations—the number needed
for discharge. He has an Air
Medal and sixteen clusters for
overseas bombings of the Solo-
mons, Truk and other islands in
the Pacific, five major campaign
stars and other decorations, as
well as thirty months in service.
Captain Simmons is the son of
Mr. and Mrs. C. L. Simmons Sr.
of Kermit. He graduated from
Kermit High School and at-
tended Hardin-Simmons Univer-
sity, interrupting his schooling to
enter the Army Air Forces. He
was pilot of a B-24 Liberator.
cent increase
Commissioners
Secure Help to Care
For Courthouse
W. S. Moore was employed
this week by the County Com-
missioners Court to supervise
maintenance of the courthouse
and grounds.
Two additional men are to be
employed when available to as-
sist Mr. Moore. Judge J. B. Sal-
mon and Sheriff Ellis Summers
said the building and grounds
had been neglected the last year
because of inability to secure
labor, but that they hoped the
situation will improve soon.
The Commissioners Court an-
nounced the courthouse would
soon be using water from its
own well, as a new pressure tank
ordered some time ago had ar-
rived and would be installed im-
mediately. When completed this
will provide the courthouse with
sufficient water to adequately
care for the lawn and shrub-
bery.
Judge O. C. Olsen, adjutant
of the Kermit American Legion
Post, announced the local organi-
zation had petitioned national le-
gion officials for permission to
change the name of the' post to
Clarence Cavett Post in com-
memoration and honor of Clar-
ence Cavett, son of Mr. and Mrs.
Charles Cavett. Clarence Cavett
was the first World War II sol-
dier from the Kermit area to
give his life in the present con-
flict. He was reared in Kermit
and was a graduate of Kermit
High School. He was captured
by the Japs on Bataan and died
while a prisoner.
Mr. and Mrs. Cavett lost an-
other son, James Cavett, in the
Philippines. Details of James’
death, other than he died in
combat, have not yet been made.
Still another son, Wallace Cav-
ett, is a Marine pilot.
Mr. Olsen said national head-
quarters had approved the chang-
ing of the designation of the
local post and appropriate cere-
monies would be held soon.
unequalled in any county in the
state. With the county’s quota of
rationed goods based on 1940-41
census and number of ration
books issued in 1941, it can read-
ily be seen how the citizens of
the county are deprived of a just
and equitable division of the es-
sentials necessary to safeguard
the health of the community.
The local Ration Board, along
■with, the merchants. estimate
fully 75 per cent of the people
now in the county are using ra-
tion books issued in another
county or state. Every available
residence and room in the coun-
ty is occupied, in a number of
instances by two or more fam-
ilies. Although 135 FHA homes
have been or are being con-
structed in one addition alone in
Kermit, all sold before comple-
tion, the housing situation is in-
deed critical. Two cafes have
been forced to close for lack of
supplies; oil field workers are
without adequate food for
lunches in the field; housewives
are being forced to expend tires
and gasoline driving to other
towns outside of the county to
secure absolute food essentials.
There exists an extreme short-
cently purchased by the flower
and gift shop owners, Mrs. J.
M. Waddell and Mrs. Cora Bry-
ant, and has been completely re-
modelled and decorated to house
their modern shop. They have
announced that they will carry
as complete a line of gifts as
can be purchased under present
conditions and as they are avail-
able. Table settings will be a
specialty. The two women said
this week they will handle fine
china and crystal as well as all
sorts of gifts for every occa-
sion.
The building is arranged to
form a reception room with a
large refrigerator to display and
store cut flowers. They will also
carry a wide variety of potted
plants. One room of the build-
ing has been reserved for a work
room and is equipped with cab-
inets for materials used in mak-
ing funeral sprays and design-
ing and arranging floral pieces.
The greenhouse at the Wad-
dell home will be maintained to
supply plants as well as a large
open garden which will produce
part of the spring and summer
cut flowers. They also receive
large shipments of cut flowers
regularly from wholesale florists
to supply any demand.
Superfortress, a
Fortress, a P-63
an L-5 liaison
***
CAMP SWIFT, Texas, Aug.
2.—Phillip E. Morgette, son of
C. E. Morgette, Kermit, a mem-
ber of the 1849th SCU Enlisted
Detachment at Swift, has been
promoted to corporal.
