The Canadian Record (Canadian, Tex.), Vol. 119, No. 46, Ed. 1 Thursday, November 12, 2009 Page: 2 of 40
This newspaper is part of the collection entitled: Hemphill County Area Newspapers and was provided to The Portal to Texas History by the Hemphill County Library.
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THURSDAY 1 2 NOVEMBER 2DD9
THE CANADIAN RECORD
RECORD
ESTABLISHED 1833
ORPDRATED FEBRUARY 1338
PD Box 898, Canadian, TX 73014
Phone: 8DG.828.G4Bi
Fax: BOG.323.5738
BEN EZZELL Publisher/Editor
Publisher 1348-1333
NANCY EZZELL Publisher
LAURIE EZZELL BROWN Editor
editorlcanadianrecord.com
MARY SMITHEE Business Manager
marffSpanadianrecnrd.com
ADVERTISING Holly Henderson
Jaquita Adcock
advertising@canadianrEcnrd.EDm
NEWS/FEATURES
Cathy Ricketts, Julia Schafer
news@canadianrecnrd.cnm
SPDRTS Jason Turner
jasonficanadianrecDrd.cnm
DESIGNS PRODUCTION
Laurie Brown, Cathy Ricketts,
Holly Henderson, Jason Turner
PHDTDGRAPHY
Laurie Brown, Jason Turner,
Cathy Ricketts, Alan Hale
CONTRIBUTORS: Mary Jane McKinney,
Bob Rogers, Ruth Beasley
USPS D87-SGD
Periodicals postage paid at the Post
Office in Canadian (Hemphill County),
TX. Published weekly in Canadian by
Nancy M, Ezzell
POSTMASTER: Send address changes
to The Canadian Record, PO Box B3B,
Canadian,TX 73DI4
SUBSCRIPTIONS:
S3D/S3B/S4Z Annually
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RECORD
and the Ezzell Family
WINNERS OFTHE
2DD7 Gish Award
FOR COURAGE, TENACITY B INTEGRITY
IN COMMUNITY JOURNALISM
Apply within
THANK YOU FOR YOUR informative and timely article concerning the recent visit of
State Comptroller Susan Combs. Her insight into the importance of education beyond high
school is only exceeded by the wisdom she shows by supporting the more practical usage of
a 2 - year college program.
Mrs. Combs' vision and financial support of a new program and emphasis for our 2-year
technical schools will pay far-reaching dividends not only for graduates but for the general
population. While a college career is certainly not for everyone, the practicality and the
rising costs of an already costly 4-year university must be questioned. Many, many, many
essential and well paying jobs can be obtained with an education from one of Texas' numerous
community colleges.
Susan Combs' plan and promotion should be as essential, refreshing, and long-lasting as
our clean Panhandle air and tasty Ogallala water!
Allow me to use this personal thank you to inform or remind Canadian High School
students, parents, teachers and counselors of a local scholarship for graduating seniors
bound for a 2-year junior or technical college program.
The timeliness of your article and Mrs. Combs' sound advice coincides this November
with the 3rd anniversary of the loss of Canadian's son, M iles Henderson.
One thing that Miles hated more than school was failure. School years K-12 were
required, so he gave it all that he had, smiled and did his best. With pressure from Mom and
Dad, he accepted scholarships and began his 4-year college path at Western State College
n Gunnison, Colorado. A successful first semester was all that he wanted (or could stand!)
and he returned to work full time at Amarillo Artificial Brace and Limb. His intelligence,
hands-on shop skills, strong work ethic, and magnetic personality all helped him acquire and
maintain his continued employment at the lab.
Along with his Mom and Dad, his boss and co-workers strongly urged him to return to
college. His answer—work harder!
As September 11,2001 began to unravel, Miles Henderson's unwavering patriotism cried
out loud and clear, "Dad, I'm going to join up!"
On November 6,2006, two of America' best and brightest, most dedicated, hard working
patriots were lost when their Apache helicopter went down in Iraq—Chief Warrant Officers
John Priestner and Miles Henderson.
Before that day, Miles had told his mom and I that when his Army career was over, he
wanted to return to college to become a teacher and coach! It took first-hand experience n
the difficulties of mak ing a living without a degree and some time, but Miles came to realize
and appreciate the necessity of post high school education.
Almost immediately after word was received of our community's loss, our compassionate
friend, Jimmy Schafer, opened a fund at First National Bank. The purpose of the fund? To
assist the family! You and the community responded overwhelmingly!
Several days later while on the east coast awaiting the arrival of the transport plane
returning Miles to the states, we learned of the fund. We greatly needed and cherished
our community's support of love but thankfully, financial difficulties weren't an additional
concern. We were overcome with thankfulness for such a supportive community of friends.
After prayerful consideration and the happy consent from Jimmy, the full amount of the
fund that he started and that many friends helped to grow was changed from a Henderson
family assistance fund to "The Miles Henderson 'No Worries' Scholarship" and "The Miles
Henderson 'No Worries' Summer Camp Scholarship" funds.
