Lovelady Evergreen Cemetery Association

12/14/2021

Interesting short article about the formation of the Colored Farmers Alliance in our own Lovelady, Texas 135 years ago this week in 1886. This organization was started by local farmers who were struggling for equality in the years after the Civil War when sharecropping, racial injustice, and poverty were negatively affecting those who already had the least. The organization was very active behind the scenes and is thought to have grown to over 1.2 million members nationwide by the turn of the century. I hope you will enjoy learning more about this important local history by reading the full article (link included).

https://www.wonkette.com/in-the-1880s-black-farmers-organized-for-economic-independence-guess-who-wasn-t-having-it

05/18/2021

I would be missing something if I didn't share a tribute to the best Bearkat I ever knew. She taught me to strive to be the best Bearkat I could be my entire life. Many SHSU Alumni prior to 1992 will remember her as the long time Director of the SHSU Alumni Association going back to the mid 1970s. She was honored as an SHSU Distinguished Alumni in 1992 and she introduced me to other famous Bearkats like Congressman Charlie Wilson, Dan Rather, Dr. Elliott T. Bowers, Texas Supreme Court Justice Bob Gammage and too many others to name. Like me, she was from Lovelady, Texas. Everywhere she went and everyone she met instantly knew she was a Sam Houston Bearkat and a Lovelady Lion. I admit with 0:16 seconds left on Sunday I said a prayer to her to help make it happen. And then it did. This is for you as much as anyone sweet lady. Here's to you Normal Dell Monzingo Jones: "We'll fight and fight with all our might for Sam Houston's Orange and White!"

And if I can add......ONLY Norma Dell can somehow manage to get the current SH logo on her tombstone! She’s timeless!

04/28/2021

Largely neglected in Lovelady history is the classic ‘Old West’ style saloon. Lovelady is known to have had at least two such establishments way back when. According to the centennial history of Lovelady published in 1972, Lovelady was home to the J.B. Fifer Saloon and the John Wakefield Saloon. I include some photos for your enjoyment.

In modern times Lovelady is the proud home of the Stesti Brewing Company. Currently under construction south of downtown, is soon to be one of the only beer gardens in East Texas! 🍺

04/27/2021

From the East Texas History page yesterday versus a new pic taken just today. 96 years of Lovelady in two pics.

04/21/2021

The Lovelady Depot after the paving of Highway 19....most likely in the 1940s or 1950s.

This would be the same general area of the water tower today.

04/21/2021

It’s been a while since I posted....but as Lovelady heads toward its sesquicentennial in 2022, we should celebrate the history of our amazing town!

Here is a pic of the 1910 version of the Lovelady High School Band 🥁🎺🎷

11/03/2020

One of my favorite moments.....when the day gives way to a close on Election Day.

I’ve loved this moment since I was a mere child. More often than not in my 47 years, this day was celebrated in Lovelady, Texas. It’s a day of history. It’s a day of renewal. It’s a day to remind us all we are lucky that we have a choice....even if those choices aren’t the same.

Never forget my friends the importance of your choice....but especially the choice of your friends, relatives, and neighbors. All of these may be different from your own....but they still matter and they aren’t wrong in the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

Your choice was literally paid for in 240 years of blood and sacrifice. Many of whom that paid this price are buried in this cemetery. Your choice and that of your neighbor matters regardless of your ideology or philosophy and it absolutely guarantees a tomorrow for everyone. 🇺🇸

02/06/2020

Paying tribute to a Lovelady, Texas hero. The life and exploits of Lovelady native and Tuskegee Airman Howard Wooten has been documented on this page before. Thanks to new technology, the old black & white US Army Air Force recruiting poster image of Mr. Wooten has been colorized. Never forget the life of service of this important Lovelady native!

Tuskegee Airman Howard Adolphus Wooten was born on April 20, 1920 in Lovelady, Texas. His father was the principal of the "colored school" in Lovelady, a town 100 miles north of Houston, and his mother also was a teacher there.

Howard A. Wooten entered Prairie View College on a football scholarship. His main interest, however, was in aviation and he attempted to enroll in flight training programs. His father objected because he didn't think airplanes were safe and because he wanted his son to finish college.

Wooten dropped out of Prairie View College in 1940 and enlisted in the U.S. Army as a private assigned to a Field Artillery unit. He rose through the ranks, becoming a Staff Sergeant in the 46th Field Artillery Brigade by January 1942.

He applied to the Army Flight School at Tuskegee, Alabama in 1944 and graduated in December of that year. After graduation he was assigned to the 15th USAAF Brigade as a fighter pilot, in the 332nd Fighter Group.

In January 1945 he was reassigned to the 477th Bombardment Group, where he was one of a select group of Tuskegee pilots who would train to fly North American B-25 Mitchell bombers. Wooten was transferred to Mather Field, California for additional training. Yet Wooten and the other men training on bombers would never see combat, as the war ended before they were sent overseas.

Wooten was mustered out of the U.S. Army Air Corps in 1946. He then decided to become an attorney and moved to Seattle, Washington with four brothers and a sister, so as to get as far away as possible from "Jim Crow" Texas. Soon after he arrived, he was hired as a production worker at the Boeing Airplane Company and joined the Aeronautical Machinists Union. While working on the assembly line he met Josephine A. Stratman, another Boeing production worker. They were married in 1947.

In 1948 the Machinists Union went on strike at Boeing. Because he and his wife had an infant, Wooten joined the Painters Union and took work painting bridges around Seattle. He died on August 20, 1948, at the age of 28, after he fell 70 feet from a scaffold while painting the 12th Avenue Bridge at the base of Beacon Hill.

Long after his death, Howard A. Wooten was memorialized by the U.S. Air Force when his World War II pilot’s photograph was chosen by an advertising agency to represent the famed Tuskegee Airmen. His photo was first seen on Air Force recruiting posters in the 1990s and was later adopted as the official image of the Tuskegee Airmen Foundation. The photograph from the National Archives has also been seen in public media including ESPN, Flight, Ebony, Sports Illustrated, and other periodicals.

Colour: Colourised PIECE of JAKE
Caption: https://nl.findagrave.com/m…/18006474/howard-adolphus-wooten

10/07/2019

Photo from Friday Night Lights in Lovelady.

09/11/2019