Shelby County Today

May 2, 2023 - Some of the holidays we celebrate honor great Americans, while others recognize great moments in our history. But this one “Loyalty Day” celebrates everything, from the moment we delivered our Declaration of Independence to the British, to the moment we gathered on the Center square May 1, 2023.
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Loyalty Day is a celebration of America and everything our country stands for. Loyalty Day asks us to pause for a moment and look back at where we’ve been, and ahead to where we want our nation to go.
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Originally observed as “Americanization Day” in 1921 and enacted into public law by congress in 1958, loyalty day celebrates the legacy of freedom and the shared ideals that bind our great nation together. While initially established to counterbalance the May 1 celebrations of the communist party in the United States, this day has endured as a permanent fixture on America’s calendar.
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Even as the communist threat has greatly diminished over the years but perhaps is being revitalized, Loyalty Day remains a day worth recognizing.
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On Loyalty Day, we must remind others and ourselves that there is no substitute for loyalty, and we must pledge to maintain a free society in which loyalty is respected and encouraged.

Loyalty Day is a day set aside for the reaffirmation of Loyalty to the United States and for the recognition of the heritage of American freedoms.
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Post Commander Richard Lundie placed our Loyalty Day wreath to display for all to see on the Shelby County Veterans Memorial.
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What American freedoms are you thankful for? 

I am thankful that we can gather in a group without fear of reprisal. We can voice our opinions among our fellow citizens. I am even more thankful that every time our VFW and auxiliary visit, we will always find a group of loyal Americans.
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Loyalty Day is not an official holiday but rather an observance that many are unaware of and would have gone unnoticed in Shelby County if it were not for those gathered on the square.
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Center Mayor pro tem Leigh Porterfield closed the program with the singing of “God Bless America.”

April 27, 2023 - Morrison Insurance Agency is celebrating their 100th Anniversary on Friday, April 28, 2023 from 10:00am to 2:00pm. Everyone is invited to stop by and celebrate with the Morrison family and staff. There will be door prizes and refreshments
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Morrison Insurance Agency has its beginnings in 1923 when H.B. Johnson founded Johnson’s Insurance Agency. In 1925, Tommie Eugene Morrison (T.E.) and H.B Harris started Morrison and Harris Insurance Agency. Thomas Earl (Tommy) Morrison joined them in 1949. In 1952, Johnson’s Insurance Agency merged with Tommy Morrison’s Agency and formed Johnson & Morrison Insurance Agency. Tommy Morrison and H.B. Johnson were partners for twenty-six years, and friends for life. Thomas Earl (Tem) Morrison, Jr. joined his father in 1978, when Mr. Johnson retired. The name changed to Morrison Insurance Agency. Jane Morrison, wife and mother, joined the business in 1984, after receiving her license. Mrs. Morrison rarely missed a day of work, and just recently retired. Connie Morrison started working in 2018. She is licensed in personal insurance and handles the accounts receivables/payables.
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Together, this family business has continued to grow and prosper. Their staff (extended family) have been, and continue to be, committed to the business and their customers. Joy Miller, an experienced agent having previously worked at Stockman Insurance and Bounds Insurance, was with Morrison’s for nearly 25 years, retiring just after her 90th birthday. JoLynn Fountain started in the insurance industry in 1980 at her parent’s agency and has been at Morrison Insurance for 25 years. JoLynn’s primary focus is commercial insurance. Monica Watson has over 25 years of experience in insurance having previously worked at State Farm. She started working at Morrison’s in 2015, left in 2019 but is back with the company specializing in personal and some commercial insurance.
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Morrison’s Insurance Agency is an independent Insurance Agency representing many superior rate companies. This provides them the opportunity to shop for their clients to get the best rates possible.
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Congratulations on 100 years of business in Shelby County and Thank You!!
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Morrison Insurance Agency is located at 125 Shelbyville Street on the downtown square. Call and make an appointment at 936-598-2791.

April 27, 2023 - The University of Texas at Tyler will recognize spring 2023 degree candidates during Spring 2023 Commencement April 28-29.

Candidates from Center are Victoria Baker receiving a Master of Science in Clinical Psychology (2016 Graduate of Joaquin HS); Lorenzo Chavez receiving a Bachelor of Science in Kinesiology (2017 Graduate of Center HS); Axel Luna receiving a Bachelor of Science in Criminal Justice (2019 Graduate of Center HS); and Jacob Mitchell receiving a Doctor of Pharmacy (2015 Graduate of Center HS).

Candidate from Tenaha is Amaya Benitez receiving a Bachelor of Science in Interdisciplinary Studies (2019 Graduate of Tenaha HS).

Candidate from Timpson is Kaleigh Timmons receiving a Bachelor of Science in Economics (2020 Graduate of Timpson HS).

