Lifestyles Magazine September/October 2020 by mrobertsdigital

C O M P L I M E N TA RY C O P Y

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TYLER

GIVES BACK

THE PHILANTHROPY ISSUE

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What matters most!

Tyler

Thank you, First Responders,

for providing for the safety, health, well-being, and care of the people in our lives. You are our community. We are your community bank.

Always Texas Strong. ________________ __________________________ _________________ West Grande | South Broadway | Downtown www.texasbankandtrust.com

MEMBER FDIC September/October 2020 | MyLifeStylesMag.com

All this behind-thescenes work deserves a moment in the spotlight

EDITORâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S LETTER John Anderson

ay after day during the pandemic, we focused on where East Texas residents could find services. Some needed to know where the food bank locations were, others needed staples like blankets and clothing. The stories focused on the organizations who were helping others and those who worked or volunteered for our amazing nonprofits and foundations. With Texas opening up and more in-person conversations taking place, we are finally catching up with our friends, family and neighbors. We've heard amazing stories of giving during the quarantine, most of them about people doing work behind the scenes to make our community a better place. A family in need is not always a family without employment or shelter. During the spring, many families had a loss of income, a loss of life or reductions in pay. Some families, no matter how much they shopped, could not find necessities. We are grateful to the subjects in our business we were told about who let us share their stories. Getting gas one day in late March, there are rolls of toilet paper in the back of Amanda Folmar's car. The first question is, why are these not locked up secure, and the second question is, where did you get them? Amanda knew people who were without the basics. She felt she had the personal resources to deliver. It didn't matter if it was food, clothing or toilet paper, she was going to help others. Her work with Rotary is historic. There is a diverse age group in the ever-expanding club during a time when less people volunteer. Today she travels the country talking to other Rotary International clubs about recruitment and retaining members and how it worked in South Tyler. Her work was so interesting, she landed on the cover and her story begins on page 20.

Dick Marlow is a business owner. He listened to someone who was renting from him who had ideas on how to improve his business and land. It's a great story of two people from different backgrounds working together. And the end result is bringing smiles to faces of people each day, including our office. Their story begins on Page 8. We learned about Crystina Garcia (page 16) who has brought back confidence and a sense of self-esteem to people at their lowest point in their lives. She restores hair for people who have immune systems that reject hair. Her work is private and if payments were tears of joy and hugs, she would be rich. But after talking to Crystina, she feels she already is. The story by Jessica Dillon on a man who is no average Joe, Joseph Koricanek of Poke In Da Eye BBQ, is my favorite. Maybe it's Ben Fenton's photography that is making me hungry, but as I read the story (starting on page 54), I feel like I'm there, I'm home and I'm witnessing someone bringing hope to others. Starting on page 38, Lisa Ferguson opened up her heart and home to us to feature her work with Hope Haven. She has helped so many because she said one person makes a difference. Lisa has done that times 100. Our Peters Autosports travel feature (beginning on page 31) on the Prehistoric Texas Trail is good, but the ad on pages 34 and 35 might be as award-winning as any photo you see! Finally, Sarah Miller and Michael Cavazos capture images of our first responders and the businesses who helped them the past few months. Tyler Gives Back was not the theme we planned for this magazine when we met for ideas in January, but it's the most rewarding magazine we have produced and one I hope your family enjoys as much as I have.

LIFESTYLES M

PUBLISHER Justin Wilcox MANAGING EDITOR John Anderson EDITOR Jessica Dillon DESIGNERS Ted Townsend Haley Holcomb ADVERTISING DIRECTOR Alyssa Purselley-Hankins 903-596-6295 4

September/October 2020 | MyLifeStylesMag.com

CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS Sarah A. Miller, Ben Fenton, Michael Cavazos, Mitch Lucas CONTRIBUTING WRITERS John Anderson, Ann Bush, Christina Cavazos, Jessica Dillon, Jessica Harker, Taylor Miller, Claire Wallace, Danny Mogle

THE COVER Amanda Folmar, of South Tyler Rotary Club, "just had to find a way" to help others, especially during the pandemic. PHOTOGRAPHY BY Sarah A. Miller COVER DESIGN BY Haley Holcomb ÂŠ 2020, M. ROBERTS MEDIA 100 E. Ferguson, Suite 501, Tyler

Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re stronger together. Challenges may come, but we will endure.

You are our biggest investment. We understand the value of money, but we believe people are worth more. Learn more at southside.com/you

CONTENTS

8 Sook Flower Farm

Dick Marlow and Gavin Hitt set their sights on becoming the biggest flower farm this side of Dallas.

16 At Your Best

Crystina Garcia offers change beyond the surface at her local salon, empowers those with autoimmune diseases to embrace their beauty.

20 Making an Impact

Amanda Folmar’s been around the world and back, again. But she’s proud to call East Texas home. 6

September/October 2020 | MyLifeStylesMag.com

31 When Giants Roamed Texas

52 Woman Warrior

38 Forever-Growing Family

54 The Texas Way

Ann Bush travels back in time, steps into the footprints of a dinosaur.

Lisa Ferguson knows her pain has a purpose, supplies hope and love to young girls in East Texas.

44 Giving During a Pandemic

From homemade masks to free meals, East Texas gives back in a big way.

Through gingerbread men (and women, too) Bettie Smith-Desha sweetens up life in Tyler and beyond.

Joseph Koricanek makes darn good BBQ, and he’s happy to share it with those in need.

64 A Coke and a Smile Bobby Speer knows a landmark when he sees one, and he won’t let its colors fade.

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September/October 2020 | MyLifeStylesMag.com

Sook Flower Farm co-owner Gavin Hitt picks sunflowers for a floral arrangement at the farm on Lavender Road in Tyler. 8

September/October 2020 | MyLifeStylesMag.com

SOOK FLOWER FARM An unlikely Tyler pair shines light on East Texas

itting side by side in the small, unlit front office of an RV park, Dick Marlow and Gavin Hitt strike an interesting pair. Marlow, the owner of the 5 Star RV Park on Lavender Road, is an ex-engineer with the land and the machinery to do the job. Hitt is a flower farmer who loves working in the soil. But perhaps no other combination would have made Sook Flower Farm flourish. It was one of Marlow’s tenants at the RV park who first brought his attention to the plants Hitt was growing around his plot in the park. The flowers were beautiful, the tenant had said, would Marlow consider letting Hitt plant more? Marlow had always had intentions to do something with the rest of his property behind the park, but when he saw Hitt’s flowers, an idea struck him. “If we’re gonna do it, we might as well do it commercially,” Marlow said. He turns to Hitt and asks, “Isn’t that right?” Now, a year later, Sook Flower Farm has roughly two acres of farmable land, a reputable clientele of local florists, and a newly built high tunnel greenhouse they’re planning on using when the first freeze comes through in October. But it hadn’t started that way. It started as a single, three-fourths of an acre plot and a dream to sell locally grown flowers. Marlow, a United Kingdom native, has lived all over the world — Qatar, Monaco, the south of France — and whatever country he hasn’t lived in, he’s probably passed through. He calls himself a “refugee” from oil companies, where he was hired to help with off-shore drilling until a power boating

| CONT. ON PG. 10 S T O RY B Y C L A I R E WA L L A C E PHOTOGRAPHY BY SARAH A. MILLER September/October 2020 | MyLifeStylesMag.com

