The Silsbee Bee (Silsbee, Tex.), Vol. 52, No. 15, Ed. 1 Thursday, June 4, 1970 Page: 1 of 20
This newspaper is part of the collection entitled: Silsbee Area Newspaper Collection and was provided to The Portal to Texas History by the Silsbee Public Library.
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‘ 1
F. 0. Box 45436
JQllaa, Texas 75235
Be A First Class Citizen
BESURET0V0T£S«TUBD»Y.MM6
THE SlLSBEE BEE
SHOTGUN ATTACK — James Powell surveys three of the five 12-gauge shot-
gun patterns blasted into his mobile home on the Old Spurger Highway at
10:20 p. m. Monday, June 1. Powell and his wife, Mrs. Connie Hoke Powell,
were not at home when the attack came, but Mr. and Mrs. Ray Hoke, who live
about 50 yards south of the trailer, heard the five shots ring out and their son,
Horace Hoke called the Sheriff’s Department. Damage was done to the east wall
of the kitchen and pellets from the blasts scattered through the kitchen and liv-
ing room. ’
Mobile Home Is Blasted
By Shotgun Fire Monday
Five blasts from a 12-gauge her husband were watching asleep in the living room, she
shotgun smashed into the mo-
bile home of James Powell and
Connie Jioke Powell on the Old
Spurger Highway at 10:20 p.m.
Monday, June 1. On this night,
Mrs Powell and her husband
were in Silsbee at a movie. It
was the first day of Powell’s
day shift at Evans Products Co.
Mrs. Powell had been alone
at her home for several nights
while her husband worked the
Evans night shift. ,
Mrs. Powell’s mother, Mrs.
Ray Hoke, Who lives about 50
yards south of her daughter’s
home, gave the BEE that infor-
mation on Tuesday, June 2, and
added that the shots hit the
trailer near “where Connie
would probably have been sit-
ting if she had been at home
alone”. Five shot patterns, none
over a foot in diameter, were
cut into the metal siding on the
east side of the trailer. Inside,
the shot splintered paneling and
were found embedded* * in ob-
jects as far away as the back
of the living room. Most of the
impact of the shots was spent
on cabinets and a refrigerator
against the east wall.
Mrs. Hoke said that she and
television at about 8:30 p.m.
Monday when a “light-colored,
maybe yellow or beige” car
stopped near the house momen-
tarily, revved its engine, and
drove slowly away. At 10:20
p.m., she said she heard a car
drive past their home toward
the trailer house. She men-
tioned that she saw a light
shining in the trees in the di-
rection of the trailer, “like a
spotlight”. Then she heard the
shots begin. She dropped to the
floor until the shooting stopped,
then looked out of the window.
In front of the trailer, Mrs.
Hoke said she saw what “looked
like the same car” that she had
seen earlier, with “the inside
lights on". Mr. Hoke had been
said, but he went outside in
time to see the auto speed away.
Horace Edward Hoke, Mrs.
Powell’s brother, called the
Hardin County Sheriff’s De-
partment after the shooting.
Deputy Dale Smith arrived
“after 11 p.m.” to investigate.
Mrs. Hoke said he took some
pellets found in the trailer, and
was called away on another in-
vestigation. *
Smith said he was working
in the west side of the county
when the call came. “I found
what looked like wadding from
12-gauge shells near the trail-
er,” he said.
Smith added Tuesday that he
was currently investigating the
case.
VOLUME 52
SILSBEE, TEXAS 77656, THURSDAY, JUNE 4, 1970
10c PER COPY
NUMBER 15
Houstonians Are
Charged With Two
County Breakins
Four Houston residents, in-
cluding one minor, have been
charged variously with the**May
17 burglary of Kountze Pharm-
acy and a May 25 burglary of
the Saratoga Ready-To-Wear
Clothing Store, Hardin County
Deputy Sheriff David Eaton re-
ported June 1. Also, Amando
Villarreal III, 16, now deceased,
was named as an accomplice
in both cases, Eaton said.