Corporal Morgette, prior to en-
tering the Army, was a safety
engineer for the Pan-American
(Continued On Page Five)
Kermit Ball Club
Win One, Lose One
The Kermit Baseball Club
journeyed to Odessa for an aft-
ernoon game. Kermit was vic-
torious by a score of 8 to 5.
Davis and Hall hurled for the
locals and Worley did the re-
ceiving.
Hitting stars were Linne, Gen-
try, Durrett and Hall, with Dur-
rett and Gentry garnering a four-
bagger apiece.
Against Jal last Tuesday, Ker-
mit lost by a score of 8 to 2.
With the score tied, 2 and 2,
in the eighth inning, Jal broke
loose with six tallies in the last
half. Kermit plays a return game
with Jal this afternoon (Friday)
at 7 o’clock at the local dia-
mond, Manager Roy Peden an-
nounced.
plane, as well as some transient
planes parked on the line.
The tour also took them
through the personal equipment
section, the post exchange and
other areas on the field. A dem-
onstration of the acquatic sur-
vival equipment was given at the
officers swimming pool by mem-
bers of the physical training de-
partment.
The 728th Army Air Force
Band gave a concert and three
showings of the movie, “Our Air
Force,” were presented in The-
ater No. 2. The open house pro-
gram was climaxed with a spe-
cial retreat ceremony in which
three enlisted men were pre-
sented with awards earned in
combat.
The Air Medal was presented
to Sgt. Adolph Kolker of New
York City, and the Purple Heart
was awarded to Sgt. Carl P.
Johnson of Omega, Wis., and
T-Sgt. Howard T. Harper of
Turner, Ore.
The awards were presented by
Col. Algene E. Key, commanding
officer of Pyote Army Air Field,
after which the three men
joined the colonel and his staff
for the retreat ceremony.
Sgt. Kolker, son of Mr. and
Mrs. Benjamin Kolker of 245
West Twenty-Fifth Street, New
York, received the Air Medal
“for meritorious achievement as
an assistant engineer-gunner
from June, 1942, to April, 1943,
while participating in sustained
anti-submarine patrol activity.”
He is a veteran of 250 combat
hours of anti-submarine patrol
off the coast of Newfoundland.
Sgt. Johnson, son of Mrs. Lena
Johnson of Route 1, Box 65,
Omega, Wis., entered the service
January, 1942, and served in Aus-
tralia, New Guinea and the
Philippines with the Fifth Air
Force, before returning to the
United States last February.
Sgt. Harper, son of Mr. and
Mrs. Edgar H. Harper of Turner,
Ore., received the Purple Heart
“for wounds received in action
at Clark Field, Philippine Is-
lands, on Dec. 8, 1941.”
OPA Rent Director
To Be in Kermit
Tuesday, Aug. 7
In a letter to The Winkler
County News this week, Leo L.
Heisei, OPA Area Rent Director,
announces he will be in Kermit,
Tuesday, Aug. 7, at the Sheriff’s
office to accept registrations for
the towns of Wink and Kermit.
This will be the last day he will
be in either town to accept reg-
istrations prior to Aug. 15,
which is the last day registra-
tions in Winkler County can be
taken without penalty, he said.
O. N. Justice Jr., son of Mr.
and Mrs. O. N. Justice of Ker-
mit, is home after receiving a
discharge from the United States
Army. Ar Forces, in which he
served as lieutenant for thirteen
months in the China-Burma the-
ater.
Justice was a troop carrier
pilot and transported troops over
the Hump into China. He holds
the Distinguished Flying Cross
and the Air Medal with four Oak
Leaf Clusters.
Mr. Justice, who with his wife,
was in Kermit this week, plans
to establish a home here and
will be associated with his father
in the jewelry business. He and
Mrs. Justice are in Ruidosa for
a vacation trip and will return
to Kermit soon.
Tire Certificate
R-2 to Become
Invalid August 15
Motorists who hold certificates
to purchase tires should be care-
ful to check them to see if they
are the R-2 type, since all out-
standing R-2 tire certificates be-
come invalid for consumer use
after Aug. 15, the district OPA
rationing division has announced.
For dealers, the invalidation
date is Aug. 31. Dealers may also
during the month of September
exchange R-2 certificates on
hand Sept. 1 at OPA District Of-
fice in Lubbock. “However, con-
sumers may not exchange their
R-2 certificates if they have not
been used before Aug. 16—they
will become invalid and useless,”
officials pointed out.