| CONT. FROM PG. 9 accident broke his back. He and his wife made their way up from Houston to Tyler, where he decided to buy the RV park because he is “not very good at sitting, doing nothing.” Hitt, on the other hand, is Texan through and through. His accent speaks to his years growing up in Tyler, denotes his tenure at the former Tyler Lee High School. He left to live in California in the early 1990s and lived there for 15 years. Hitt insists he doesn’t have a green thumb — he’s killed a lot of plants, he says, to learn his craft. It was there he discovered his love for plants — and, he jokes, opened his eyes to the “evils of corporate America” and his passion for locally grown produce. Now, their fields are blooming with healthy, vibrant fall flowers. Rows of celosia, zinnia and globe amaranth have whimsical names that match their oversaturated colors: carmine, firecracker and chief gold. Up a hill, further back in the property, another field blooms in bright yellow. Rows and rows of sunflowers stretch back, all five feet tall or higher. They plant new rows frequently, usually around 500-800 sunflowers a week. It’s a staple flower for the summer and fall. In a smaller patch, new rows have been freshly tilled in preparation for the next planting, this time for their winter flowers: stock flower, snapdragons and larkspur. They hope to have the seeds planted by October 1, getting them in the ground before the freeze. One of the difficulties of flower farming, Hitt explains, is having to plan two months ahead for each crop. They are constantly looking toward the future, guessing at what unique flowers florists want that other retailers might not have. But, Hitt says, “We also want to be smart about what’s going to work.” Sook Flower Farm found its niche in East Texas for being locally grown and owned — and taking advantage of being the only commercial flower farm within an hour of many florist shops, Marlow explained. “We cut today, and you put it in a vase today, and that’s gonna last a week to 10 days,” Marlow said. “The other flowers you buy, they’re grown in Israel, South Africa, and the northern part of South America. It all takes a lot of time, and in that time, they’re dry. They’re not getting fed, they’re not getting watered. They won’t last.” Sook Flower Farm’s local focus is not only better for

| CONT. ON PG. 12 10

September/October 2020 | MyLifeStylesMag.com

. . . their fields are blooming with healthy, vibrant fall flowers. Rows of celosia, zinnia and globe amaranth . . .

Sook Flower Farm co-owner Gavin Hitt, employee Drew Burton and co-owner Dick Marlow stand in their sunflower field off of Lavender Road.

September/October 2020 | MyLifeStylesMag.com

| CONT. FROM PG. 10 the local economy, but also better for the environment. Marlow believes that saving air and road transportation to buy locally “makes a lot of sense.” But they’re still the underdog in a large-scale game. “The problem is that they can produce them in very large areas very, very cheaply,” Marlow said. “They’ve got massive amounts of space, cheap labor, and we’ve got neither of those two ... We have to build very slowly because we just can’t afford (it).” In the meantime, they’re trolling their wares to local florists and selling farm-to-vase bouquets at farmer's markets. “We sell to Fresh every week, Flower Box, Lindale Floral, Flowers by Dora,” Hitt said, listing off just a few of the many places that buy their flowers. Getting their foot in the door at these florists might have just been the easiest part of the job. “Well, we just walked in,” Hitt said. “I let (Marlow) do all the talking ‘cause he has an English accent.” For Marlow, the flower farm felt like a call back from his childhood in England. His aunt had her own horticultural garden that he remembers fondly. “I used to spend my weekends with her in her nursery helping her … so I knew a little bit about horticulture from a young boy’s point of view,” Marlow said. “I was very young, but it just sort of soaks in.” “And that’s how we got our name, too,” Hitt said. “His aunt was Aunt Sook.” When his aunt died, she left Marlow a small inheritance. “That went towards the farm,” Marlow said, “So that sort of tied it up for me.” Neither Marlow nor Hitt were a stranger to the hardships of working on a farm. Their day-to-day changes quickly with the weather and the seasons. The life of their flowers depends on it. With shorter days fast approaching as summer draws to a close, Hitt and Marlow will have to start thinking about how freezing nights and shorter days will affect their growing process. “You really have to work with nature to get it right,” Hitt said. “We’re helpless; all we can do is cover stuff and keep our eye on the weather.” And of course, with flora come fauna. They have predators, bees, hummingbirds and rabbits that visit their garden too often for them to feel

| CONT. ON PG. 14 12

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| CONT. FROM PG. 12 comfortable using harmful pesticides. Instead, they try to plant enough for all animals and people to have enough. “Outside, you're at the mercy of nature,” Hitt said. They’ve hit plenty of other bumps along the way: heat and frost have both taken a toll on their plants, bugs will eat petals and make flowers unseemly for florists and some ideas just don’t pan out. “We’re still making a lot of mistakes,” Marlow said. “Last year, we had some very pretty flowers that were multicolored … but the petals dropped out.” “That’s the key to any kind of farming I think, you’ve always got to be learning,” Hitt added. “There’s always new stuff to learn, new stuff that’s coming out that could help us be better farmers.” The biggest bump, though, was something even they couldn’t have planned for. “It’s so different now, because of the coronavirus,” Hitt said. They’ve lost huge chunks of revenue: when churches closed, florists lost business, affecting how many flowers Sook Flower Farm could sell. When Rose City Farmer’s Market — one of the most dependable sources of income Sook Flower Farm had — closed due to the pandemic, they started to worry about the viability of their farm. They’ve even started selling their bouquets directly to consumers from their Facebook page to help make up for lost business. “Farming, no matter what kind of farming you do, you’ve got to always have one foot in the future, as far as what your next crop is going to be, or anything like that,” Hitt said. “It’s really difficult planning on top of seasonal changes and crazy weather, and then to go well what if there’s a shutdown?” Hitt and Marlow have talked about adding another acre or two to the farm in spring. They want to add more flowers, more options, more workers than just the three (including them) they currently employ. “In a perfect world, we’d love to expand and to be the biggest flower farm this side of Dallas and Austin,” Hitt said. “It’s going to take a lot of work, a lot of time, and a lot of patience — and a lot of it won't be in our control.” 14

September/October 2020 | MyLifeStylesMag.com

Farming, no matter what kind of farming you do, you’ve got to always have one foot in the future, as far as what your next crop is going to be, or anything like that. — GAVIN HITT

LIFESTYLES M

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YOUR

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TYLER BUSINESS OWNER RESTORES HAIR AND CONFIDENCE TO CLIENTS SUFFERING FROM HAIR LOSS S T O RY B Y TAY L O R M I L L E R PHOTOGRAPHY BY SARAH A. MILLER

local owner of a hair salon in Tyler offers change beyond the surface for her clients: she offers them a solution to the emotional reality of hair loss often caused by serious illnesses. Crystina Garcia is the owner of Positive Hair Restoration. Founded in 1976, she bought the business six and a half years ago when her former boss retired. He sold it to her knowing he was leaving it in good hands. Garcia said that working with clients suffering hair loss is unlike any previous job she had as a hair stylist. Her clients often suffer emotionally, as their appearance is completely changed by hair loss, and restoring their image and confidence creates a profound impact. Her clients become clients for life, and they form a strong connection through the process, she explained. “This is a very sensitive business,” said Garcia. “Many clients have autoimmune diseases that cause their bodies to reject hair. The loss can be really devastating especially for women, because women feel beautiful when they have their hair — it’s a part of them. Hair replacement has completely transformed some of these men and women; it brought back their confidence and makes them feel beautiful again.” Garcia explained that her business is very 16

September/October 2020 | MyLifeStylesMag.com

specialized and unique. Its primary focus is to offer a variety of hair replacement solutions for clients, depending on their individual preferences and needs. “It is not a beauty shop, hair salon, or wig shop, it is a specialized service for hair replacement,” said Garcia. “We tailor custom hair pieces for clients, and have a large variety of hair to choose from depending upon the clients' specific needs. We cut and style the hair piece and have options in regards to how we apply the hair system. We also do laser treatments and carry products that slow the process of hair loss.” Because of the sensitive nature of the business, Garcia explained that she set up the business in a way that makes clients feel safe, and ensures their privacy. “I have three private suite rooms and it’s just the client and I in the room,” said Garcia. “Most people don’t go off and advertise that they wear a hair system, it’s personal and sometimes is secretive. Sometimes we remove the mirror from the room because some clients can’t handle seeing it.” Garcia said that she then evaluates what the specific needs of the client are, and orders their hair piece. Once a month, the client will come back so that Garcia can service the hair piece or wig. She removes | CONT. ON PG. 19

September/October 2020 | MyLifeStylesMag.com

Sheri Whitten wears a noninvasive hair replacement topper styled by Positive Hair Replacement owner Crystina Garcia.