Eaton explained that Robert
Trahan, 17, John Edward Shif-
field, 17, and an unknown sus-
pect, all of Houston, were
charged before Kountze Justice
of the Peace C. A. Kimball with
burglary in the May 17 job
which netted the thieves 1400-
1600 capsules of amphetamines
and iron tablets. Villarreal was
run over by a Sheriff’s Depart-
ment auto on May 26 and was
pronounced dead at the scene
by Judge Kimball.
Shiffield and John Michael
Kelley, 22, also of Houston,
were charged last week with
the attempted burglary of the
Saratoga clothing store.
Eaton said that the suspects
were free on bond of $3,000
each in each case as of June 1
and that a warrant was out-
standing for the unknown ac-
complice in the pharmacy job.
Larry Williams, who has
been stationed in Fort Benning,
Ga. with the U.S. Army is vis-
iting in the home of his moth-
er, Mrs. Ray. Robinson and
family. After June 22, he will
be stationed in Vietnam as a
paratroope&®Ej
--«—#
Mrs. Leona Whitman and
daughter, Lillian, virtted Mrs.
Ellen Whitman in Marryville,
. _ *
Autopsy Fails To Determine If Boy
Is Killed By Deputy Dale Smith's Car
Runoff Primary Is
ImportantToCounty
By Tommy Read ,in Precinct 2, including Lum-
One of the hottest runoff berton and Kountze, will also
elections to face Hardin County be asked to select a county corn-
voters in recent years will go missioner.
into the history books Saturday Voting in all 13 of the coun-
when electors will name a ty’s election boxes will begin at
Democratic candidate for sher- 8 a.m. Saturday, and close at 7
iff and county treasurer. Voters I p.m. The polls in Silsbee will
Sheriff Is Named
In Damage Suit
Two brothers filed a $7,000 stated he would “stand by their
District Court damage suit on
June 2 against Sheriff Tom
Easley and two private citizens
for alleged “illegal” seizure of
the brothers’ auto on April 11.
The suit was filed by Jimmy $i ooo for alleged unlawful
An autopsy performed May
26 on the body of Amando Vil-
larreal III, 16, of Houston, who
was hit by a Sheriff’s Depart-
ment auto last Tuesday, has
failed to specify if the youth
was dead before he was run
WAYNE E. ROBINSON
Wayne Robinson
To Head Pollution
Control At taslex
Centralization of all pollution
control programs in a recently
created division within the
technical department has been
announced by Evadale-based
Eastex Iricorporated.
Wayne E. Robinson, recently
named director of environmen-
tal control by Eastex, will di-
rect the new division, which
will have a staff of four per-
sons. Robinston has been as-
sociated with Eastex since th<
firm was organized in 1954
most recently as chief chemist
“Creation of the new division
will enable us to better coordi-
nate our activities in the sev
eral areas of pollution contro
In which we maintain con-
tinuing prograjns," iSaid Eas-
tex President R. M. Buckley.
Robinson said his new divi-
sion would be responsible for
finding ways to improve pres-
ent pollution abatement and
(See Robinson, Sec. 1, Page 7)
Police Investigate
Theft, Burglary
A theft and a burglary were
investigated by Silsbee Police
last week, Sgt. James L. Martin
and Patrolman Lamar Y’Barbo
reported Monday.
On Wednesday, May 27, An-
nette Ebarb reported that some-
one had entered her garage
the previous night, near her
home at 310 W. Avenue J, and
had taken thfe battery from her
auto. The case was investigated
by Patrolman Y’Barbo.
Lewis Bendy, 530 Avenue H,
reported that someone had en-
tered his home and taken sev-
eral items, including a pair of
shoes.
Both cases were being in-
vestigated by the Department
at press time.
over by Deputy Dale Smith or
if he was killed by the collision
with Smith’s auto, Kountze
Justice of the Peace C. A. Kim-
ball reported June 1.