Purpose of the invalidation is
to get out of circulation the easily
counterfeited old R-2 certificates.
R-2A and R-2B certificates are
not affected, since they are
printed on government safety
paper which cannot be easily
counterfeited.
W. S. Masey was badly injured
Sunday morning when a string of
six-inch pipe fell from the der-
rick of the well into which the
pipe was being run by a crew
of men.
Masey received a broken back
which will require several
months of hospitalization, and a
head injury that was at first
considered critical but later in
the week he was reported as re-
covering nicely by his attending
physician.
He was brought from the
scene of the accident by Maples
Ambulance Service.
able to adequately care for more
than 50 per cent of their cus-
tomers. The fact is, people in
Winkler County are actually suf-
fering from malnutrition. It is
quite possible the school cafe-
teria will be unable to open this
fall. If Winkler County’s quota
(Continued on page 4)
CORRECTION.
On another page of this issue
of The Winkler County News
a typographical error in price
appears in the Hight’s store ad.
Under the heading, Boys’ Khakis
we list the price as $1.98. It
should have been $1.49.
Lubbock OPA Office
To Be Consolidated
With Fort Worth
Tentative plans call for the
abolishment of the Lubbock dis-
trict office of OPA and combi-
nation of the seventy-one-county
territory with that of the Fort
Worth district will become effec-
tive September 15, according to
an announcement made this week
by Earl E. Kerr, director of the
Lubbock office.
Kerr said that action involving
the Lubbock office was part of a
national reorganization plan of
the OPA which will result in the
abolishment of thirty-one districts
over the nation. Three of these
district offices, Lubbock, Tulsa
and Shreveport, La., are in Re-
gion Five.
Object of the move. Kerr said
is “to shift staff and resources
in the field to the major points
of population concentration and
to key production and distribu-
tion areas, so as to make possible
better service in the reconversion
period to the largest number of
businesses and to protect the
greatest number of people with
effective enforcement.”
“So far as we know there will
be no duty stations in what is
now the Lubbock district and un-
less personnel of the Lubbock of-
fice desire to be transferred to
other points, their period of em-
ployment will be terminated Sept.
15, the date now tentatively set
Pfc. L. M. Kruse, nephew of
Eugene A. Kruse, Kermit, mm-
ber of the 142nd Infantry of the
veteran 36th (Texas) Division,
has been awarded the Bronze
Arrowhead to wear on his Euro-
pean Theater of Operations rib-
bon. The Arrowhead has been
awarded for participation in the
(Salerno) (Riviera) invasion
when he made the D-Day am-
phibious assault.
The 36th Infantry Division has
seen action on two D-Days, Italy
and Southern France. It breached
the powerful Siegfried Line de-
fenses at Wissembourg and com-
pleted 400 days of actual com-
bat, plunging through Germany
and deep into Austria.
$**
Sgt. Herman Molen, ball tur-
rett gunner on a Flying Fort -
ress, who was for twenty months
a prisoner of war in Germany,
is visiting Captain and Mrs.
Wesley Dunlap this week.
Sergeant Molen was in the
original crew of the Fortress pi-
loted by Captain Dunlap, who
returned to the States after com-
pleting fifty bombing missions.
The sergeant was then trans-
ferred to another squadron and
was shot down while serving as
bombardier on the later assign-
ment in October, .1943.
While being held in a German
prison camp the Texas sergeant
was unsuccessful in two escape
attempts. In both instances he
was captured in Yugoslovia.
When he was recaptured the
first time he was put in soli-
tary confinement on bread and
water for twenty-one days the
second time his penalty was six-
ty days.
Sergeant Molen holds the Air
Medal with three clusters, the
Purple Heart with one cluster
and the Distinguished Flying
Cross. He was released May 2,
1945, by Patton’s Third Army
and returned to the States June
11. He will go back to his home
in Greenville for a visit with his
Fifty-One Local
Baptists Attend
Encampment
There were fifty-one repre-
sentatives from the First Bap-
tist Church who left Monday
morning to . attend the annual
Paisano encampment.
The meeting which is in ses-
: sion for a full week each year
I beginning the last Monday in
August is held in the open near
Paisano Perk, tee of Texas’tall-
est points. Special speakers ad-
dress the group' at morning and
evening services. There is super-
vised play and Bible study and
the guests are fed chuck-wagon
style food donated by ranchers
and church members and pre-
pared by skilled Mexican chefs.
