Meet Truett Edwards, maker of miniature furniture
That miniature piano is not destined for a child's playhouse; so perfectly made to scale , it is a work of art, bound for a shelf with other treasures, such as your grandmother's handpainted china or the imported cut glass vase.
Artist Truett Edwards, who now lives at the Meadows in San Antonio , spends his spare time creating these objects, made from mesquite wood, to scale in his well-equipped little shop.
Living on a ranch near Somerset , Texas , he grew up dreaming of making something from nothing. In his desire to create, he found mesquite wood more than plentiful. To begin, he cuts his own wood with a chainsaw. But in fashioning miniature furniture, he uses the small watchmaker's tools.
Edwards graduated from Somerset High School . He has had a useful life, spending 24 years as a watchmaker and 29 as a postmaster. He is now retired.
He began making furniture five years ago. Now he has created about 25 pieces. One of them, a crib, he made for his 10th great-grandchild. Rocking chairs, tables, wardrobes, some holding miniature hangers, mantel clocks fashioned around real wristwatches, are some of the pieces. The most intricate, an upright piano, has even the black keys a fraction of an inch above the white ones. Some of the furniture will be entered in a state contest of the Texas Association of Homes and Servers for the Aging in Dallas this summer.
Furniture-making is somewhat of an escape, for he is seriously concerned over the illness of his wife of 60 years, Joyce, who also lives with him at the Meadows.
He is most kind to fellow residents, repairing whatever jewelry they bring him, gratis.
Truett has another talent. He possesses a good tenor voice and is involved with organizing a quartet of his fellows. Before he retired, both he and Joyce sang in a Baptist church choir.
The Edwardses consider themselves rich with four children, 10 grandchildren, and as of now, seven great-grandkids.
From Josephine's family
Seymon Deutsch, prominent businessman, has recuperated from surgery in Dallas .
His mother-in-law, Josephine Brand, reports on the Luncheon Club, which met at the Laredo Country Club for its annual Hat Luncheon, where the members try to fashion the most ridiculous hat or the most beautiful. Chairmen were Millie Slaughter and Ann Neel.
Deutsch and family plan for Joseph, her son, to have his Bar Mitzvah in November at the Wailing Wall.
Laredoan in Castroville
While San Antonio has a diversity of ethnic groups, mainly Mexican and German, a group of Alsatians came in to colonize a little town 50 miles southwest of San Antonio .
Count Henri de Castro, who had an empresario's grant, brought 300 colonists. The town is set in beautiful rolling country on the fringe of the Balcones escarpment with a band of cypress trees along both side of the Medina River . These people, heavily Catholic, built one of the first non-Hispanic Roman Catholic churches.
Today Priscilla DaCamara Hancock, former Laredoan, lives there. Her husband Bob, a retired Air Force officer, is now mayor of Castroville.
Prissy comes to San Antonio to visit her old teachers, Annie Bruce Babb and Elizabeth Sorrell, almost monthly.
Lately she reported that Sam Johnson brought some Laredoans to tour Castroville and learn of its history. She and Bob took them to lunch. Since then Prissy has been to Houston to attend the baptism of two grandchildren, sons of Brad Hancock.
Good to hear from Laredoans
“Greetings from one of your former students who will never forget you. You went out of your way to teach us well,” read a note from Omar Sanchez of Brownsville .
Also we learn from Carmen Ramirez, who works as a beautician at the Meadows where she also serves as provider of activities, that she and Frank Ramirez, former Laredoan, had as weekend guests Tom Sullivan, retired teacher, and his wife Barbara. And from former student and now good friend, Chelo Novoa, a delightful Easter message.
News from the Glassfords
At Easter, as is their custom, Sheila and Chris Glassford had their family to a gala dinner. Home was Tommy Glassford, artist from Mexico City , and his little son. He reports being content and doing well with his avant garde metal artwork. He sells them all over the world, making trips to Spain and India .
Also at the dinner was gifted singer, Kathy Proffitt, and her husband, James, a cousin of Sheila Glassford.
Recently the Glassfords flew to Dallas to see the new home of Andew, their youngest, and to see the daughter of the late Davyne Slaughter Griffin, who lives in New York.
Looking back with Jan
Jan Witt, former Laredoan who now lives in San Angelo, was delighted to get a rubbing from a gravestone in New York which read, “Captain Caleb Carr, Revolutionary War, 1744-1818,” one of her ancestors.
