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COUNTY NEWS

Floydada Man Dies in Fire

Carlos Hernandez, 69, of Floydada, died in a trailer fire Friday, January 18.

Firefighters were called to the scene of the fire, at 1120 S. Main, at 3:13 p.m., but were unable to save Mr. Hernandez who had been trapped inside the trailer.

According to Mark Hanna, a spokesman for the State Fire Marshals office, "Mr. Hernandez, a son, George Hernandez, and a friend from Plainview, were all inside the trailer. A portable propane heater was knocked over and broke apart. The propane spread out and caught fire.

"The two younger men were able to get out. Mr. Hernandez Sr., attempted to grab the tank and throw it out the front door. It didn't make it out the door. In fact, it stopped at the front door. Mr. Hernandez ran to the back of the trailer where he died."

George Hernandez and the friend broke out windows to try and get Carlos Hernandez out but were unsuccessful in their attempts.

According to officials one of the men who escaped ran to a neighbors house to call for help. There was no one home and he ran to another house which was also empty. A third attempt at another house was successful and 911 was called.

Officials said the 1969 21 foot camper trailer belonged to Carlos Hernandez and was used by him to sleep in when he visited family.

The trailer was parked in the back yard of Carlos' son, Carlos Hernandez Jr.

Hernandez Jr., was not home at the time of the fire.

Carlos Hernandez Sr. was born February 22, 1932 in Olton.

Memorial services will be at 2:00 p.m., Thursday, January 24, 2002 at Calvary's Cornerstone Fellowship in Floydada.

He is survived by 7 sons, 3 daughters, 1 sister, 25 grandchildren, and 7 great-grandchildren.

Chaplaincy Program Starts at W.J. Mangold Memorial Hospital

W.J. Mangold Memorial Hospital has added a new dimension to their "total health care". Not only will the physical needs of patients be met but now the spiritual needs will be addressed through a new "Chaplaincy Program."

Four pastors in Lockney have already set schedules and started to work. They will rotate responsibilities every week.

Steve McLean, the pastor of W. College and Third Street Church of Christ; Phillip Golden, pastor of First Baptist Church; Russ Byard, pastor of First United Methodist Church; and Russell Harris, pastor at Main Street Church of Christ, are now considered an "auxiliary of the hospital".

"We represent the hospital--not our own congregations," said Rev. Byard. "We are considered an auxiliary for the hospital--but it is an all volunteer auxiliary."

"We have rules we have to go by that are provided by the hospital," said McLean.

"Our role is to offer comfort and provide spiritual support for the patient and family. We can also notify the patients own pastor if the patient would like us to. Very often the family pastor doesn't know a member of his congregation is even in the hospital."

"We can also help families understand what the patient is going through, and we can report back to local congregations."

Rev. Byard started the program off on January 21 with the first rounds made through the hospital as the official "Chaplain."

"There were a few surprised faces," said Byard. "They said, 'I didn't know we had a Chaplain!'"

"We are looking for help from any clergy that would like to be a part of the team," said McLean. "Obviously the clergy don't have to be just from Lockney. They can come from any area town, such as Floydada or Plainview. It is amazing how many Plainview people are here.

"The clergy just need to know there are rules we have to follow. Clergy interested in helping must have an endorsement of a local congregation."

Any pastor wishing to help should call Steve McLean at 652-2668 or Russ Byard at 652-2196.

Library Offers Trip to Vatican

Lockney Library Associates summer fund-raiser is a chartered-bus trip to Lubbock on June 18 to attend the Vatican art exhibit at the Museum of Texas Tech University.

Cost for the day-trip is $35, which covers the bus trip and lunch at the Skyview Restaurant in Lubbock. If the schedule permits, another activity may be added, possibly with an additional charge.

Reservations for the trip should be made now at the Lockney Branch Library as only 47 tickets for the exhibit were obtained. The $35 cost is due when the reservation is made, but checks will be held until May 1 when final arrangements for the trip are completed. Further information may be obtained by calling Neta Marble at the library at 652-3561.

Although there is no charge to attend the exhibit, tickets for a specific date and hour are necessary for admission to view the never-before-seen artworks from the Vatican Museums in Rome. The exhibit is titled "Traditions and Renewal: Medieval Frescoes from the Vatican Museums."

OBITUARIES

JAMES KERWIN BAXTER

Funeral services for James Kerwin Baxter, 66, of Floydada were held at 2:00 p.m. Saturday, January 19, 2002 at the First Baptist Church in Floydada. Reverend Elton "Speck" Brian officiated.

Burial was held in the Floydada Cemetery under the direction of Moore-Rose-White Funeral Home of Floydada.

Baxter died Wednesday, January 16, 2002 at his home.

He was born on October 13, 1935 at his grandparent's home in Floyd County to Rena Mae and Cecil Baxter. He was baptized in First Baptist Church of Floydada and was a member of the First Baptist Church of Richardson.