Dr. Howard R. Wilcox, a
Beaumont pathologist who con-
ducted the autopsy at the re-
quest of Judge Kimball, stated
in his report that “death in this
case is due to a massive trauma
including the above-noted frac-
tures and lacerations”, which
include “multiple fractures”,
“laceration of heart, lung, liver
and spleen”, and “hemmorrage
or pleural spaces”.
Deputy Smith told the BEE
last Wednesday that he and
Saratoga Commissioner Hugh
Bevil Means and two Texas
Department of Correction
guards were traveling—State
Highway 105 north of Saratoga
at 3:30 a.m. May 26 in search
of the third suspect in a May
25 burglary of the Saratoga
Ready-To-Wear Clothing Store.
Smith said • that Means saw
something in the road, but the
auto hit it before he was able
to stop. That something was
Villarreal, he said. <
The youth was pronounced
dead at the scene by Judge
Kimball.
City Police Arrest
Soldier Alleged
To Be AWOL
Silsbee Chief of Police Edgar
Blood reported May 27 that his
department had arrested Larry
Lightfoot, 24, reportedly of Sils-
bee, on charge of being absent
without official leave from the
U.S. Army.
Blood said that Lightfoot had
been , AWOL- from Fort Dix,
New Jersey, for “about a year
and a half”,-and that he had
been taken to the Hardin Coun-
ty Jail in Kountze Wednesday
to await action by the military.
THIS WEEKEND
Plane Rides, Skydivers
Featured At Airport
Skydivers, airplane ride
around Hardin County and t
general idea of what the Har-
din County Airport is all about
are in store for everyone whe
goes out to the Jield between
Silsbee and Kountze this Sun-
day afternoon.
Plane rides will be gvailablr
Saturday afternoon also, but
without the show put on by \.hc
Beaumont skydiving club.
The weekend events, spon-
sored by the Hardin Count:
Civil Air Patrol as a fund rais-
1:30 p.m. each afternoon.
Rides w i 11 be in private
planes furnished by Lee Shef-
field of Beaumont Municipal
Airport, and by several Silsbee
owners. Gasoline for the planes
Mr. and Mrs. E. J. Dietrich
Will visit his mother, Mrs. Su-
san Dietrich, in Houston over
the weekend.
R. Doyen, Jr. of Silsbee, and
his brother, Grady T. D. Doyen,
of Lake Charles, against Eas-
ley, Don Pitts of Beaumont and
Robert Neal of Silsbee.
It alleges that on April 11
after the brothers, accompanied
by a third brother, Fred B.
Doyen, left their 1966 Corvair
on Lot No 2* In $titig\jtt Es-
tates, wnfch iff owned fey Jim-
my Doyen, Robert Neal and
Don Pitts “falsay reported” to
the Sheriff’s Department that
“the automobile had been
parked on said Lot No. 26 for
some two or three days and
should be removed”. When the
Doyens returned from a fishing
and camping trip oh April 12,
the auto was missing, the peti-
tion states.
The Doyens also claim that
the auto was towed to Gibson’s
Garage in Kountze by authority
of the Sheriff, and that it sus-
tained damages from the tow-
ing amounting to $36.83. The
petition alleges that Sheriff
Easley admitted that his depu-
ties had made a mistake in
seizing the car, but that he
actions”.
Among the various claims
made by the Doyens are $100
for repairs to the car and dep-
rivation of its use for two days
tresspass by the defendants on
Lot No. 26; $1,000 for “great
mental frustration" caused by
the alleged acts of the defend-
ants; and $5,000 for damages
caused by the defendants’ “will-
ful, malicious, and wanton con-
duct”.
be located at O’Neil Intermedi-
ate School cafeteria. Voters in
Lumberton will mark their bal-
lots at the Lumberton Elemen-
tary School, and the Caney
Head polls will be at Wiley
Mae Church.
The BEE will not post elec-
tion results for the runoff elec-
tion due, to its current construc-
tion project, however, results
from the various boxes will be
available at the county clerk’s
office and at the sheriff's office.
