Finding happily ever after in Central Texas
By Sharon Douglas
I’m a Texan and a direct descendant of Cinderilla, because, once upon a time, 16-year-old bride Cinderilla “Rilla” Twyman Lewis (that’s how she spelled it) traveled from West Virginia to Texas by train and then a wagon packed with wedding gifts to meet her husband, Henry Rust Lewis, on their land grant near Athens.
Unpacking the barrels, she discovered all her possessions were broken, but like her fairytale namesake, that did not crush her spirit. With determination and imagination, she created a home for nine children whose descendants now reside across Texas and on the original home place.
Of those descendants, my parents, Ed and Maurice Bailey, first lived in Houston, but in 1958, they moved to Central Texas and bought a country grocery store near the banks of the Brazos River, 20 miles from both Brenham and Bryan. Cotton farmers and their employees were their primary customers. My parents allowed local farm workers to charge groceries through lean winters and Dad made sure there were Easter egg hunts and Christmas stockings for their children.
From the store’s porch, we could see the Aggie bonfires on the nights preceding the Texas A&M University vs. University of Texas football games and this inspired me to attend A&M—but back then, the school did not admit women.
After I graduated from Snook High School in 1965, I was moved by protest movements I saw while growing up and by the signing of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. I visited then-Texas A&M president James Earl Rudder, confronting him about the school discriminating against women. At that time, daughters of university employees could attend classes, but could not earn degrees, and women who were not related to employees could not attend at all.
It fell on deaf ears at the time, but seven years later, Title IX, the federal civil rights law that was passed as part of the Education Amendments of 1972, and that solved the issue once and for all. I graduated from Texas A&M University with a Bachelor of Science degree in education in 1976.
I was widowed twice before I was 30 years old and I had two children when I met Bob Douglas, who promised to outlive me. With his three children, we became our own family when we married in 1978.
Bob’s job with Lone Star Gas Company transferred us to Anahuac on the Gulf Coast, and I taught kindergarten in Winnie. The following year, our twin son and daughter were born, giving us seven children in all. My Cinderella story became more like The Brady Bunch TV series, but we quickly learned the fallacy of comparison: they had Alice. We did not.
We returned to Central Texas often. Driving on Highway 190 to Killeen to visit Bob’s family, we often paused at the hill overlooking Nolanville. If, as the song from the Disney Cinderella movie says, a dream is a wish your heart makes, then our hearts wished to live here.
The dream came true in 1990. Bob’s job took us to the Austin area and we settled in Florence where I taught at the elementary school. We lived there until the twins graduated from high school. With our last little chick out of the nest, Bob and I began a bucket list of things to accomplish in our lives.
Living on a lake was checked off by moving to a two-story house overlooking Lake Belton. In Belton, I taught at Lakewood Elementary. I retired briefly, coming out of retirement to teach at Clear Creek Elementary in Killeen.
Other items were checked off our list, including traveling the world to see Peru, Guatemala, Chile, Scotland, Washington, D.C., and Germany. Invited to join the Contemporaries of the Azalee Marshall Cultural Activities Center in Temple, I found friendship and opportunities to help create the yearly “hands on” cultural arts program for third grade students and to raise funds for the center.
When climbing stairs got hard for us, we bought a one-story house in Salado. Five of our adult children, plus grandchildren and great-grandchildren, now call Central Texas home, and we’re close to them all in a happily-ever-after of my own “Cinderilla” story that would make my ancestor proud.
I needed projects, so I pulled weeds for Keep Salado Beautiful and joined the cast of Legends of Salado at Tablerock.
When the Texas Cowboy Poetry and Music Gathering in Alpine disbanded for a time, I organized one in Salado (saladocowboypoetry.com), and Chadley Hollas at the Salado Tourism Office has been an excellent resource and facilitator for this May 2 event. With his help, The Stagecoach Inn, Barrow Brewery and the Yellow House Bed and Breakfast agreed to be sponsors. Linda Griffith of Salado volunteered to handle publicity.
Heritage Country Church (heritagecountrychurch.org) is the home of Salado Cowboy Poetry and Music Gatherings. Maxdale Cowboy Church will bring their chuck wagon to provide cowboy coffee and Dutch oven biscuits for visitors. Tickets are available at centraltexastickets.com.
Salado fits me like a glass slipper and being Central Texan to me means having a place rich in Texas culture and history to put down roots for my family. It means being a part of a great community with wonderful activities and amenities. Central Texas is still the home of Texas hospitality, great barbecue, and a friendly welcome from neighbors.
Come see for yourself. Let’s share some stories and get acquainted. Come to the cowboy gathering and come on with us to church. I might even invite you over to the house for a cup of coffee or a Dr Pepper, because, being a Central Texan, that’s just what we do.