He married Mary Helen Walton of Guthrie on August 3, 1956. Reverend "Speck" Brian officiated at their wedding. They have two sons, Joe Roy Baxter and Johnny Walton Baxter.

Baxter graduated from Floydada High School in 1953 and received his B.S. degree from Howard Payne University in 1958. He did post-graduate work at the University of Texas in Chemistry. He taught chemistry at Post High School and Floydada High School before becoming employed as a chemist for Thuron and Sandoz Industries in Dallas. He was head of Research and Development before his retirement in 1988. He was a member of the American Chemical Society.

He is survived by his parents, Cecil and Rena Mae Baxter of Floydada; his wife, Mary Helen Baxter of Floydada; his children, Joe Roy and Vicki Baxter of Lubbock and Johnny Walton and Gayla Baxter of New Braunfels; three grandchildren, Jared Cole Baxter, Travis Blake Baxter and Samantha Nicole Baxter of New Braunfels; his brother, Waldo Reece Baxter of Hereford; and many relatives and friends.

The family suggests memorials to the American Diabetes Association, 8008 Slide Road, Lubbock, Texas 79424 or to the Genealogy Library of the Floyd County Historical Museum, 105 E. Missouri, Floydada, Texas 79235.

NAOMI CONNELLEY FAWVER

Cryptside services for Naomi Connelley Fawver, 80, of Decatur were at 2:00 p.m. Wednesday, January 16, 2002 in the Greenwood Mausoleum.

She died Monday, January 14, 2002 in Decatur.

Mrs. Fawver was born September 22, 1911 in Rocky, Oklahoma.

She was preceded in death by her husband, Aubrey Fawver; a son, Bobby Glen Fawver; two sisters, three brothers and her parents.

Survivors include a daughter, Nancy Russell and husband, Ken, of Decatur; three grandchildren, Mike Russell and wife, Geri, of Crowley, Tanya Holloway and husband, Derwood, of Decatur and Teena Tedford and husband, Mark, of Bedford; a sister, Geneva Cockrell and husband, Hurlon, of Floydada; five great-grandchildren; a great great-granchild and numerous nieces and nephews.

CARLOS HERNANDEZ, SR.

Memorial services for Carlos Hernandez, Sr., 69, of Floydada will be at 2:00 p.m. Thursday, January 24, 2002 at Calvary's Cornerstone Fellowship in Floydada with Pedro Reyes officiating.

Cremation is under the direction of Moore-Rose-White Funeral Home of Floydada.

Hernandez died Friday, January 18, 2002 in Floydada.

He was born on February 22, 1932 in Olton to Alfredo and Rosa Hernandez.

Survivors include seven sons, Roger Hernandez, Carlos Hernandez, Benito Hernandez and Jorge Hernandez, all of Floydada; Alfredo Hernandez of Santa Maria, California; Raymon Hernandez and Isreal Hernandez, both of Plainview; three daughters, Janie Hernandez of Bakersfield, California; Mary Deets and Ada James, both of Santa Maria, California; three brothers, Benito Garcia of Sacramento, California; Alfredo Hernandez and Luis Luna, both of Brownsville; one sister, Maria Cornado, of League City; twenty-five grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren.

LETTA HOOPER

Funeral services for Letta Hooper, 55, of Breckenridge, were held at 2:00 p.m. Saturday, January 19, 2002 at the First Baptist Church of Lockney. Reverend Glenn Clark officiated.

Burial was in the Lockney Cemetery under the direction of Moore-Rose-White Funeral Home of Lockney.

Mrs. Hooper died Wednesday, January 16, 2002 at her residence in Breckenridge.

She was born on August 4, 1946 in Lockney to the late Mr. James Warrnie Leach and Mrs. Luna Massingale Leach. She attended schools in Lockney.

She married Bob Hooper on May 28, 1978 in Lockney. She moved to Breckenridge from Lockney in 1998. She was a housewife and a member of the Assembly of God.

Survivors include her husband, Bob Hooper of Breckenridge; one son, Ricky Freeman of Fort Lauderdale, Florida; one daughter, Jana Hancock of Lockney; four brothers, Dean Leach of Albuquerque, New Mexico, Lloyd Leach of Gainesville, James Leach of Mount Vernon and Bobby Leach of Houston; one sister, Anna Mae Cross of Alvarado; one step-sister, Pat Adams of Tahoka; and two grandchildren, Zachary Freeman and William Scott Hancock.

In lieu of flowers, the family suggests memorials to Graham Regional Hospice, 604 Oak, Graham, Texas 76450.

TOMMIE LOU WILLIAMS

Funeral services for Tommie Lou Williams, 75, of Lockney, will be at 3:00 p.m. Thursday, January 24, 2002 at Main Street Church of Christ in Lockney with Russell Harris officiating.