Seeking the nomination for
sheriff will be Billy E. Paine
and the appointed incumbent
Tommie D. Easley. Easley was
appointed by a 3-2 vote of the
commissioners court to fill a
vacancy left by the death of
Sheriff Henry Overstreet. Paine
missed getting the nomination
with a clear majority in the
first primary over three other
candidates by a slim 236 votes.
He polled 4000 votes to Eas-
ley’s 2676.
In the treasurer’s race, Henri
M. Donelson Jr. and Versie
Flowers will be vying for, the
nomination. Clyde Haynes, the
current treasurer, is not seek-
ing re-election. Only 17 votes
separated the candidates in the
first primary with Donelson
polling 2958 votes, and Mrs.
Flowers 2941.
Commissioners Precinct 2
voters will be asked to choose
between incumbent Howard
Barrington and Oscar “Red”
Adams. Saturday.
All three of the questioned
offices have been termed “ex-
tremely important to the future
of Hardin County.” Backers of
Easley and Barrington have ruh
their' campaign reminiscent of
the old Pine Needle days. They
have tried to divide the county
into Eastern and Western seg-
ments and accused the voters
of Lumberton and Silsbee of
trying to run the county gov-
ernment. Paine and Adams have
campaigned for unity in the
county and have discounted
the charges by a Kountze news-
paper that they are Interested
in any one community of the
county, more than the other
communities.
That same Kountze newspa-
per has also tried to bring the
current commissioner precinct
redistricting question into the
political campaigns, even though
.he two are completely differ-
ent propositions. Redistricting
deals only with equal represen-
(See Runoff, Sec. 1, Page 7)
HEW REVERSES DECISION
Silsbee School District Is
Complying With CR Act
A final decision by the De-
partment of Health, Education
and Welfare dated May 28, has
declared Silsbee Independent
School D i s t r i c t to be in full
compliance with the Civil
Rights Act of 1964 regarding
school integration, and has or-
dered charges of non-compli-
ance brought against SISD last
year dKipped, Sppt. Don L.
Hough reported June 3.
* Hough said that he had re-
ceived a copy of the HEW Re-
viewing Authority’s final de-
cision at noon on June 3. The
decision came after the District
Silsbee Man Draws
(barge Of DWI
In Beaumont
Driving while intoxicated,
second offense, charges were
filed in Beaumont Tuesday in
justice courts against three per-
sons.
Roland Francis Melancon, 41.
of Port Arthur, who was arrest-
ed MayJl7 at a Port Neches in-
tersection, was charged in the
court of Justice of the Peace
Wallace McCasland.
Charged before Justice of the
Peace J. Paul /McNeill were
James Edward Rico, 61, of Sils-
bee, who allegedly was involved Electrical Workers Locals 2286,
(See DWI, Sec. 1, Page 7) Beaumont, and 390, Port Ar-
exceptions to the HEW hearing
examiner’s Oct. 15, 1969 deci-
sion.
HEW had originally objected
to the SISD’s “freedom of
choice” integration plan in ef-
fect at Frank Robinson Ele-
mentary through .the 1969-’70
school year on grounds that
“freedom of choice” constituted
de facto segregation under the
1964 legislation’. Federal Title
II and Title III funds admini-
stered by the Texas Education
Agency amounting to $9,144
were cut off to?, the District
pending a final decision of the
and HEW filed briefs stating Reviewing Authority. Hough
Hearings Set Friday In
Suits Against IBEW
..;'yV, . ' • •; i; £•• V
A hearing in 88th District thur, for alleged cases of van-
Court in Kountze is set for 9
a.m. Friday, June 5, on two
suits seeking injunctions against
International Brotherhood of
dalism against two construc-
'tion companies under contract
for Gulf States Utilities Co. last
week, District Clerk Mrs. Aline
Harper said June 1.
The suits were filed against
the Locals on May 28 by South-
west Electric Utility Construc-
tion Co. of Houston and by R
D. Cooper Construction Co. of
Zachary, La.
