SHES Students of the Mo

Summit Hill Elementary Students of the Month

Ariah Bray and Olivia Kveton, Cooper Komorowski and Aaleiah Vazquez, Katharine Perez and Silas Garibay, Madelyn Shores and Bennie Westdyke.

Howe Enterprise, April 14, 2014

Most men from the generation of former Mayor Ray Bledsoe smelled of cheap cigarettes. But Bledsoe never gave in to the nasty habit and therefore is still mowing his yard at nearly 86 years old. The stench of politics can sometimes be worse than the stench of cheap cigarettes, but the days of running Howe from the mayor’s office have long since passed. However, he just can’t stop talking about the city and the people that he loved to serve.

Bledsoe was born in Gunter, Texas in the summer of 1932 and his family moved to Sherman, where he was a graduate of Sherman High School. Then his life changed for good 50 years ago last month. As an adult with a wife and two small children, he moved his family into a newly built house on Maple Street in Howe where he still resides today. Bledsoe was looking for an opportunity for his kids to grow up in a small town and without the crowded housing in Sherman. When his brother-in-law showed him the yet-to-be fully developed Maple Street and Mayo Street areas, he made his decision.

The move to Howe would move Bledsoe into politics. Bledsoe said, “I didn’t start out in politics. I started out giving my life for The Lord in different areas by serving the community in various ways.” His faith led him to public service.

Bledsoe’s introduction into politics began when he was elected Howe Youth Baseball Program commissioner.

“When I arrived, there was only one baseball field and the high school shared it. The coaches from the previous year picked two teams of 15 boys with the boys standing right in front of them. The ones that didn’t get picked, didn’t get to play. That first year, I counted 69 boys that were left that didn’t get to play baseball. It made me sick, and here I was, the new commissioner,” Bledsoe said.

That’s when Bledsoe went to work and was able to get the company that he worked for, Burlington Industries, and TP&L (Texas Power & Lighting Company) to build what is now A.M. Ferguson Park on the land that was donated to the city by the Ferguson family to be used as a city park.

“I spent 37 nights in a row away from my family trying to drum up money. Mr. Charles Thompson gave me an old backstop that the school had abandoned. I got TP&L to give us some old used light poles and Burlington Industries donated the fencing. I got the county to bring the sand and I built the dugouts and we built a baseball park in one year. Well, Burlington Industries and TP&L built the ballfield in one year, I was just an instrument,” claimed Bledsoe. “We dedicated that field to the city before our first game even though the city didn’t put one dime into the project. When we were through, we got all of those kids together and we formed four teams in July 1971 and we had 128 boys report for baseball and every one of them got to play.” Bledsoe retired in 1986 from Burlington Industries and soon became involved in city government in Howe.

“I was 'babysitting' the mayor’s seat for a while as 'acting mayor' and sat in the courtroom when the City of Sherman sued us over the Ray Bledsoe holds up the scripture 2 Timothy 4:7-8 which he said

was his life scripture in 2014.

sewer,” said Blesdsoe. “The city didn’t have a mayor since Jerry Kirby left town. I talked to some people and told them that I wasn’t going to run for mayor because I hadn't that anyone wanted me to. Price Hanning was running unopposed and I didn’t put my name on the ballot because I didn’t know if the people would want me or not."

Back then you could have writein candidates and Bledsoe ended up receiving over 80 percent of the votes on write-ins votes only. He accepted the position and continued for 14 years.

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Bledsoe was hesitant to list his biggest accomplishment as mayor, but he did talk about the successful turnaround of the water and sewer problem that existed when he first took office.

“I had to put on my boots and go headfirst and learn what was under the ground. We were able to get a new water well on the west side of town and loop the water supply across the city so that if we had a leak, we didn’t have to shut the whole town down,” Bledsoe said. “I was also proud of the fact that we were successful getting so many grants for our city.” When asked about the help he received throughout his tenure as mayor, he was quick to name Ray Houston as the person that helped him the most. Houston was the city administrator that did most of the dirty work that allowed Bledsoe to network and sell Howe to other places and serve on numerous boards to make sure Howe would get its vote counted when it mattered.

“I spent a lot of time in meetings. I spent 40 to 60 hours a week as mayor. I can’t say that I enjoyed all that I did, but I can say that I felt some satisfaction in the fact that I was able to give my time to the people of Howe," Bledsoe said.

In looking at the future of Howe and what he'd like to see, Bledsoe said that he most of all wants Howe to secure some businesses here that could provide some jobs.

“We need to be something more than a bedroom community and that’s what we are,” said Bledsoe. “I made that statement at a chamber of commerce meeting once and got crawled all over for it. But I still stand beside it. People in Howe have to do business with businesses in Howe for this city to ever grow. We have to let our businesses turn a profit so they can stay. We’re eight miles from Sherman and a lot of our city people trade in Sherman to save a nickel. We have to educate our townspeople to do all of the business they can locally. There have been a number of businesses come and go in our city and until we trade locally, we’ll always be a bedroom community. We need younger people that love the city and love the people enough to do like I did and give themselves to the community. We need young elected officials who can take authority and who the people will follow.”