All of these go toward making
a pleasant trip for both the
youth and adult campers.
Those going to Pasiano were:
Patsy Ruth Callaway, Bettie
Horner, Syble Higgins, Evelyn
Briggs, Billy Spears, Theresa
Maples, Eva Jean Hixson, Norma
Rose Barnett, Lou Ellen Reneau,
Yolanda Scroggins, Aline Dennis,
Idaliah Crutcher, Margaret,
Hornsby, Florence Elmore, Pa-
tricia Jones, Valjean Turner,
Janet Polly, Jenevie Adams, Billy
and Freddie Dulin, Bobby Gotch-
er, Don Handlin, Wayne Giles,
Wanda Schlosser, Ruby Wallace,
Wayne and Kenneth Hughes,
Frank Briggs, Milton Mills, Ann
Charlton, Patsy McIver, Norma
Jean Everett, Norma Faye Baird,
Mrs. Jack Kennedy and two
children, Mrs. Henry Odom. Mr.
and Mrs. Barney Barnes and
daughter, Joan; Gary Hancock,
the Rev. and Mrs. Byron Bryant
and children, Clayton Waggoner,
J. M. Waddell and children, Mrs.
W. W. Watkins and Billie Mae
Watkins.
Selective Service
Board Reclassifies
2A to 1A.—L. D. Nichols.
1A to 2A—H. D. Starling.
1A to 2C—M. C. Hodges Jr.
1A to 2B—A. L. Warnick.
4F to 2B (F)—J. P. Dickey.
IC Enlisted o IC Discharged.
—L. H. Adams.
Nothing to 1C Discharged.—
J. T. Hodgett.
IC Inducted to IC Discharged
—O. H. Crawford, W. B. Book-
man.
1C Enlisted to IC Discharged—
D. A. Lawson.
IC Enlisted to IC Discharged.
—Mack Perdue, W. S. Shahan.
1C Discharged to Cancellation
—V. Q. Cirile.
J. T. Luther of the Kermit
Housing Corporation spent a few
days here this week working out
details for the construction of an
additional twenty-nine FHA
homes in Walton Place.
Luther stated construction
would start as soon as labor and
materials could < be procured.
When these d- lings are fin-
ished there will nave been built
a total of 164 new homes in this
addition, fifteer of’which are to
be of brick consjructlon.
*#n.
E <37
517,)
Winkler County this week
filed a petition with OPA seek-
ing an increase in quotas of all
rationed commodities. Statistics
verifying the county’s claim of
over a 100 per cent increase in
population since 1941, the first
year of rationing. This action was
the result of a mass meeting be-
fore J. H. Brown, OPA repre-
sentative in charge of processed
foods from the Lubbock district
offices, held in the County Court
Room July 23.
County Judge J. B. Salmon was
assisted in the preparation of the
petition by a number of citi-
zens, including representatives of
business firms and oil companies
operating in this area.
Copies of the petition were dis-
patched to the Lubbock OPA dis-
trict and also to Washington.
Leaders in the movement ex-
pressed themselves as being con-
fident some relief would be ac-
corded Winkler County citizen in
a yry short time.
The petition, in part, follows:
URGENT.
PETITION FOR WINKLER
COUNTY POPULATION
QUATA INCREASE OF ALL
RATIONED COMMODITIES.
STATISTICS TO SUSTAIN
PLEA THEREFOR.
Office of Price Administration.
Gentlemen:
Pursuant to instructions of a
mass meeting of merchants, oil
-companies and citizens of Wink-
Itr County, Texas, held July 16,
1945, in the County Courthouse,
before Joe H. Brown, OPA rep-
tentative in charge of foods
for the Lubbock District, the
following statistics and data have
been compiled for representa-
tion to the various agencies of
OPA in an endeavor to secure
an increase in Winkler County
'Quotas of rationed commodities
which, due to an unprecedented
influx of workers in the county,
has become acutely inadequate.
CONDITIONS:
Winkler County, Texas, has
experienced more than 100 per
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Williams, Nev H. The Winkler County News (Kermit, Tex.), Vol. 9, No. 21, Ed. 1 Friday, August 3, 1945, newspaper, August 3, 1945; Kermit, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1457674/m1/1/: accessed July 11, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Winkler County Library.