"This is a very sensitive business . . . Many clients have autoimmune diseases that cause their bodies to reject hair. The loss can be really devastating especially for women, because women feel beautiful when they have their hair itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a part of them." â&#x20AC;&#x201D; CRYSTINA GARCIA, OWNER POSTIVE HAIR RESTORATION

September/October 2020 | MyLifeStylesMag.com

"This is a life changing thing for someone who hasn't had hair in 10 years or someone who has lost it over time." — CRYSTINA GARCIA, OWNER POSITIVE HAIR SYSTEM | CONT. FROM PG. 16 it, shampoos and conditions it, blow dries and styles it and then re-applies the hair system to the client’s head according to their preferred method of application. Garcia shared that one of her clients is a breast and brain cancer survivor who underwent chemotherapy and intensive surgeries to her skull due to a brain tumor. “In an intensive surgery they had to remove part of her skull. They had to go in there and put in a metal plate to cover the hole left in the scalp. Her body rejected the metal plate and wasn’t allowing the plate to stay in, it gave her an infection every time. It became better to not have it as it was dangerous to her health. With all the treatments from breast cancer to the brain tumor, her hair wouldn’t grow back on top. She came to see us about getting hair and we made her a custom piece that gives her a full head of hair and it also covers that spot. You would never know that she had any kind of an issue, and today she is cancer free and doing well,” Garcia said. The best part of the work, Garcia said, is the positive changes it makes to her clients lives. Their reactions and the relationships she builds with them make her job fulfilling, she said. “This is a life changing thing for someone who hasn’t had hair in 10 years or someone who has lost it over time,” said Garcia. “I’ve seen a lot of tears, and have had women cry and men cry and just give me a big ‘ol hug and thank me. They become a lifetime customer so it’s so rewarding. It’s a great feeling to give somebody back what they lost many years ago, and give them their confidence back all back in one day.”

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MAKING

AN IMPACT AMANDA FOLMAR HAS USED GLOBAL PROBLEMS TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE IN TYLER AND BEHIND THE SCENES DURING A PANDEMIC

S T O RY B Y J O H N A N D E R S O N PHOTOGRAPHY BY SARAH A. MILLER

September/October 2020 | MyLifeStylesMag.com

manda Folmar was starting a new career in Tyler selling real estate and was looking for a way to network and meet people. She joined the South Tyler Rotary and suddenly, everything changed. "I started going to Rotary for the wrong reason. I thought it was more of a networking opportunity and I was going to the meetings to meet people," said Folmar. "When I saw the work they were doing locally, the work they did internationally, the eradication of Polio, it was not just making a difference here, but around the world." Folmar pauses for a moment and says, "My motivation changed." To understand why she quickly made the adjustment to wanting to volunteer in Tyler, you have to know where her life began. She grew up in Paris, Texas and watched her parents, Tim and Barbara Carpenter, work hard to make sure the family was always provided for. Mom was an event planner and always working with people while her father worked as a mechanic. She was recruited as Amanda Carpenter the volleyball player, and signed with Tyler Junior College to continue that career. But after graduation, she found a professional career with Omni Air International as a flight attendant, chartered by the Department of Defense. Her home was now Tyler, but she was never there. It's what she witnessed the next five years that would come rushing back to her as she started her "second"

| CONT. ON PG. 24

"When I saw the work they were doing locally, the work they did internationally ... My motivation changed." â&#x20AC;&#x201D; AMANDA FOLMAR

September/October 2020 | MyLifeStylesMag.com

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| CONT. FROM PG. career giving back to the Tyler community. "When I was a flight attendant, I traveled and saw the way other people lived. I went to other countries and saw the world and opened my eyes," said Folmar. "A lot of people live different ways. All kinds of people need help. It made me love people even more." Folmar was born in Longview and spent her first five years there before the 102-mile move to Paris. She loved collecting stamps and is still a member of the Longview Texas Philatelic Society, focusing on stamps from 1847 to 1910 with well over 10,000 in her collection. The East Texas stamp collector thought she was in the big city when she moved to Tyler. Her first thought? "My gosh, they have a Target!" she said. Suddenly, she was in New York, Chicago and Detroit. Then the international travel started. She went from watching how people around the nation talked, shopped and dressed to seeing problems faced in developing nations and so many people who needed help with basic necessities. "I thought living in Tyler was a big world, but then traveling abroad was overwhelming. You don't realize it's a big world until you see it yourself," she said. "We live in a bubble. I might not be able to help the world be a better place, but I can try to help my community be a better place." Folmar knew to start a family and get involved in helping the community would mean giving up the flying career. She got her real estate license and the new career began in 2014. She was in Class 30 of Leadership Tyler where she met Smith County Sheriff Larry Smith and Tyler City Councilman Don Warren. She found politics was one area to help by getting people elected who could make a difference. In Rotary, she was the parade chair during Christmas, a blood drive chairman and then branched out to helping with different private and public schools and the Hit the Bricks Committee. She joined boards with the Children's Advocacy Center and the East Texas Crisis Center.

| CONT. ON PG. 27

THE FOLMAR FILE WHO: Amanda (Carpenter) Folmar FAMILY: Husband, Dillon Folmar. They have a daughter, Carlee, 7

BACKGROUND: Amanda is a native of Paris, Texas and moved to Tyler to attend Tyler Junior College where she played volleyball for the Apaches. After graduation, she worked for Omni Air International as a flight attendant, chartered by the Department of Defense. Dillon owns the family jewelry business. PROFESSIONAL LIFE: Amanda is a licensed Texas

Real Estate salesperson and earned Multi-Million Dollar Producer status. She is a member of the National

September/October 2020 | MyLifeStylesMag.com

Association of Realtors, Texas Association of Realtors and Greater Tyler Area of Realtors.

GIVING BACK: Rotary is where Amanda shines. She

served as South Tyler Rotary's 52nd President of District 5830 from 2018 to 2019 and was Assistant Governor.