Ceremonies will be held in the UT Tyler R. Don Cowan Fine and Performing Arts Center the following dates and times:

Friday, April 28, 2023
9 a.m. CST – School of Nursing
1 p.m. CST – Ben & Maytee Fisch College of Pharmacy & College of Engineering
5 p.m. CST – College of Arts and Sciences & School of Health Professions

Saturday, April 29, 2023 
9 a.m. CST – College of Education and Psychology & School of Medicine
1 p.m. CST – Soules College of Business

April 24, 2023 - “Jumbo is located about half-way between Mount Enterprise and Clayton on Highway 315, right on the Panola-Rusk County line. The Handbook of Texas History calls Jumbo 'a dispersed rural community,’ which means that no one is really sure what its boundaries are, so if you want to say you are from Jumbo, no one can dispute it,” laughed Jake Keeling as he began his talk at the April monthly meeting of the Timpson Area Genealogical and Heritage Society. “Friendship Missionary Baptist Church, which is still active and strong, is located where downtown Jumbo used to be and our church sign says 'Jumbo Community' on it, which is Jumbo's only signage.”

Holding a microphone while sitting in a wheelchair, Keeling continued, “I was born with cerebral palsy and that's the reason for the wheelchair,” he explained. “I've had it all my life and I'm used to it. This is normal for me. After I was born, my parents brought me back to Jumbo where most of our extended family had lived for many years. I had a lot of cousins but because of my disability I couldn't go outside and run and play and throw balls as they could. So I would sit and listen to the adults talk and tell stories and these stories became important to me, much like a child might become fascinated by dinosaurs or baseball. I began to make connections between the people in the stories rather than just the events. Eventually I began to ask questions to fill in the gaps. I especially liked talking to my grandfather, Curtis Keeling Jr.”

“Curtis, or Pawpaw as we called him, was 69 when I was born, so he remembered people who had been born in the 19th century as well as the stories and events they had told him about from that era. Hearing these things from a man who had heard them from those who experienced them made them seem much more real and alive to me than something I read in a book. They were a part of his life and he was a part of my life. Pawpaw was a hard-working man who spent most of his days on a dead run from one task to another, so getting him to sit down and talk to me was difficult but I learned how to ask him questions that would spur recollections that he would share with me,” Keeling continued. “I have told many of Pawpaw's stories to other members of the family and they often exclaim that he had never shared that with them. The reason is simply that he certainly wasn't a man who dwelled in the past and they were always involved in other activities, but I had the time and interest to draw them out of him.”

“My love of oral history followed me to East Texas Baptist University where I majored in History and am now a part-time instructor in the History Department. After graduation, I completed a Master's Degree in History at SFA, where I learned that, while oral history is important and it is what I do best, it must be documented and researched,” Keeling said. “That is where my disability presented problems because I can't read for long periods and my hands don't manage books very well. I wish I had recorded my grandfather telling some of his stories but I didn't know at the time how important that documentation would be in the future.”

“I'll share one of the many stories my Pawpaw told me with you today. Uncle Edgar Keeling had a service station on the corner of 840 and 315. He was my great-grandfather's first cousin. He also farmed in the late 1950s and raised cattle. One year he had a big crop of sweet potatoes. When he dug them up they had black spots on them. He called it the blight and he couldn't market them so he decided to feed them to his cows. He had about 50 head of cattle and not long after he had fed them the sweet potatoes they began to die. He lost nearly his entire herd. Pawpaw went to see Uncle Edgar and said 'I'm so sorry about what has happened! ‘Uncle Edgar said 'Oh don't worry about it. I'm better off that a lot of folks.’ 'How do you figure that?,' Pawpaw asked him. 'You've lost your crop of sweet potatoes and nearly all of your cattle!' 'Well.’ he said, 'I do have a good pair of mules to drag them off with.”

Jake Keeling brought two books of Christian fiction that he has written and published with him. “You might wonder how I went from history to writing novels. I have always been interested in people and their interaction with each other. When I was an undergraduate at ETBU they had some Christian writer's conferences which I attended. I learned two things from those conferences. One, write what you know and two, write about something that not everyone has experienced. That is what I did in my two novels, which are about a boy with a similar disability to mine living in East Texas. However, another thing they emphasized in the writer's conference was that conflict is what drives the plot. This is difficult for me because I like my characters and I don't want to create problems for them,” Keeling chuckled. “In my novels, the main character does not have the support system that I had and has to make it on his own. With these novels I was able to develop a set of characters and let their story play out.” Both Horseback Days and Lightening Bug Nights, his first published novel, and the sequel, Beyond the Parmalee Bottom, are available from Amazon.

The Timpson Area Genealogical Society meets at 2PM on the third Wednesday of each month in the meeting room of the Timpson Public Library on the corner of Austin and Bremond Streets in downtown Timpson. The TAGHS library is located within the Timpson Public Library and is open and staffed from 9AM until 5PM weekdays. Telephone 936-254-2966 and ask for the Genealogical Library.