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EDCOUCH • ELSA • LA VILLA • MONTE ALTO • RAYMONDVILLE August 2014 Volume 1 Issue 14
LOCAL HISTORIAN IN RAYMONDVILLE
Still Recording By Irma Ayala
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aymondville-For over eight decades, Glenn Harding has been gathering facts. He is Raymondville’s very own historian. Glenn Harding was born in 1928 to Mr. & Mrs. Rollo Edwin. He and his family, including his grandparents, attended Methodist church on a regular basis. Harding is a product of the Raymondville I.S.D. He enjoyed playing football and basketball in high school. Harding grew up during a very simple time when friends would gather round to listen to radio programs for entertainment. After graduating from high school, Glenn Harding attended Southern Methodist University. He also attended University of Dallas and Texas A & I in Kingsville. In 1951, Harding joined the military for two years and served in South Korea. He comments on his time in Korea, “I had a very special, good job –
clerk/typist for the department of Awards and Decorations. I prepared statements of purpose of award or medal given to fallen soldiers such as the Purple Heart. I would read and prepare awards for decorations. The war ended when the 38th parallel set up dividing line between North and South Korea.” He returned to Raymondville to work on the family farm, Evergreen Farms, located northwest of Elsa for the next twenty-eight years. Evergreen Farms sat on 1,700 acres of irrigated lands which yielded alfalfa, oats, barley, broccoli, green beans and sugarcane. The farm was sold in 1980 because the different family owners believed the income wasn’t sufficient for their needs. Harding then went to work at Harding Foundation and oversaw the family’s rental properties. The Harding family was fortunate to be solvent enough to purchase buildings in front of the Raymondville courthouse when the Depression struck the Valley in
1929, and many people began to lose money and had to sell their homes and business buildings. Harding currently owns thirteen stores on the 300 block of west Hidalgo. Glenn Harding has faithfully served his community all of his adult life. He served as a member of the Chamber of Commerce, choir director for the Methodist church for twenty-five years and diligently provided service on the board of the Raymondville Museum for thirty eight years. In addition, he has participated in the International Music Festival for twenty five years and has been on the Board of Directors for Gladys Porter Zoo. When asked to relate any major changes he made in the Harding Foundation’s operation, he responded that in the past, his grandfather would supply a religious education for the children of the area. He would have a children’s book, which would focus on the parables of the Bible in cartoon form, published for underprivileged children during the Christmas and Easter holidays. When Glenn Harding became president of the Harding Foundation, he no longer distributes religion education but he has continued to focus on education but changed the venue to achieve his goal – he set up scholarships available to young people who wanted to be ordained. He has witnessed the decline of Raymondville with vacant buildings, abandoned homes and businesses that exist only in his memory now like a closed hardware store, meat market and pharmacy. He has viewed new businesses cropping up, such as hotels, as he sadly hears of mom and pop shops closing. Glenn Harding considers himself “a collector of collections.” He has a rock
collection, a collection of antiques, jewelry and books. He enjoyed making jewelry and even became a jade maker at one time. Our very own Glenn Harding is also a celebrated author having written two historical books detailing the history of Willacy County, Willacy County History: The Early Years in 2011 and Rails to the Rio in 2003. Both are coauthored by Cynthia Lee. His books are based on newspapers saved by his mother for many years. Although a very seriously minded businessman today, Glenn Harding was a typical young boy in his day. Harding remembers a time when a few students decided they preferred a trick to a treat one Halloween. The boys placed an old wagon on top of the old high school which ironically is now the Raymondville Historic Center to which Harding has dedicated many hours of his life. When asked how Raymondville has changed throughout his life, Harding responded, “In my younger years, Raymondville was mostly an agriculture/ ranching community. Now, we are more industrial with 200 electric windmills in our midst.” He does go on to add that in a way Raymondville has reverted to the old days. “We are no longer part of South
See STILL RECORDING pg. 2
American
Living the By Irma Ayala
E
dream
lsa-Dr. Teofilo Ozuna Jr. is currently serving as the Dean of the College of Business Administration. He has previously served as the vice provost for Graduate Studies at UTPA and the associate dean in the College of business Administration. In the past, he taught at Texas A&M University and Instituto Tecnologico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey, in Monterrey, Mexico. He has also experienced the role of visiting professor at the Universidad de las Americas, the Universidad Del Valle de Guatemala and Universidad Centro Americana in Nicaragua. Dr. Ozuna has received a number of teaching and research awards; the results of his research have appeared in journals and textbooks. Yet for all his accolades, Ozuna is very unpretentious and easy to talk to. He is the product of Edcouch-Elsa, born and raised in Elsa and Edcouch. He grew up in a farm working family. He labored in the agribusiness- packing sheds, grain elevators and cotton gins until he was twenty. Many familiar from the area can remember Ozuna’s parents from Cholo’s Drive Inn which was located on the site of Edcouch’s current fire station. though. He recalls instead that the two He remembers that his Tio Beto owned brothers, Beto and Cholo, helped each Ozunas’s, practically across the street. See AMERICAN DREAM pg. 2 He doesn’t remember any competion,
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