ALSO:

• Youngest Rotary President to be elected in Tyler's 99-year history. • Rotarian of the Year, 2016 • Paul Harris Fellow • Paul Harris Society • District 5830 Certificate of Excellence, 2016 • Rotary Clubs of Tyler Christmas Parade Chair, 2016 -2018

• Emerging Leaders-Zone 30 & 31- Springfield, Illinois, September 2017 • Robert E. Lee Interact Liaison (Charter year), 2015-2017 • Bishop T. K. Gorman Catholic School Liaison (Charter year) , 2015-2017 • South Tyler Rotary- Salvation Army Bike Build, 2014-2017 • South Tyler Rotary New Generations Director, 2015-2017 • Dual District Conference Interact Speaker/TeacherShreveport, Louisiana, November 2017 • South Tyler Rotary Spaghetti Dinner Chairman, April 2018 • South Tyler Rotary Blood Drive Chairman, 2016-2017 • Emerging Leaders-Zone 30 & 31- Montgomery, Alabama, October 2018 • District 5830 Conference Speaker, Youth Services, October 2018

• Power of Women’s Conference Speaker, Jefferson City, Missouri 2019 • District 5830 Bill Campbell Club/President of the Year Award (2018-2019) • Received 1st Presidential Citation (52nd year) club history (2018-2019) • 2nd Annual Spirit of Tyler Citizen of the Year Award (2018-2019) • Grew club from 64 to 107 in presidential year (2018-2019) • District 6510, Conference Keynote Speaker, Mt. Vernon Illinois, October 2019

OTHER ACTIVITIES AND HOBBIES:

• Leadership Tyler, Class 30 Class Representative • Smith County Sheriff’s Fundraising Advisor • East Texas Crisis Center Board • Government & Affairs Board- Chamber of Commerce • Hit the Bricks Committee • Past Christmas Parade Chairman (3 years) September/October 2020 | MyLifeStylesMag.com

September/October 2020 | MyLifeStylesMag.com

"Kindness is contagious. I try to be kind to everyone and give everyone a chance.I just had to find a way to help others." â&#x20AC;&#x201D; AMANDA FOLMAR

| CONT. FROM PG. 26 But everything came back to Rotary, where she was named a Paul Harris Fellow (Rotary's highest local honor) and the 2016 Rotarian of the Year. She was the elected president for the 99th year of Rotary in Tyler and the youngest president in club history. Membership grew from 46 members to 112. Suddenly, she was Rotarian of the Year for the 54-club district. Folmar was now traveling around the country speaking to other Rotary clubs on retaining members and going after the millennials. "I found something greater than me, I found a gift I have," she said. "Kindness is contagious. I try to be kind to everyone and give everyone a chance. I just had to find a way to help others." She joined the Salvation Army board and spent some time with the Folmar Farm as her husband, Dillon, and her daughter, Carlee, 7, have chickens and honey bees. They are working on their third flip house, but everything stopped with the pandemic. "I call the chickens my girls and I love them. Being quarantined, it allowed us as a family to spend more time in the garden and on the farm, mess around with the bees and play with the chickens," said Folmar. "We had a sense of normalcy for a while. It slowed down my fast-paced life and allowed me to literally stop and smell the roses. I am always out and about, but my world went from 90 miles per hour to zero." Life was finally complete, she thought. Being a flight attendant meant

| CONT. ON PG. 29 September/October 2020 | MyLifeStylesMag.com

| CONT. FROM PG. 27 missing weddings and baby showers and always being a "little off" because of so many time-zone changes. However, a few weeks into the pandemic, she saw friends and strangers in Tyler starting to struggle. "I chose to stay in Tyler, simply because it had everything a big city has, with small town values. I appreciate that," she said. "And others who share those values needed help." She saw her friends lose jobs or become furloughed. Folmar has received a lot of public awards and recognition but this time she wanted to remain anonymous. She started delivering toilet paper and making phone calls to check on people. She went grocery shopping for the elderly and for other families she picked up groceries and delivered them. This has also given her a chance to reflect on the Rotary members who accepted her, supported her and let her grow. "When I joined Rotary, the members accepted me and allowed me to help grow membership. I was extremely surprised how well they accepted change. The ones I thought would not support me, supported me the most," said Folmar. "There are a lot of service clubs losing members and closing. "The biggest key to my year was the support team I had. In no way or shape did I do anything alone," she continued. "I grew the board and the people around me, a lot of people made a difference and made it successful as it was just by accepting the initial change. She then adds with a laugh, "They didn't always agree with me, but they supported me." And that support reaches beyond Rotary. What started out as Folmar looking to help others through Rotary actually wound up having Rotary help complete her in life. "The biggest thing I am probably proud of is just being able to be myself and who I truly am," she said. "Through the things I have done and accomplished, I've been able to grow as a person. It's helped me grow as a business owner, a wife and as a mom and I'm truly thankful for that." 28

September/October 2020 | MyLifeStylesMag.com

"Through the things I have done and accomplished, I've been able to grow as a person." â&#x20AC;&#x201D; AMANDA FOLMAR

September/October 2020 | MyLifeStylesMag.com

P R E S E N T E D

B Y

Step back in time along the Prehistoric Texas Trail:

WHEN GIANTS ROAMED TEXAS S T O RY B Y A N N B U S H

Editor's Note: Along the Prehistoric Texas Trail stretching from Fort Worth to Belton, you can view remains and artifacts left behind by some of our state's earliest inhabitants. Journalist Ann Bush recently visited two stops on the trail: The Waco Mammoth National Monument and Dinosaur Valley State Park. WACO MAMMOTH NATIONAL MONUMENT

n 1978, two teenagers searching for fossils near the Bosque River just outside Waco came upon a very large bone in a ditch of red sandy soil that had eroded during a recent flood. Scientists at Baylor Universityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Strecker Museum identified the bone to be that of a Columbian mammoth. Museum staff members organized volunteers who over several years slowly unearthed remains of an ancient world including an extraordinary pile of bones of baby mammoths that had died at the same time. The bones showed no sign of injuries that would have been caused by hunters or from falling.

| CONT. ON PG. 33 September/October 2020 | MyLifeStylesMag.com

Waco Mammoth National Monument In 1978, two men stumbled upon a bone near the Bosque River. A lost world was discovered! The site features a climatecontrolled dig shelter and a suspended walkway that provides an overhead view of several specimens, including a bull mammoth and a camel that lived approximately 68,000 years ago. www.wacomammoth.com

September/October 2020 | MyLifeStylesMag.com

| CONT. FROM PG. 31 Why or how the baby mammoths died remained a mystery for many years. Scientists eventually concluded that the nearly 20 mostly young mammoths became trapped in a deep ravine during rapidly rising waters from the Bosque River and drowned. A few adult mammoths surrounding the youth perished after becoming stuck in the mud trying to protect their young. In 2015, the site was established as a unit of the National Park Service system and renamed the Waco Mammoth National Monument. As I stand in the covered and temperature controlled dig site that is open to the public, my figure is dwarfed by a mural depicting a life-size Columbian mammoth and other animals roaming near the river. As tall as 14 feet and weighing two tons, Columbian mammoths roamed across North America. Below me is the dig site or “bone bed,” where bones of animals are in the dirt just as they were when found. A remarkably preserved curved mammoth tusk rests in the sand. I imagine a mother frantically struggling to protect her child. Address: 6220 Steinbeck Bend Road, Waco. Information: wacomammoth.com; 254-750-7946. DINOSAUR VALLEY STATE PARK At Dinosaur Valley State Park, a national natural landmark near Glen Rose, dinosaurs left their footprints in the soft mud of the Paluxy River bed some 113 million years ago. The park is perhaps the only place in the world where I can go camping, enjoy a hike along a beautiful river and step inside a dinosaur track frozen in an ancient seabed. The three-toed footprints in the mud were discovered in 1909, but it wasn't until 1937 that Roland T. Bird, a paleontologist with the American Museum of Natural History in New York, identified a complete trail of tracks that he called the Sauropod Trackway. The tracks were left by Sauroposeidon, a dinosaur that weighed up to 20 tons and stretched to 70 feet in length. A harmless plant eater, this dinosaur used its 26-foot-long neck to reach food Both of my feet slide nicely into the deep footprints the dinosaur left behind. Address: 1629 Park Road 59, Glen Rose. Information: glenrosetexas.net; 254-897-3081 or 254-897-4588. OTHER STOPS ON THE TRAIL Fort Worth Museum of Science and History: The museum’s DinoLabs and DinoDig include skeletons, a replicated paleontological field site and life-sized models of dinos. Address: 1600 Gendy St., Fort Worth. Information: fortworthmuseum.org; 817-255-9300.

