Laredoans visit at the Meadows; meet artisan Larry Williams

 

At the Meadows

Gathering at the Meadows in San Antonio for luncheon, former Laredoans told of their interests. Nelda Guerrero Drury, for years instructor in dance at San Antonio College , told of plans for March. She is host to a dance group from Toronto , a group of Serbians who will give a program on folk dances of their country.

Her daughter Elizabeth Newman has just completed writing a geneology of her paternal family, the Drurys.

Sarita Ligarde Woodward had stopped to visit cousin Nelda before going on to spend Christmas with her daughter in New Mexico .

And Estela Zamora Kramer asks that her friends in Laredo come up to spend the weekend with her. She loves them.

 

Meet A Glass Blower

Meadows resident Larry Williams, who sits across the table, confesses he is a highly respected artist who blows glass for a living. He has been at this since he learned glass blowing from an uncle in New Orleans . Now, because of his age, he goes to his little shop in La Villita for only half a day. There you will see him at his work. In a fire produced by natural gas, compressed air, and oxygen, Larry Williams blows and manipulates the melting glass to produce a thing of beauty.

In this little pink house of adobe, one finds a museum, a display of beautiful pieces: animals, ships, dancers, flowers.

Larry and his wife Joyce have educated three children -- Dr. Robert Williams; Judith Diane, a legal secretary; and Andrea Ruth, a computer analyst. They have seven grandchildren and two greats.

Laredoans who find themselves at La Villita are encouraged to see Larry Williams at work.

 

From Christmas Cards

Greeting cards have changed over the years with the tendency to avoid religious subjects. Some are humorous, others give the year's diary, and others express a philosophical idea.

From the card of Jim and Sylvia Whitworth, who now live in Corpus Christi , comes news of their travels -- Italy , sailing with their daughter from Barbados to Grenada , eastern Europe, scuba diving in Bali . For Christmas, the Whitworths visited their children in Austin .

 

Sam Johnson in Europe

Last June found Sam and Charley in Europe , visiting Hannes Rolapp, a German exchange student who had once stayed with Sam. They attended a post-wedding reception. During their tour of the Baltic countries, Sam fell, breaking his arm and sustaining bruises.

Involved in many music programs, Sam was honored by having the Black Box Theatre named after him at Texas A&M International University . A bronze bust of Sam is being cast by Armando Hinojosa. The bust will stand in the lobby of the theatre.

 

The Yellow Rose of Texas

“Cowboy singer” is how he was billed on the bulletin board where Meadows residents learn of the pleasant diversions planned for them to help them spend the time between now and death.

But he wasn't really a cowboy, just an old man with sparce grey hair trying to earn a little money by singing old Texas songs. He did have the remnants of a good voice. One of the songs was “The Yellow Rose of Texas,” which stimulated a rise of sentiment, for it brought back a memory of an event when attending the Nye Family reunion in Massachusetts .

To that reunion I had taken Eleanor Nye Lewis of Waco and Lorraine Nye Fansler, second cousins. In an Italian restaurant in Cape Cod, the management learned that we were from Texas and so the combo played the song dedicating it to “the three lovely girls from Texas .”

Now the cousins are long gone. I asked the cowboy singer to repeat the number, greatly touched by the memory.

I also have a talisman, a yellow rose. Taking a stroll about the southeast side of the great brown brick building, I note a rose bush, gray with decay, and report it to Tom de Luna, the maintenance chief, who averred, “I'll take it out.”

“Just prune it back,” I suggested. Within a week, green leaves and shortly a growth of ten yellow roses, suggesting the idea of immortality. Cheers for the yellow rose.