On
weekend nights at Lovelady,
a small town south of Crockett
in Houston County, it’s not unusual to hear country music wafting through the
rafters of an old school gymnasium.
About eighteen years ago, Norma Dell
Jones, the valedictorian of Lovelady High School in 1952, learned that the old
gym she knew so well was likely to be torn down.
She rallied others who
loved the old gym and put together a restoration effort that led to the gym becoming
the center of Lovelady community events and a popular country music venue in East
Texas.
Norma Dell, a former school teacher at Lovelady,
Porter Springs and Crockett,
has helped bring to Lovelady,
a town of about 600 people, such country music notables as Noel Lee Haggard, Casey
Rivers, Carl Acuff, Jr., Hank Thompson, Tommy Horton, Johnny Rodriquez and Branson,
Missouri, star Moe Bandy, who has played at the gym five times.
“It’s
a wonderful place to play,” said Bandy, “the folks are enthusiastic and you always
leave with a wonderful feeling in your heart.”
Bandy was playing on the
night we visited the gym. So was Jaye Kelley, a Houston police office who has
appeared with ZZ Tops. Kelley belted out Patsy Cline songs as well as Patsy did
in her heyday.
Mason Roach, an eight-year-old guitar picker who never
had a lesson in music, also performed, playing “The House of the Rising Sun.”
Visiting the gym on Saturday nights is like going a friend’s home. People
in Lovelady are likely to show
up with cakes, pies and other food for the visiting bands. The food is also for
the show crowds, but at a small cost.
Gene Watson, a country legend with
a golden voice, will perform on Friday night, October 16, Watson is a down-to-earth
East Texan who was born at Palestine
and grew up at Paris.
The Diamond
Back Band will appear on Saturday, November 21, and the Quebe Sisters will perform
on Saturday, December 12.
Down the calendar will be performances by Tommy
Horton with Box Car Bob, Cactus Willie and the Drifters. And Moe Bandy will be
back on Saturday, August 20, 2010.
But the gym is also used for weddings,
church events, class and family reunions. Davy Crockett’s descendants will show
up for a reunion next June.
But even with the music performances and family
reunions, the Lovelady gym still has the feeling of a gym. The gym’s old score
clock still hangs on the wall--quietly waiting for a basketball team to show up.
Bob
Bowman's East Texas
September 13, 2009 Column
A weekly column syndicated in 109 East Texas newspapers
Copyright
Bob Bowman |