| CONT. ON PG. 36 PRESENTED

September/October 2020 | MyLifeStylesMag.com

| CONT. FROM PG. 33 Dinosaur World: Located just outside Dinosaur Valley State Park, Dinosaur World features life-size dinosaur models. Children will love the fossil digs. Address: 1058 Park Road 59, Glen Rose. Information: dinoworld.net; 254-898-1526 or 254-897-3081. Bosque Museum: The Bosque Museum displays a replica of The Horn Shelter, a 11,000-year-old, Paleo-American archaeological site in Bosque County where two skeletons and burial goods were found. Address: 301 S. Avenue Q, Clifton. Information: bosquemuseum.org; 254-675-3845. Mayborn Museum Complex: Travel through millions of years by exploring ancient fossils

found in Central Texas that are on view in Baylor Universityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Mayborn Museum Complex. Address: 1300 S. University Parks Drive, Waco. Information: baylor.edu/mayborn; 254-7101110. Bell County Museum: The Bell County Museum's exhibit on the Gault Site offers an in-depth look at this active excavation. Address: 210 N. Main St., Belton. Information: bellcountymuseum.org; 254-933-5243. For more information about the trail, go to prehistorictexas.org.

PRESENTED

Ann Bush is a freelance journalist based in Tyler whose appetite for adventure is as big as a dinosaur.

1 1. Fort Worth Museum of Science and History 2 2. Dinosaur Valley State Park 3 3. Dinosaur World 4 4. Bosque Museum 5 5. Mayborn Museum Complex 6 6. The Waco Mammoth Site 7 7. Bell County Museum 88. The Gault Site

September/October 2020 | MyLifeStylesMag.com

DAY TRIPPING FOR DINOSAURS

3 5 4

PREHISTORIC TEXAS TRAIL September/October 2020 | MyLifeStylesMag.com

F O R E V E R - G R OW I N G

H OW O N E E A S T T E X A S WO M A N T U R N E D PA I N T O P R O M I S E , A N D GAV E VULNERABLE GIRLS A FOREVER HOME

S T O RY B Y J E S S I C A D I L L O N PHOTOGRAPHY BY BEN FENTON 38

September/October 2020 | MyLifeStylesMag.com

isa Ferguson stands in the sunshine on a summer morning, wearing a wrinkle-free blouse and a perfect line of lipstick. She hates the limelight, she tells us, and as she tucks her dark blonde locks into place, she voices a mild concern about her graying hair. But she need not worry. By all accounts, she is put together. Poised. Strong. Ask a younger Lisa if she’d ever envisioned herself in a place like this, and the answer would prove a resounding, “No.” Lisa spent much of her young life somewhere darker, where instead of love and encouragement, she was on the receiving end of abuse and near-constant negativity. “I grew up in a defeated place,” she tells us. “I was told that I would never be anything, and that I wasn’t going to accomplish anything.” Things got to be so bad that, when Lisa was 16, she was taken from her home. “I was fortunate enough that I didn’t get placed in foster care and that God recovered me,” she says. “But I could have easily been in the system.” Now, the nurse practitioner, a proud mother of four and grandmother of 12, stands tall in front of a new office space that embodies her life’s work. The tidy little white house off of U.S. 69, a historic landmark repurposed to serve as headquarters for Hope Haven of East Texas, has transformed for the day into a training place for future home volunteers. They are kneeling on the floor, dummies splayed out before them, as they learn the proper speed for delivering chest compressions, the protocol for opening the airway, and the way to breathe life back into any who may happen to need it. Formally, they’re training to become CPR certified. But their true purpose is far greater — with each compression and each breath delivered, they move one step closer to becoming an integral part of a large and ever-growing family — a family made up of some of East Texas’s most vulnerable girls.

I KNEW ALL THE PA I N T H AT I H A D F E LT I N M Y L I F E WA S A PURPOSE, A N D T H AT I WA S G O I N G TO BE ABLE T O S U P P LY HELP AND HOPE TO SOMEONE ELSE B E CAU S E OF MY PA I N A N D W H AT I H A D LEARNED THROUGH T H AT.

THE VISION God put the idea for Hope Haven in Lisa’s heart nearly 12 years ago. Lisa was single, attending services at Green Acres Church, and had already devoted much of her life to helping women who had been in difficult relationships. “I was asked if I might want to help this shelter for teenage girls that were taken from their homes. I had always helped teenage girls, anyway — I had a daughter — so I thought, sure. “I didn’t know what it would be like, but I’ve always been one of those people who will open a door if anyone needs help.” She soon found a world of opportunity waiting for her. “I had not met the girls. I knew nothing about what was going to happen in my life. But I knew that was my place. I knew all the pain that I had felt in my life was a purpose, and that I was going to be able to supply help and hope to someone else because of my pain and what I had learned through that.” So she banded a “little group of ladies” together, and thus began a series of very-regular appearances at the shelter, 40

September/October 2020 | MyLifeStylesMag.com

where Lisa and all the women she went with would tote board games, food and, of course, lots of love. The experience was life-changing and impactful. But it also opened Lisa's eyes to a greater need — one that spoke directly to her own heart. Teenage girls, she noticed, struggled to find placements. They, too, needed a home. “I’ve always felt that if there’s a need, as a Christian, you’re supposed to supply that need. If we don’t step up, who’s going to do it?” Lisa had no idea what she was getting into, but that didn’t stop her. She took out books, ran countless searches on Google, and began educating herself as much as possible on topics that would help her to grow her vision. She was going to give those girls a home, no matter what it took. “I just started talking – I’m good at talking,” she

| CONT. ON PG. 42

BELOW â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Lisa Ferguson supervises while Hope Haven volunteers Julie Bass (left) and Catherine Mccloud (right) take additional steps in their roles to learn CPR. PAGE 42 â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Lisa Ferguson demonstrates how to perform CPR compressions to Hope Haven Direct Care Staff Ellen Devers. Lisa Ferguson says she wants to allow the women she serves to have personal space to heal. Most of her role at Hope Haven is administrative, so she spends a lot of time behind her computer.