It is alleged by Cooper that
L. D. Whitmire of Vidor, Boyd
and Milton Frazier of Sour
Lake, Walter Ray Overstreet
Silsbee oil company. distribu-
tors. \
The show put on by the sky-
iivers will be well worth a trip
to the airport Sunday. Para-
chuting will begin about 1:30
o.m. and continue throughout
the afternoon.
Equipment used by the Har-
din County Civil Air Patrol
squadron in its emergency
services work will also be on
display both Saturday and Sun-
day.
Donations will be taken for
admission into the airport Sun-
said June 3 that he was hopeful
that those funds would be re-
instated for the 1970 school
year.
In its ruling, the review
boar* stated that the SISD’s
“status of compliance” rested
upon its committment to oper-
ate Robinson as an integrated
kindergarten beginning in Sep-
tember, 1970, and to transfer
the 116 Negro students on the
school’s roll to “existing de-
segregated schools by Septem-
ber, 1970”.
On Oct. 15, hearing examiner
Anothony J. Iacobo had ruled
that the District should ha^te
made the Robinson reassign-
ment by September, 1969.
Burglars Hit Carl
Milslead Service
Station On FM 92
The Carl G. Milstead service
station, located two and one-
half miles north of Silsbee on
FM 92, was burglarized Mon-
day night with about $113 lost
in goods and damages, Deputy
Sheriff Ira Moore reported
Wednesday.
Moore said that he investi-
gated the incident Tuesday
morning and found that the
thieves had gained entrance to
the building by prying door
hinges from the side door. They
then entered the storeroom,
ing^ project, wiU begin^ aboul|day) to help defray costs of the
skydivers. All funds raised dur-
ing the annual CAP fun fly
weekend will be used by the
Hardin County squadron for
their emergency services op-
erations and for maintenance of
is being furnished by the four the equipment.
SILSBEE VOLUNTEER FIREMEN cool down a load of pulpwood charred June
1 when the Ford tractor hauling the logs burst into flamls at 8:10 a. m. Fire
Chief John Busby said that he was told the fire started when the truck drive
shaft broke and struck the gas tank. The tractor was gutted by the flames, but
no one was injured, he said.
Jr. of Kountze, and Maurice Moore said, and left taking with
Garcia-- ffQd Wayne Davis of them an amount of cigarettes
Silsbee, “assaulted” a Cooper'
crew member working near
Saratoga May 27 on a GSU
transformer station.
The Southwest suit charges
that Whitmire and Boyd Fra-
zier, “accompanied by thirty
m e n” attacked Southwestern
employees at GSU substation;
at Cheek and Fletcher, also or.
May 27.
Jasper County Deputy Sherif
Bruce Gravis told the BEE
Monday that L. D. Whitmire
was one of 16 men implicates
in a raid on GSU subcontrac-
tors at the Eastex Pulp and Pa-
per Mill in Evadule, on May 27
Whitmire was surrendered by
his attorehy, Gravis added, and
was freed on $2,000 bond for
charges of felony destruction o)
private property.
Individual defendants are
members of the Locals filed
upon. The IBEW has been on
(See IBEW, Sec. 1, Page 7)
and fishing equipment.
The burglars also took Mil-
stead’s keys to the various
locks in the building, as well
as to the gasoline pumps, Moore
added.
The Deputy said that the case
was under investigation as of
June 3.
'
Youth Injured In
Swerve To Avoid
Truck-Cycle trash
A Silsbee youth was slightly
injured Thursday when his mo-
torcycle left the roadway to
avoid collision with an automo-
bile. Silsbee police reported on
Friday.
Patrolman M. D. Merrill
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Read, Tommy. The Silsbee Bee (Silsbee, Tex.), Vol. 52, No. 15, Ed. 1 Thursday, June 4, 1970, newspaper, June 4, 1970; Silsbee, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth774780/m1/1/?q=%22~1%22~1: accessed July 14, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Silsbee Public Library.