In his last few years as mayor, Bledsoe said he felt like he had to fight to get things done for Howe. He wanted the connector road between Highway 5 and Collins Freeway (that Dollar General now rests) and had a struggle to get it pushed through because of a few council members that were opposed to it because of curbs and gutter restrictions on any new roads. Because it was termed a 'connector road' instead of a 'city street', the ordinance allowed for the non-use of curbs and gutters.

“I told the council that the state is building this road for us for free,” said Bledsoe. “We bought the right-of-way and gave $5,000.00 out of the city’s money to the people for the right-of-way. One of them was Ward Paxton of Plano who had five acres and I made a deal with him. Paxton sold the city his five acres needed and turned around and gave half of that money back as a donation.”

The addition of the connector road was a great benefit to the city, however, the naming rights became a jumbled up mess.

“I’ve always been thick-skinned because I try not to let things bother me that I have no control over, but we had to name the street in order for The State of Texas to turn it over to us. We had a meeting with our council members, Jimmy Don McMillion, O.B. Powers, Marion Allison, Carrie Waller and Hank George. George motioned to let The Texoma Enterprise put an

Ray Bledsoe (second from left) celebrating Howe’s 125th birthday in 1997. Enterprise photo.

application in each week’s paper for nominations to name the new road. That was to go on for a month and the council voted 5-0 in favor," Bledsoe recalled.

The final tally from The Texoma Enterprise came in favor of Bledsoe Road.

"I thought to myself, oh no, I didn’t want that street named after me,” Bledsoe said.

When the motion came to go along with the previous meeting’s motion to name the street after the election results, two of the council members voted against naming it Bledsoe Road. With Hank George not present at the meeting and two votings in favor of it, that left a deadlock. Any deadlock motion goes to the mayor to break the deadlock with his or her vote.

Bledsoe said to the council, “I know two of you resent me terribly as long as I’ve known you, but I’m going to vote for the will of the people. And the will of the people were 23 votes to 1 and I’m going to break this tie and name it Bledsoe Rd because that’s what the people want.” Bledsoe says that he actually feels better about the recent changing of the name to honor Howe’s own World War II hero, L.B. Kirby.

“I think the world of L.B. Kirby. I’m just glad I don’t have to listen to people saying that I named the street after myself anymore,” Bledsoe said. “I don’t hate anybody and I don’t dislike anybody, but I’m just living in Howe now. I took my work somewhere else.”

And that he did. Bledsoe was a major part of the Grayson County Fair and the Christmas Lights Exhibit, both at Loy Park. As reported by Congressman Ralph Hall to the Speaker of the House in Washington, “Ray was at the Grayson County Fair unfolding chairs, moving extension cords, and setting up booths. Earlier he built a fence around a statue of Judge Jake Loy, then got on his hands and knees and landscaped around it. Ray is willing to help with any task--no matter how large or small.” It was talking about personal tragedy and adversity that brought a tear to Bledsoe’s eye. He lost his wife in 1984 and his son Mike passed away in 2009 at the young age of 55. “I’ve had tragedies, but I’ve always had God. That’s the key. Things don’t just happen. Things happen for a reason or a purpose and we don’t know what it is and we sometimes may never learn until we get where we’re going,” Bledsoe said. “Good things can happen out of bad.” After seven consecutive terms as the Howe Mayor, Bledsoe was finally defeated in an election by an employee of the school district. Bledsoe recalled that he received numerous phone calls from people that didn’t vote because they assumed he’d win. He told them that they actually (Continued on page 8)

Jackson Adkins who was awarded as a Second-Team linebacker. Adkins played defensive line most of his high school career but made the transition to linebacker due to injuries.

Other notables were Jordan Jones who was named Howe’s Utility Player of the Year as each team have that distinction to one of their players. Howe’s Special Teams Player of the Year went to kicker Kevin Flores.

Gaining Honorable Mention were Luke Jackson, Jaryn Grisham, Kolby Taylor, Ethan Lopez, Ryan Hough, Joey Hymel, Matthew Hayes, and Caleb Wahrmund. Mineola’s Trevion Sneed was named the MVP with Offensive MVP honors going to Braden Plyler of Pottsboro. Defensive MVP was awarded to Kobe Kendrick of Mineola. CoOffensive Lineman of the Year –Silas Barr, Sr., Pottsboro; Jackson Anderson, Sr., Mineola. Co-Defensive Lineman of the Year – C.J. Dunbar, Sr., Commerce; Boston Morris, Sr., Mount Vernon.

Ray Bledsoe was honored at the rededication of A.M. Ferguson Park in May of 2015. Enterprise photo.

(Continued from page 6) my community,” Bledsoe said.

Bledsoe’s most recognized achievement came in 1997 when received the National Hometown 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. He was inducted in the original class of the Howe Hall of Honor in 2015 by the Howe Area Chamber of Commerce.

Bledsoe’s time as mayor in Howe seems to epitomize the old phrase, “You can please some of the people all of the time - you can please all of the people some of the time - but you can’t please all of the people all of the time.”

did him a favor.

“I was relieved, but when I began to see the way things were turning, it made the hair stand up on my head,” Bledsoe recalled.

Looking through the numerous awards and achievements that hang in Bledsoe’s house, it’s evident to see the many years of sweat equity put into serving the people of the community, all as an unpaid mayor.

“A lot of people see things like this (awards on the wall) as looking for publicity. And a lot of people see it as dedication. I’ve always taken everything that’s bestowed upon me and used it for the benefit for doing things for