September/October 2020 | MyLifeStylesMag.com

| CONT. FROM PG. 40 laughs. “I just started talking to everybody that I saw.” Soon, she met Paul Christman, who is “very good at business.” The two stuck together, formed a committee and began raising money — lots of it. It took five years, $2 million and some massive contributions from the community to open the home. But at long last, they swung open the doors. “Mostly, opening was the (result of the) community who came together,” Lisa says. “We built that home with their help, and it’s debt free.” THE NEED For about a dozen girls in East Texas, Hope Haven is a place to call home. The girls who live there each have their own bedrooms, share a bathroom with their suite mate, and, after attending school at Lindale ISD, will return home for a big family-style dinner each evening. The kitchen was purposefully designed as a massive gathering place — one where the girls can learn to plan and prepare healthy, balanced meals and where they can share smiles and laughter across the dinner table. But Hope Haven is far more than a mere place to eat and to sleep. As a licensed residential treatment center, Hope Haven offers a structured setting for girls aged 13 to 17 to learn coping skills and to navigate through past traumas. The girls work alongside trained staff and volunteers to ensure their socio-emotional needs are met. An undying commitment to giving girls a full experience makes Hope Haven feel even more like home. Girls there learn to drive by taking driver’s ed, and they familiarize themselves with life-skills by doing laundry, by cooking and cleaning. In the near future, the directors of Hope Haven hope, too, that they can collaborate with local businesses to establish a work program for the girls. That way, they can learn to dress for a job, gain necessary social skills and become better prepared for future careers. These steps are important — perhaps even crucial — in a child's upbringing. But in other care facilities for teens, they often go overlooked. “We want to give them a full childhood,” Lisa says. “We don’t want to leave any of that stuff out.” With that commitment comes a hefty paying price. “Supporting a family — and truly, that’s what it is — of 10 or 12 children is expensive,” Lisa says. “There are so many costs associated with ensuring our children have what they need.” And so Hope Haven is constantly reliant on donations, especially from those community members who give what they can, when they can. “People think we get lots of money, that we get grants that fund us,” Lisa says. “But we don’t have a lot of those. The people that give to us just small amounts daily, who donate $35 to $50 every month, those are the people that keep us going.” Beyond finances, volunteers are needed to support the girls in their extracurriculars, to drive them to and from practice, to cheer them on and show them love. “We are the hands of baby Jesus,” Lisa says. “We give the love and hope that those girls never thought they were going to get.”

THE 153RD ANNUAL INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITION OF

THE AMERICAN WATERCOLOR SOCIETY AWS’s annual Exhibition is one of the most revered watercolor exhibits in the world. Forty paintings were selected from more than 1,100 artists worldwide for this exemplary show. Underwritten in part by the City of Longview, and the Cultural Advisory Commission EXHIBIT ON DISPLAY

OCT 9 – NOV 29

John Salminen, AWS, D.F., Duluth, MN, “Yellow Awning”

THE MESSAGE “When I first started this, I got a lot of no’s,” Lisa says. Her eyes are filled with tears. Tissue in hand, she quickly dabs them away. “People told me, ‘There’s no way this is going to happen.’ But I didn’t listen. I just knew that nothing is impossible with God.” In the home, in the girls, in their smiles, Lisa sees the power of her perseverance. And it’s because of them that she knows: “One person really does make a difference in this world.”

903.753.8103

LMFA.org

Admission is Free for Members, $5 for Guests. Visit the website for exhibit details.

September/October 2020 | MyLifeStylesMag.com

GIVING DURING A

PANDEMIC Providing those on the frontline with food and masked protection

hen the COVID-19 pandemic hit East Texas, Sharman Dorsey knew she couldn’t be on the frontlines as a nurse treating patients or as a first responder out in the community. But she, like countless others in East Texas, felt called to do something for the community. “I believe that God expects us to step up when we have the opportunity, and when we have a gift. And, we can sew,” said Dorsey, who owns Sharman’s Sewing Center in Tyler and Longview. When Dorsey learned there was a potential shortage of personal protective equipment, commonly known as “PPE,” she and her employees at Sharman’s Sewing Center stepped up to the plate to develop a face mask design approved by local medical professionals. Then, the staff and the customer base of Sharman’s went to work sewing face masks for the community. So far, Dorsey estimates they have provided more than 6,000 masks for East Texans. Sharman’s Sewing Center is one of dozens of businesses and organizations that have stepped up during the COVID-19 pandemic to shine a positive light in East Texas. “I am just very thankful that we live in such a place,” Dorsey said. “The people here are wonderful. They’re generous. They’re kind. They care about their neighbor.”

| CONT. ON PG. 47 S T O RY B Y C H R I S T I N A C AVA Z O S PHOTOGRAPHY BY S A R A H A . M I L L E R & M I C H A E L C AVA Z O S

September/October 2020 | MyLifeStylesMag.com

| CONT. FROM PG. 44 Dorsey also wants the community to feel safe. “It’s scary to think about being a nurse and being in that situation and potentially not having PPE,” she said. That’s why providing masks to make anyone feel safer during this time was so important to Dorsey. Sharman’s masks are made from a high-grade cotton, so they are thicker than traditional cotton. They are pleated, have space for a filter, and use ties instead of elastic at the recommendation of local healthcare professionals, Dorsey said. Dorsey doesn’t accept money for the face masks that Sharman’s provides, but sometimes people donate money anyway. Those donations are then used to purchase more supplies to make more masks for other people, she said. The Sharman’s staff uses an assembly line technique to make the masks. Additionally, Sharman’s has been blessed by its customers who have made masks or donated supplies back to the store for others to create face masks, Dorsey said. She is proud of the work everyone has been able to do together during this time. “We all need to come together,” Dorsey said. “This is about what we can do to make our community and this situation a little bit better.” Tobacco Junction owner Tony Cooper led a similar effort with his business. Tobacco Junction partnered with El Sombrero, It’ll Do Deli and Dudley’s Cajun Café to provide meals to healthcare workers and first responders. Tobacco Junction did an outreach in Tyler to provide meals to first responders at a choice of Dakota’s Steakhouse, Rick’s on the Square, and Hollytree Country Club. “When everything happened, there were some businesses that continued to do well,” Cooper said. “Consumer commodity products, which are what we sell, did really well. At the end of the day, this was about friends helping friends. I wanted to use the funds that I was still getting to help others.” “Mike Kittner (owner of El Sombrero), Dudley Lang (owner of Dudley’s) and Kevin Richardson (owner of It’ll Do Deli) are personal

| CONT. ON PG. 49

Sharman Dorsey, Teresa Jenkins, and Patrina Cude of Sharman's Sewing Center pose for a photo with protective masks they made based off a design developed with a local doctor.

September/October 2020 | MyLifeStylesMag.com

| CONT. FROM PG. 47 friends of mine. When all of this started, I would see them, and we talked about everything going on. I knew they were hurting,” Cooper said. “The economic hardship they were in really weighed heavily on my conscience. At the same time, I also wanted to do something for members of our community to show appreciation to them.” Cooper came up with the idea to partner with the three restaurants, run a tab for healthcare workers and first responders to have a meal, and Tobacco Junction would pay the cost. In total, Cooper said, they served $45,000 worth of meals. Realtor Julie Woods, owner of Julie Woods and Associates Real Estate Firm, said she’s been overwhelmed by the outpouring of love in the community. Woods recently organized a Hooray for Heroes parade to show appreciation to police, firefighters and first responders. The parade drew more than 400 cars, many decorated with American flags and patriotic gear, to the Longview Police Department. “It was the most special thing I’ve ever been a part of,” Woods said. “I knew that these people needed encouragement and to have that many people come out to show their appreciation – it was amazing.” The idea was borne out of seeing birthday parades during the COVID-19 pandemic. Through volunteerism with the City of Longview, Woods said she learned Longview firefighters have been on the frontlines testing more than 3,000 people for COVID-19 at area nursing homes and in the jail. “They’ve been the ones going in and visiting with our grandparents when we haven’t been able,” she said. Woods, who has friends in law enforcement, said she wanted to create an event that would allow residents to show their gratitude to first responders for the work they have been doing during the pandemic and for the work they do every day in Longview. What she didn’t expect was the volume of donations she would receive from local businesses to show gratitude to police. Copper Tree Retreat donated a one-hour massage and a one-hour facial to all 175 officers in the police department. In total, Woods said, more than $67,000 in goods and services were donated. Volunteers then put together gift baskets to hand out to first responders. Prior to the Hooray for Heroes parade, Woods also provided food to those in need in the community and provided coffee for healthcare workers. “When all of this first started, I wanted to do something to help,” she said. “At the time, a lot of local businesses were hurting, and I wanted to do something to help a business and to help people in need.” She partnered with Coffee Mill to offer coffee to healthcare workers in the spring. On a designated day, any healthcare worker could visit Coffee Mill, show their badge, and receive a free coffee that Woods

| CONT. ON PG. 51

Kelly Adkinson, fire captain with the City of Tyler Fire Department, picks up free meals for his firefighters from Rick's on the Square during a special promotion for Tyler area first responders to receive free meals. All law enforcement officers and fire department and EMS personnel who showed up wearing a uniform at three Tyler restaurants: Hollytree Country Club, Rick's on the Square and Dakota's, received a free meal sponsored by Tobacco Junction.

