CAMPUS LIFE AT

MINDEN HIGH SCHOOL

             Dedicated To The Memory Of

                  Jewel Amazone Wood

             Jewel A. Wood Dulany, wife of Frenchy Dulany

                                      Mother of

                 Nell, Joyce, John, Jay and Tim Dulany

     Mama was Jewel (Jack) and, course Daddy was always
    know as Frenchy. Mama got her nickname Jack when she came to Minden from
   East Texas to finish high school in 1927-28. She was a tomboy. I'm sending
   you this picture of her in her Minden basketball uniform. She told this
   story to me. The girls didn't have uniforms and, of course, they wanted
   them. So she was elected to go to the principle Mr. J.E. Harper to see if
   there was any way to get the uniforms. She said that Mr. Harper said he'd
   buy them for the girls. I love this picture of Mama. She was 17 in 1927.

   Did you know that Cowboy Drake gave Daddy his nickname Frenchy. Daddy came
   to Minden in 1923. His daddy bought the house there on the corner of
   Goodwill and Marshall. Cowboy's family lived just down the street. They
   struck up a friendship and since Daddy was so dark, he became Frenchy. One
   of there other friends was Douglas Cheshire. I believe he lived on Goodwill
   too.

   I am so thankful for the time I spent with Mama and Daddy in their last
   years. They both told me some wonderful stories and I put most of them down
   and have shared them with the family.

                            Courtesy of Joyce Dulany Anderson
 

          Jewel Wood

   
     You asked who my dad's sister were - His half sister's were Maude Durrett
     married Ewel Robinson of Arcadia, LA. and Thelma Durrett never married. My
    grandmother May Bell Cathey was 1st married to Thomas Jefferson Durrett, III
    He was killed in a cotton mill accident just after Thelma was born. A
    year later his cousin came courting;My granddaddy Felix Crayton Dulany.
    They had Nell who married Clayton Rogers of Arcadia, Mary who married
    Herbert Braswell, Agnes married Travis Taylor, Claudine married Dwight
   Goodell of Jasper, Texas, Reba married Sly Bonacarso of New Orleans and
   Sybil married Bill Hughes of Minden. Daddy was the only son and he was
   between Nell and Mary. Mary is the only one living now. She lives in Mobil,
   AL.

    Mama' s name was Jewel Amazone Wood. She was from San Augustine County
   Texas. What was her daddy's cotton field is now part of Sam Rayburn Lake.
   She told me that her parents sent her to Minden for better schools. Her
   Mother Adliza Thompson Wood was a school teacher and her daddy William
   Thomas Wood was a Forest Ranger and postmaster of a small community called
   Zana, Texas. She was just 16 when they sent her to board with a cousin of
  Grandmother's, Henry Stratton and his wife Ellen. You may remember Gerald
   Stratton, their son. We always called them Ma and Pa Stratton. They were
   like grandparents to us.

   Sherry, when you ask me these questions, memories just come rolling back. I
   could tell you other stories but I'm afraid you'll get tired of hearing
   them. After Mama finished school, she went to work for the telephone
   company. She and three other girls were boarding at the Stratton's. Mama said
   that they only had the one room and one double bed, so two girls worked days
   and two worked nights. When the two that was working days got home the other
   two went to work. That way they only needed the one bed. I get a big kick
   out of that story. Can't you just picture these four girls having a great
   time together. I have great pictures of Mama and some of these girls and the
   clothes are just wonderful. It was the late 20's and the styles were so
   fashionable.

  Mama had a sister Addie Bell and a brother Ewell. Jewel and Ewell were just
  13 months apart and Addie Bell was six years younger. Addie Bell lived with
  Mama and Daddy after her divorce. I don't know if you remember Glenda Sue and Dianne Moore.

   Jewel Wood

  Compliments of Donald Lee Gardner and Dr. Charles Hennigan

If you can identify any of the people in the above picture, please e-mail MindenMemories@AOL.Com, or write to Sherry Gresham Gritzbaugh,

4507 Verone Street, Bellaire, Texas 77401.

A group from the First Baptist Church of Minden pictured.  Joyce Dulany is the pretty little girl with the ribbon in her hair  fifth from the left end.

Jewel Wood's Sunday School Class in 1927

              Class of 1951 Jr. - Sr. Banquet Submitted by Joyce Dulany Anderson

       Left to right next to wall:  Joyce Dulany, Marianne Colvin, Norma Warren, Gene Pugh, ?, Coach Oliphant,

Nell Gilbert  Coach, Kirtley Miles, Barbara Heflin, Royce Gresham, and others will have to be named by someone

else. Rene Pugh, Rolene Byars, ?, ?, George Moore, ? and others will have to be named by someone else.

Photo compliments of Joyce Dulany

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

       This was the campus behind the 1910 building. It would appear this was a grade

       school class from the forties. The teacher may have been leading them below the

        terrace to play.

   Can you identify these students in Miss Shealy's class? Submitted by John Quade

Linda Cox - 1955 Basketball Sweetheart hands the ball to Captain James McCabe.

    From the 1955 Grig. She was the first ever ever chosen.

 Camille Ivy, possibly in 1957- 58 school year Photo taken by Bob Grambling

 1958-1959 school year -  (1959 grig) Cecile Searles Basketball Sweetheart from the Grig

     Continued to Campus Life II