With some solid and sound advice from Salem Abraham, the scholarship funds were
transferred to the Amarillo Area Foundation for continued investment, management and
administrative services. Three scholarships are available to be awarded annually. One goes
to a deserving CHS graduating senior to attend any 2-year technical or community college
and two scholarships are to attend an adventure/leadership camp of the student's choice and
are awarded to students having completed 7-8th grades and 9-llth grades.
On November 6,2006, our family was forced to join a fraternity where many others here
n Canadian were already members. The price of membership is high; enrollment is not
wanted, there are no rules. It sounds like a dreadful place and it is. We pray that enrollment
is now closed.
Because of the warm embraces, the loving smiles, the laughter and tears shared with us
by our fellowfraterni ty members and the friends around us—who we came to realize also lost
a son, a hometown son—we began to see good things happening around us. Families were
reunited, friendships made and romances blossomed. We know of one marriage between one
of our lovely Canadian girls and a soldier here on funeral detail!
Then, of course, there is this thing with Jimmy Schafer and how he started three
scholarship funds! Please, students, don't let them sit idly by! Apply!
I have come to the conclusion that what America really needs are more honest reporting
Laurie E. Browns, leading ladies like Susan Combs, visionary Jimmy Schafers, common
sense Salem Abrahams, dedicated Miles Hendersons and unfailing friends like our
community of Canadian.
As Miles would say in summarizing the apostle Paul in Philippians 4:6-7—"No
Worries."
BRAD HENDERSON, Miles' Dad
EKLDNOIES
I'VE FELT ILL AT EASE and distracted this week, going
about my work with this sense that I have missed something,
that there is something more mportant that commands my
mindful presence. As is true of most Americans—and perhaps,
as I want to believe, of citizens of other nations—I have felt a deep,
horrified sorrow over the deaths of our servicemen and women at
Fort Hood last week, and over the twisted rage and hatred that led
a man to gun down those to whom he had pledged his allegiance.
We tend to forget so much, and to become disproportionately
consumed with our own much smaller lives and narrower interests.
I am guilty of this, and in too many of my dealings with others
as this work week began, I was reminded again of our collective
forgetfulness, our willful myopia.
Despite our good intentions, we pay too little heed to the greater
concerns that we all should share, thinking—if we think at all—
that they are the responsibility of others, rather than bending to
the task ourselves. As a nation, we have grown weary of war—of
the news of war—and less mindful of its very human cost, even as
the grim body count continues to mount and families still mourn
the lives taken from them. Last week, though, as we prepared to
honor our veterans, our complacency and self-absorption were
shattered by violence and loss brought forcefully back home to us.
We struggled this week to understand.
Early this morning, I received the gift of a letter [in column
at left]: a vivid remembrance of a man—a son—lost to war. As
I read, a forgotten image of Miles Henderson snapped ito my
mind as clearly as if a shutter had been released. There was Miles
standing courtside at a Canadian High School basketball game in
a packed gymnasium, a camera in hand, a hat on his head with a
hand-crafted "Press" sign stuck ;n the hat band. And that grin. I
remember thinking then that the "Press" could certainly learn a
thing or two from that spirited young man who was so intensely
present and attentive to the moment in which he was living.
His parents, Brad and Terry Henderson, turned their
private grief over his death—a grief we all shared—into public
purposefulness. They did so n a way that enabled us to do the
same, to turn our sorrow nto something that made sense, that
went on with living and made it something better than it had been.
In doing so, we were able to hold ourselves accountable to Miles
Henderson and to forge something good from his great sacrifice.
It is a lesson we would do well to remember today. It is a
lesson we would do well to remember every day: to hold ourselves
accountable, and to make certa in that we repay the sacrifices and
service of others with those of our own.
DESPITE THE RECENT LETTER protesting plans to skip
this year's WCTU Holiday Bazaar—or perhaps due, in part, to
ts entreaty—the traditional holiday turkey will once again be
served to Hemphill County's grateful citizens in the 103rd ob-
servance of this treasured annual event. Earlier concerns over
the difficulty of preparing and serving the meal while restora-
tion continues on "the house that turkey bu;It"—were resolved
in a series of phone calls, street corner discussions and come-to-
Jesus meetings, and the show will go on.
Organizers of this year's pre-eminent holiday event will soon
announce more detailed plans, but wanted the public to save the
date and make note of the place: Friday, December 4, at Canadian's
First United Methodist Church. They also ask your forbearance.
Because most of their supplies are safely packed away at the
former boot camp while work on the li brary is underway, some of
the accustomed niceties of the formal dinner may be temporarily
set aside. But whether served on china or Chinette, the meal's
essentials will remain the same: heaping portions of roasted
turkey and dressing with all the fixings, and whether you need it
or not, a generous slice of homemade pie to top it all off.
Those indomitable lad ies of the Women's Christian Temperance
Union—who, we are certain, are overlooking the restoration
work with watchful eyes—would be mighty proud to know that
Canadian will not let the Holiday Bazaar go gently into that good
night.
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Brown, Laurie Ezzell. The Canadian Record (Canadian, Tex.), Vol. 119, No. 46, Ed. 1 Thursday, November 12, 2009, newspaper, November 12, 2009; Canadian, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth252775/m1/2/?rotate=90: accessed July 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Hemphill County Library.