C E L E B R AT I N G

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TYLER

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LINDALE

Davis Medical Group 1379 Brad Circle

tylerinternalmedicine.com HOURS: Mon-Thurs: 8am – 5pm Friday: 8am – 12:00pm Sat-Sun: Closed

September/October 2020 | MyLifeStylesMag.com

The free food is a way for Tobacco Junction and the participating eateries to show our collective appreciation for the hard work these amazing men and women are doing. — Tony Cooper, owner Tobacco Junction | CONT. FROM PG. 49 would pay for. She estimates about 75 people got coffee that day. Woods also partnered with The Butcher Shop to provide a hamburger meal to anyone in need. At the time, the community had been asked to stay home as much as possible to curb the progression of COVID-19 in the community. Many businesses were offering curbside pickup and in-restaurant dining had been put on hold. Woods emailed a few select people and asked them to look for people in need of a meal. “Unprecedented times call for an unprecedented response. Since our community has been asked to stay home to stem the spread of COVID-19, many of the most vulnerable among us will pay the steepest price. Many others will become collateral damage through this economic slowdown,” she wrote in the email. “While I can’t develop a vaccine or treatment for this virus, I hope a small gesture can contribute to the survival of others.” Anyone could call The Butcher Shop, speak to a manager and give them Woods’ name and they would receive a complimentary meal of a burger, fries and a cookie. The effort was intended to help both The Butcher Shop and those in need. Woods said 130 meals were given out that day. That’s been the overwhelming message for much of East Texas during the pandemic. Numerous restaurants, churches and organizations have provided meals to healthcare workers. School districts adapted to change and continued to serve meals to students amid the pandemic, with some even delivering meals into neighborhoods on buses. And, numerous people stepped up to the plate to ensure that East Texas had plenty of PPE. Louis Morgan No. 4 gave about 5,000 face masks to first responders during the pandemic, said Shawn Sams, a co-owner of the business. “We try to have a very close relationship with the community, and our first responders are a big piece of that,” Sams said. “We needed to make sure they were able to access patients and be protected. We feel that it’s our responsibility to help take care of our community.” In addition to donating face masks, Louis Morgan No. 4 also partnered with Jucys to provide lunch for local nurses and went to great lengths to find resources for PPE, including face masks, gloves and hand sanitizer, to make sure it was available in Longview. The business also adapted its practices amid the pandemic by offering curbside pickup and free deliveries to ensure that residents could still have access to their needed prescription medications and PPE, Sams said. “I think it’s easier for us to be able to adapt than large businesses and corporations because they have to wait for marching orders to come down from their corporate office,” he said. “We can make changes in a short amount of time. We’ve got a great staff. Everybody has worked extra hard throughout this process. I’m really proud of Gregg County and Longview and how everybody has responded to this situation. We’re there for the community, and we’re going to do what we can to make sure our community stays safe.” September/October 2020 | MyLifeStylesMag.com

Woman Warrior

Denise Neal, left, owner of Village Bakery in Tyler and Bettie Smith-Desha, 80, at left, who retired in 2019.

September/October 2020 | MyLifeStylesMag.com

Bettie Smith-Desha bakes through her battles, makes life a little sweeter

ettie Smith-Desha has rolled, cut and baked thousands of gingerbread men and women. She’s frosted pink ones — in batches of 300 at a time — to deliver to breast cancer survivors during the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure event held each October. She’s pulled so many cakes, pies, and pastries from the oven that she won’t even begin to guess the number. She’s donated them to fundraisers year after year — each of them for a different cause. And she is always, always, always willing to lend a helping hand. Even when something like cancer, Stage 3, tries to slow her down. She’s paid bills from her hospital bed, papers scattered across the thin bed sheets. She’s accepted phone calls from clients, taken orders in between treatments. And she’s prayed. Bettie hung up her apron back in November of ‘19. She hated to do it. But with a return of the cancer that had plagued her years earlier, and with age sneaking up on her, she knew it was time. When the editors of the Lifestyles Magazine heard they’d be focusing on local philanthropists, Bettie’s name was top-of-mind. We would be remiss if we did not honor her enduring efforts in our community.

Al Souza (b. 1944), We Gather Together (detail), 2001 Puzzle parts and glue on wood, 46 x 54 inches

Bits & Pieces

Works by Al Souza through October 18, 2020

Tyler Museum of Art

1300 South Mahon Avenue • Tyler, Tx 75701 903-595-1001 • www.tylermuseum.org

LIFESTYLES M

S T O RY B Y J E S S I C A D I L L O N , WITH SPECIAL THANKS TO DANNY MOGLE P H O T O G R A P H Y B Y M I C H A E L C AVA Z O S

Coming for

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER

The Holiday Edition Contact us for advertising opportunities for the upcoming issue

903-596-6295 | advertising@tylerpaper.com

September/October 2020 | MyLifeStylesMag.com

WHEN A COMMUNITY FALLS ON HARD TIMES, THIS AWARD-WINNING BARBECUER DOES WHAT HE KNOWS BEST â&#x20AC;&#x201C; HE FEEDS 'EM S T O RY B Y J E S S I C A D I L L O N | P H O T O G R A P H Y B Y B E N F E N T O N

September/October 2020 | MyLifeStylesMag.com

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; JOSEPH KORICANEK, OWNER POKE IN DA EYE BBQ

September/October 2020 | MyLifeStylesMag.com

man steps through the door and into the darkened dining room of Poke In Da Eye BBQ on a Monday afternoon. Sporting a ball cap and a slight limp, he peers around the near-empty restaurant in search of someone, anyone, to talk to. The restaurant’s owner, Joseph Koricanek, is tucked away in a corner booth, sipping on a Styrofoam cup full of Dr. Pepper, when the bell jingles over the door. He cranes his neck to see who it is, then says, “I’m sorry, sir, we’re closed.” He’s got a deep Texas drawl, and in his voice, there’s true apology – not anger, not annoyance. The man turns around to head out the door, but not before he tells Koricanek, “Oh my, me and the lady were counting on you for supper.” “We don’t got any sides or nothin’,” Koricanek blurts. “But I have some pork you can put on sandwiches. I can wrap it for ya, you can take it home.” He shrugs at the exchange later – brushes it off, just like it’s nothing. “Every person who walks through that door is family,” he explains. “They’re family who walk in.” Koricanek doesn’t think much of helping others. It comes easy, he says, it’s natural. For years, he’s been wrapping up any unused sides – homemade mac and cheese and a wide assortment of vegetables prepared in all sorts of different ways – freezing them, and donating the day’s leftovers to the Sunshine House in Overton, or to area churches better prepared to distribute the food to those in need of it. He’s offered discounts for educators, for veterans, for first responders. He’s donated winnings from his competitions to scholarship funds. And during the COVID-19 crisis, he really upped the ante in his giving. He cut costs by about 40 percent during a promotion to offer massive plates of his fresh, hot barbecue to local nurses at discount. He ordered food at-cost for anyone who needed it and couldn’t find the staples – meat, potatoes, vegetables – at the local grocery store. “Those stores were crazy, you know,” Koricanek said. “But we could order through our supplier, and we passed those groceries straight on through at no extra cost.” It didn’t take long for people to notice Poke In Da Eye’s commitment to community.

| CONT. ON PG. 61

“Every person who walks through that door is family.

