Voyager America  

"The stars at night are shining bright,                            Deep in the heart of Texas...."

From Dallas, we headed southwest to Gatesville, Texas, the childhood home of my mother, Josephine. It would be Karen's first time seeing Gatesville and I hadn't been here since 1982, when my Grandmother passed. My family visited every other summer when I was a boy. I also came down here right after high school and during college, and a few times after college. Several times I brought friends on my visits and they were charmed to death by Granny and our relatives and friends. My sister, Karen, came down to Gatesville the summer she was 16 and then returned to Texas to attend SMU as an undergraduate. It has always been a warm and welcome place for both of us.  

Granny and Granddad's house....we were saddened 
to see that it has not been kept up like they did.

Gatesville, the county seat of Coryell County, was organized in 1854.  Texas had just become a state in 1845. Both my grandparents were born in the region in the late 1800's. My dad, raised in Pennsylvania, did his basic training for WWII at nearby Fort Hood and that's when he and my mom met and fell in love. While my dad was fighting in Europe,  they kept their relationship going and married when he returned from the war. My mom went to TCU during the war and, as was considered to be one's duty, graduated in three years. She maintained a terrific group of high school girlfriends and a number of them married northern servicemen who also trained at Fort Hood. The servicemen would come into Gatesville, a dry town, on weekend-leave and folks put cots on their front porches for the servicemen to bed down. Cots on the porch, no booze, but lots of natural love-energy must have made for some very interesting stories-----that for some strange reason, I never heard!!!

My grandparents' graves site.

My Grandmother, Carey Brown, who everyone called Cooter, was the youngest of 12 children. She ran a fastidious home, could talk a blue streak, and always made me feel loved. On one of my visits during college, she looked at me with a quizzical expression and said in her deep southern draw, "You look like a hippie, but I love you anyway." Many of her extended family lived in or near Gatesville, so we were always around fun family folks when we visited. Today, most of our family have departed Gatesville.

Coreyell County Courthouse in the center square of Gatesville, TX

My Granddad, Hurl McClellan, had two brothers and grew up in nearby Coryell City. He was the Post Master of Gatesville, appointed by FDR, and I remember him always wearing a white shirt and tie and putting on a broad brimmed hat when we went outside. He was a caring, but quiet man, and when Granny got to talking, she just cracked him up. On one of my later visits, Byron Leaird, our next-door-neighbor who we called "Uncle Byron", owner, after his father, of Leaird's Department Store in Gatesville, took me to the old general store in Coryell City to show me where Granddad grew up and hung out. We sat in the old store, drank a Dr. Pepper, and Byron talked of old times. Byron's wife Grace, who we called "Aunt Grace", was a wonderful ball of gracious love and energy. They were simply great neighbors and part of the family.

Clay McClellan, who may be a distant relative of mine and who I hung out with on my early visits, now owns Leaird's Department Store, which" Uncle" Byron Leaird ran. Clay is related to Byron through "Aunt" Grace. We sat together for quite a while remembering old friends and relatives, summer golf games together when we were young teens, and all that has happened in Gatesville in these last 40 plus years. He really filled in the picture of Gatesville for us and it was a highlight to see him again. NOTE: We sat together and took off our masks just for a minute to take this photo.

Going to Gatesville was always a lot of fun for me, a real adventure. Wearing a cowboy hat and big belt buckle, drinking Dr. Pepper, seeing the Alamo in San Antonio, swimming in Raby Park, going out to Uncle Byron's ranch, eating big hamburgers at the burger joint (everything is big in Texas), going to see the local rodeo, riding a horse, and fishing on Belton Lake all hold a special place in my memory and life. But mostly it was being wrapped in the love of my family and knowing that half of my makeup comes from Texas. And I went down that way on my own after high school because I just loved hanging out with Cooter while she talked about everything under the sun, cracking me up just like my Granddad.