howeenterprise.com
Hall of Honor
Friday, April 24, 2015
Page #4
Continued from Page #3
Norma Wallace - the woman instrumental in getting the Howe band.
Bledsoe worked the job as if a fulltime employee by working 40-60 hours per week as an unpaid mayor. Bledsoe was successful for obtaining many grants for the city and even worked a deal for a connector road from US 75 to Texas State Highway 5 now known as L.B. Kirby Ave. in 1997, Bledsoe received the National Leadership Award, given by the National Association of Small Cities. Only 300 officials in the country received this award. He was presented on the House Floor in Washington. Carrie Waller (1931 - ) was involved with nearly every organization that had anything to do with Howe. She became the first ever female city council member in 1972. She was also instrumental in reorganizing the Chamber of Commerce in 1972 in time for the city's Centennial Celebration. That year, she created the Howe city flag and the Centennial logo.
As well as being the first city councilwoman and remaining for 11 straight years, she was also mayor pro-tem for nine years and acting mayor for three months. She was the director of the Howe Historical Society as well as vice president, treasurer and reporter. She was a founding member of "Friends of the Library", a member of XYZ Senior Citizens Club, FUMC Women and Wednesday Workers. She served as director, secretary and treasurer of the Howe Chamber of Commerce, secretary of the Howe Community Facilities Development Corporation, a member of the Howe Transportation Policy Advisory Committee.
Elmer Schenk with the Howe High School Marching Band in a parade in Denison.
20 Sweepstakes Awards (first division in Marching,
Concert, and Sight-Reading) and was named the Class 2A TMEA Honor Band in 1986 and 2000 and was a top five finalist three other years. His band won the UIL State Marching contest in 1980, 1995 and 1997 and was a finalist multiple other times. He is also a founding charter member of the Association of Texas Small School Bands which is an organization that has brought immeasurable recognition and opportunities for smaller school bands and their students since 1992. Though retired, he continues to mentor band directors in the area and work Elmer Schenk (1949 - ) was hired with band students through as Howe High School's second ever substitute teaching and the band director in 1977. When he left volunteering of his time to work Howe in 2000, he was known as the man who put Howe on the map. As early as 1979, Schenk had taken a fairly new band program and turned it in to one of the most surprisingly talented marching bands in the region. By 1980, he made them the best in Texas. With a demand for perfection, his bands received over
with band directors and their students. The Howe Area Chamber of Commerce plans to add to the list of Hall of Honor members on annual basis, but the charter members include some of the most influential people that had a servant's heart for their home town of Howe. All 12 of these charter members contributed mightily in very different ways to the city of Howe. In the list are people that served as mayors, city council members, teachers, principals, superintendents, school board members, band directors, historical society directors, book writers, beautification seekers, American heroes and even an individual who gave his life for his country.