”

September/October 2020 | MyLifeStylesMag.com

50 vww 3717 TROUP HWY • TYLER, TX

3717 TROUP HWY • TYLER, 3717 TROUP HWYTX • TYLER, TX

3717 TROUP HWY • TYLER, TX

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September/October 2020 | MyLifeStylesMag.com

“Everything

we do, we cook with love." | CONT. FROM PG. 57

“I guess about three weeks ago it was,” Koricanek says. “It’s about 11 o’clock at night and I see there were still people hurting. I just put out on there on the local community page, ‘Hey, if y’all are hungry, if y’all got kids and have no food, come by.” The post got hundreds of likes and shares in a matter of hours. Soon, a few families were calling Koricanek on the phone to coordinate pick-ups and deliveries. “We loaded up full a big cardboard box – I had even some fresh, frozen pork butt in there – and when the family came to pick it up, they were real gracious. They said, ‘You don’t know how much this means to us right now.’” That wouldn’t be the last time Koricanek heard those words. When grocery supplies were especially limited at the onset of the pandemic, Koricanek looked to the restaurant bathrooms that wouldn’t be used for quite a while.

| CONT. ON PG. 63

September/October 2020 | MyLifeStylesMag.com

| CONT. FROM PG. 61 “We had three cases of toilet paper stockpiled,” Koricanek chuckled. “So we was giving out a roll with every drive-thru family meal. You know, I’d say, we take care of the food goin’ in and also the food comin’ out.” Koricanek meant it as a kind of joke, but the act brought one woman to tears. “She actually cried,” he says. “She said, ‘We really can’t find any! You don’t know what this means!’” So Koricanek gave her two more rolls, and sent her away with a smile. The restaurant also participated in Governor Abbott’s Comfort Food Care Package program that provided food for at-risk youth and families across the state. Packages at Poke in Da Eye were sold for just $24, and included a halfpound chopped brisket, a quarterpound of chopped pork tenderloin, a quarter-pound of chopped chicken, two pints of sides and four toasted buns for a family in need. To know that his acts have been recognized, even in some small way, is humbling, Koricanek says. He was just doing what he does best. “We didn’t do it for (the recognition), we did it because we take care of each other. That’s what Americans do. That’s what Texans do.” And though he won’t brag much about his helpful nature, he is proud to point out the 120 trophies, ribbons and awards – all grand-champion or first-place – that line the walls. He’s got about 500 more in the back somewhere, it’s just that those ones are second place or lower, and his wife thinks there’s enough “bling” in the barn already. Ask him to talk about barbecue and, well, he has no trouble getting down to business. “We cook our food the exact same way we do competition,” he says. “Most places, they’ll just do salt and pepper, throw it on the smoker. We put a salt-based rub, a spice-based rub, brown sugar…and mustard, and then we smoke it.” “Everything we do, we cook with love. We got our sides up on the board, and they say boiled potatoes, cajun spice...and a little bit of love.” “Once you come and get this barbecue,” he chuckles, “you gotta come back!” September/October 2020 | MyLifeStylesMag.com

Having a COKE a SMILE for over 60 years

... But who came up with the idea to make the Coca-Cola mural a Kilgore landmark? 64

September/October 2020 | MyLifeStylesMag.com

THIS IS PRIME REAL ESTATE in downtown Kilgore: the Coca-Cola mural on North Street, where thousands of photos have been shot over the years. Bobby Speer knows how the Coke artwork came to adorn the building. S T O RY B Y J E S S I C A H A R K E R PHOTOGRAPY BY MITCH LUCAS

ell, you know what they say: Have a Coke and a smile. Surely one of the most well-known sites visited in downtown Kilgore is the historic Coca-Cola mural/sign, located in bold red-and-white colors on the bricks at 205 North Kilgore Street. If you’re having a hard time finding it, then you need to follow the crowd: like, the prom crowd, the new Rangerettes crowd, the sight-seeing crowd, the we-love-tradition crowd, and just about every other sort of crowd – the Coca-Cola “sign” is maybe one of the top two or three most photogenic spots in town. While the building is now used by BTH Bank, owner Bobby Speer said that the Coca-Cola artwork was originally painted on the building in the 1950s, when the building served as the old United States Post Office. Speer and his family have owned the building for 70 years. His wife, Latane Speer, and her family owned the building for many years before their marriage. When Latane and Bobby got married,

they owned a portion of the property, until eventually buying it from Latane’s relatives. During his ownership of the building, Speer said that he has only had the mural touched up once, back in the early 1960s. “I originally contacted the Coca-Cola Company about coming to repaint the advertisement and they were rude, they weren’t interested,” Speer said. He decided to hire a painter personally to retouch the sign, which still stands on the building today. Speer said that the sign was an old advertisement done on the side of the post office as a way to earn some extra money. When the post office was moved and the building was re-done he said that everything in the original post office, including the boxes, was taken and dispersed. “I even know someone who has one of the boxes from way back then, box number 99,” Speer said.

| CONT. ON PG. 66 September/October 2020 | MyLifeStylesMag.com

THE BUILDING DOWNTOWN that's now the BTH Bank building (on the corner of North Street and Commerce Street) has featured this Coca-Cola mural since the 1950s. Bobby Speer owns the building, and even though there are similar spots in other areas, it's one of a kind in Kilgore. | CONT. FROM PG. 65 However, since it was originally added in the 1950s the advertisement still stands on one of Kilgore’s oldest buildings, according to Speer. He said that he was even in the process of organizing for the building to be marked as a historical site before the passing of his wife. Since then, he has also considered dedicating the building to her. Coca-Cola had a number of manufacturing plants around East Texas back in the 1940s and 50s, including plants in Marshall and Tyler, but also in South Texas in Galveston. Those buildings also used to have Coca-Cola advertisements on them similar to the one in Kilgore, though none have survived the decades, except for a few plastic signs located at the former Tyler plant. 66

September/October 2020 | MyLifeStylesMag.com

The attraction is listed on a number of sites advertising downtown Kilgore, including Kilgore Main Street and www.texasescapes. com. The location has become a traditional stop for tourists and even locals to come and take pictures in front of during their time in Kilgore, and is a regular spot for – well, the regulars, as in Kilgore High School students for senior photos, prom photos, and just anyone who’s downtown and knows that taking their photo in that spot is just flatout cool. So, next time you’re downtown and someone says, “Let’s go to the Coke sign!,” you can tell them who they can thank for their selfie spot – Mr. Speer – and just how long it’s been there.

September/October 2020 | MyLifeStylesMag.com

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September/October 2020 | MyLifeStylesMag.com