Burial will be in the Lockney Cemetery under the direction of Moore-Rose-White Funeral Home of Lockney.

Mrs. Williams died Tuesday, January 22, 2002 at Mangold Memorial Hospital in Lockney.

She was born on June 4, 1926 in Dickens County to the late Mr. Joe L. Thanisch and Mrs. Dollie C. Thanisch. She graduated in 1944 from Patton Springs High School in Afton. She completed Cosmetology School and moved to Lockney shortly thereafter.

She married J.P. Williams on May 8, 1951 in Clovis, New Mexico. Mrs. Williams was a beauty operator for 25 years and owned her own Beauty Salon for 18 years. She was also a member of the Main Street Church of Christ in Lockney.

Survivors include her husband, J.P. Williams of Lockney; a daughter and son-in-law, Brenda and Bill Gallagher of Lubbock; three grandchildren.

Her brother, Claude Thanisch and two sisters, Dolly Copeland and Juanita Drennan preceded her in death.

The family will receive friends at the funeral home on Wednesday, January 23, 2002 from 6:00 p.m. until 7:00 p.m.

The family suggests memorials be made to the Lockney Senior Citizens Association, 118 W. College Street, Lockney, Texas 79241 or the National Diabetes Association Memorial and Honor Program, Attention: ADA Web, P.O. Box 2680, North Canton, OH 44720.

A VIEW FROM THE LAMPLIGHTER

It's beginning to look like all the fireworks in the upcoming Texas election cycle will be in the Democratic primary. In the Republican Primary, Gov. Rick Perry seems to have it all to himself, for all practical purposes, but among the Democrats there's a real battle shaping up.

The Democrats, under what appears to be the guidance of former Comptroller John Sharp, had hoped for what they (or he) thought would be a dream ticket, with multi-millionaire Tony Sanchez at the top of the ticket as the candidate for Governor, a black former Mayor of Dallas as their lead Senatorial candidate, with Sharp himself again seeking the Lieutenant Governor's spot. Various other spots on the ticket would be appropriately allocated to deserving candidates.

But it's not working out exactly as planned. One Dan Morales, who served for many years as the Democratic Attorney General for Texas, decided he wanted to run for Governor, rather than Senator. (Another really flaky character, named Victor Morales, has decided he wants to run again for the Senate, so maybe Dan didn't want the voters to get confused.) Dan has had all sorts of troubles since he left the AG's office, most of it revolving around the tobacco thing. His buddies collected many billions of dollars as the "plaintiff's attorneys" during that miserable episode, and many people think, rightly or wrongly, that Dan claimed his share. Nevertheless, for good or ill, it's a matter he will probably have to explain in his race against Mr. Sanchez.

We would be sore pressed as to who we would vote for, were we going to vote in the Democratic Primary. If I was a hard core Democrat, I'd have problems. On the one hand, Mr. Morales is the Attorney General who carried the fight on the "affirmative action" thing while he was Attorney General. For that he deserves credit, from a Republican standpoint, or from the standpoint of any citizen who thinks affirmative action is an affront to the Constitution. Morales deserves a whole lot more credit, in my own humble opinion, than does George W. Bush, who has tried to take a somewhat lofty, hands off, albeit extremely political, approach to the entire matter.

On the other hand there's Tony Sanchez, the Laredo multi-millionaire who got invited to spend the night in the Lincoln bedroom while Bill Clinton was President (with the expectation he, like other overnight guests, would pony up $100,000 for the privilege). According to news reports we saw, he didn't. He left without putting up the money. Instead, he contributed heavily to George W. Bush, who appointed him to the University of Texas Board of Regents. So, he too must be a persona non grata to many hard core Democrats.

So what will they do? It is beyond me. They don't really have a choice between Sanchez and Morales. They can vote for Mr. Worldpeace, who has spent a goodly sum of money making unsolicited telephone calls, telling anyone who will listen how rotten the others in the race are. Mr. Worldpeace is for peace, and who can argue against that? Simply put, if we were to elect him as Governor, we could expect world peace, according to him. That's what happened when we elected Lyndon Baines Johnson as President. Lyndon told us that if we voted for Barry Goldwater we would get more deeply involved in Vietnam. But some of us voted for Goldwater anyway, not with the thought that we were going to get more deeply involved in Vietnam, but that we might slow the relentless march to centralized government. Sure enough, we got more deeply involved in Vietnam, just like Lyndon said. And sure enough, centralized government blossomed under Lyndon, and is still blooming.

If we were to vote in the Democratic Primary, we probably would end up voting for Morales, simply on the basis of his opposition to affirmative action. Sanchez is in the big league as far as money and position goes, and he probably wouldn't be looking for a little extra, but who knows. He seems to have a knack for making bundles of money, wherever he is.

