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 Carol Davenport, Director at the Cook Center on the campus of Navarro College, keeps busy organizing community activities, entertainment, and campus events. An outgoing person with unbounded energy to corral details and imbue every event with style, Carol looks through her datebook, saying, "It is a good thing you came in when you did, we will have a few minutes before I have to take a call." The busy Cook Center welcomes over 10,0000 visitors each year. |  At the Cook Center, round interior windows feature artistic and scientific masters. The center houses 3 event areas, meeting rooms, the Pearce Museum -with Western Art, Presidential materials and Civil War historical relics- a planetarium and 3D IMAX theatre. Coming soon with be a Hunter and Gatherer Exhibit area featuring an extensive collection of locally found arrowheads, and other archeological finds. |  Marilyn Garrett proudly displays memorabilia from George W. Bush's Gubernatorial Commencement and Presidential Inauguration. David and Marilyn remain active members of the Republican party. Mr. Garrett created some upset when elected Commissioner as the first Republican to be elected into the Navarro county courthouse (2000-04) in over a century. David smiles and says, "I encouraged them, I guess, because there's lots of Republicans over there now." |
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 Dolores Baldwin registers Sybil Brister's attendance and donation at the Richland Cemetery Annual Meeting and Memorial Day Community Picnic, May 2014. Volunteers rake and mark each veteran's grave with flags. Families carry in their favorite dishes. "This year my mom brought a birthday cake for me," says Caren Smith, whose son leads the Pledge of Allegiance this year. Approximately a third of this small Texas community joins in to make it a seasonal success. |  Each Memorial Day the Richland Cemetery hosts its Association's Annual Meeting and a community picnic. Community volunteers pick up winter tree-fall, rake, and mark the plots of veterans with flags. Truck beds and trunks carry in tables and chairs, while each family's favorite pot-luck offerings are cradled on their laps. This year Beverly Russell sings, Cindy Shelton and Bill Brown present the reports, and Pastor Amy Anderson preaches with 70 in attendance. |  Bruce Thomas takes advantage of some warmer winter weather to install panels in his fence line.When he and his wife Shirley left San Antonio to care for his aging parents, they thought they would eventually return to the furniture business with his son.Now immersed in the community as a UMC member, landowner, rancher, and city Treasurer, he contributes through work and stewardship.“Richland will be one of the few cities in the state, of any size, that is going to be debt free. We are debt free." |
 Bruce Thomas works to fasten new wire fence to the posts of his cattle ranch. "I hire boys to do a lot of work on the fences, but sometimes I like to do it myself," he explains. Working quietly, except for bits of humming and song at times, and background lowing from the cows, he seems content with his life. A sign on the pasture gate, "Take care of Habitat, Take Care of Water, Take Care of Wildlife, Take Care of Cattle, Take Care Texas," declares his ranching values. |  In 1848, the Navarro County Courthouse was a log cabin that is still standing, and voters have chosen to renovate the current version, the fifth courthouse, which was designed in 1905 by architect J.E.Flanders in the beaux-arts style. Taken before the 2013 vote, this photograph also shows the county war memorial in Courthouse Square at the corner of 13th Street and 2nd Avenue in Corsicana. |  Construction equipment and scaffolding joins statuary around the Navarro County Courthouse in Corsicana,TX. Controversy continues although voters approved renovations on this 1905 building in November 2013. Judge H.M. Davenport, who works there and supports renovations says, "The bell that continues to mark the hour, quarter hour, half hour, and 3/4 hour, still rings today and may be the bell from the 1880's courthous. Just think of how many generations of people have heard that distinct sound." |
 Ice-coated branches capture the light as they begin to melt in front of UT Tyler's softball field mid-morning, as a heavy winter storm creates dangerous driving conditions on Tuesday night and delays openings at UT Tyler, Longview, Palestine and other area schools on Wednesday morning, February 12, 2014. The Weather Channel dubbed it "Winter Storm Pax" with two deadly phases coursing eastward across the south and then hitting almost every eastern state on its journey northward. |
Flashbacks on Our Community
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