Morales is still learning. And, from the standpoint of real democrats, there's always the fact that Sanchez supported Bush. If Senator Yarborough was still with us, he would say that support of a Republican was an unpardonable political sin.

Sanchez has received the endorsement of the Texas AFL-CIO, largely on the basis that his candidacy is the result of careful planning by those who make the decisions in Party affairs. But it is still true, as the poet Robert Burns observed many years ago, that sometimes the best laid plans of mice and men "go awry."

That is the situation today. Dan Morales has thrown a monkey wrench in the best laid plans of the Democratic leadership. Now the faithful will have to make a choice. Who will be their leader? Morales or Sanchez?

We suspect there will be an awful lot of unhappy campers after the primaries are past. One candidate supported Bush, the other supported affirmative action. Either way, there will be a big pond out there in which the Republicans can fish. If they want to.

BY THE WAY

Thanks to everyone who brings me all kinds of tidbits to print.

I want everyone to know that sometimes you won't see the "e-mail" story in my column because I can't verify the story.

It is unbelievable what is sent over e-mail that is attributed to someone and that "someone" never said any such thing. It may sound very true and even though it is easily verified most people don't bother to verify the story.

The other day I got a "great" e-mail about a speech that Oliver North had supposedly made during his Iran-Contra hearings.

It sounded very authentic.

It quoted a Senator who had supposedly interrogated Oliver North. The Senator questioned North about his $60,000 security system he had put in his house to protect him from terrorists.

The Senator thought that was excessive. The Senator "sarcastically" asked North who the "terrorist" was that he was so afraid of.

North was quoted as saying, "Usama Bin Laden". North was also supposed to have said (15 years ago) that if it were up to him he would recommend an assassin team to eliminate Bin Laden." The e-mail implied the Senator held North in contempt and basically laughed at him.

The writer of the e-mail was making a point that the U.S. government knew about Bin Laden's potential threat years ago and did nothing.

It was pretty powerful reading.

I looked up Oliver North's web page to see if I could reprint it and to make sure he said it.

He didn't say it--ever.

His web page had an answer from him concerning this e-mail. He had already received several thousand of questions from every state in the U.S. and 13 foreign countries concerning it.

North said he was questioned by committee counsel John Nields--not a senator.

His security system cost $16,000 not $60,000.

The terrorist was a Libyan--Abu Nidal. Libyan terrorists (dispatched from the "People's Committee for Libyan students in McLean, Virginia) were intercepted by the FBI on their way to North's house to kill him, his wife, and children. The family was subsequently removed out of their home to a military base and more than 30 agents were sent to protect them. The agents remained at his home until he retired from the Marines. The federal government spent more than 2 million dollars protecting the North family.

North said the terrorists sent to kill his family were never apprehended.

The e-mail quoted him as saying he was afraid of Usama Bin Laden. North said he never said he was afraid of anybody. He also said, "I did say that I would be glad to meet Abu Nidal on equal terms anywhere in the world but that I was unwilling to have him or his operatives meet my wife and children on his terms."

I thought all of that was interesting-especially the true stuff.

Someone spent a great deal of time putting together a hoax to serve some kind of purpose. I don't know why someone would make up the story about Oliver North. I don't know what purpose that served--but for someone it was great fun to see it passed around as fact.

I looked up a web site concerning e-mail hoaxes the other day and it was fun seeing them pick apart some of the more enduring email hoaxes that are still making the rounds--such as: the stolen kidneys and the Neiman Marcus cookie recipe.

According to the scam website con artists are making money off of "online petitions". You are presented with some legitimate sounding cause and told that when a million people sign the petition it will be presented to some organization or perhaps an elected official. Some of these petitions are real but some have a more sinister purpose...they are collecting e-mail addresses to sell to spammers, often porn sites.

While you think you are doing good to send a well meaning message along, you may be helping someone make a dollar while getting your unsuspecting friends signed-up for a ton of unwanted junk e-mail, much of it of an adult nature.

Once you get on those lists you can't get off. Responding with a "remove" message only informs them they have a warm body at that e-mail address reading the spam, which increases the value of the list.

The list of those opening the email is sold from spammer to spammer.

Remember, legitimate e-mails and web sites provide ways to contact the author or webmaster.

Be suspicious if there is no way to contact the author. If the e-mail says it represents the American Cancer Society, does it's return address reflect that?

If the e-mail claims it is being tracked this is a sure sign of a hoax since e-mail cannot be reliably tracked.

Forwarding worthless e-mails wastes Internet bandwidth which costs everyone.

I like my cute internet stories but please don't expect me to ever "forward" to all my friends. Also, don't send me an e-mail that suggests I don't love Jesus if I don't forward it. I will delete the junk before I even read it.

© 2002, Floyd County Hesperian Beacon

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