Stephen Ray Puckett

Merry Christmas, everybody!

Here's the link to our latest ukulele orchestra Christms concert.  www.facebook.com/startheatreva/videos/1509011110314349

At about 8:30 you can see me hobbling up on stage with my cane and b&w hawaiian shirt. I'm still a bit wobbly after my heart operations. The announcements & program start at about 15:30.

Stephen Ray Puckett

Happy New Year everybody!

Linda Marmion (Linder)

Thanks!

Stephen Ray Puckett

Hello from Groundhog Mountain, Virginia!  23F right now with about 2 inches of snow/ice. Last night it was windy with branches breaking occasionally but no big damage. Power went off for a short while. Sun is out and ice is sublimating.  Wifey made hamburgers for Lunch.  We're doing pretty good. I was supposed to see a sleep doctor for possible sleep apnea but that ain't happening any time soon! /p>

Pat Clooney (King)

Janice Dianne Pace August 7, 1947 - February 16, 2026

Sad news.... Dianne was found deceased today about 5P in her apartment. Her last contacts were yesterday afternoon with her apartment office manager (in person) & myself (via Facebook messenger.)  It was unusual to not hear from her last night OR this AM. After requesting a welfare check today, HPD advised she possibly fell, & died alone - of natural causes. I asked them to please call Sue Sorrels - a good friend of the family to let her know.  I'm hoping Sue (who lives out of town) will know how to help with her affairs & any arrangements. If I hear of any services, I will share it here. Dianne never married and had no children. She was 78. 

Pat Clooney King - Admin Waltrip '67  

Linda Marmion (Linder)

I'm so sad to learn of Diane's death. She was such a sweet person. I will appreciate you informing us if a service is planned. 

                          Linda Marmion Linder, Class of '65

Karen Rouse (Corner)

Cypress Creek's yearly art show is February 27 and 28, not this coming weekend but the next.  Come see what we've done! This year some of the artists will be painting during the show, AND, there will be  handpainted refrigerator magnets free with purchase!!  How fun is that!!  Would love to see you.  Check out my "cat tree".

I can't get the flyer to open but times are Friday, 4-7 and Sat. 10-5, Cypress Creek Christian Church, 6823 Cypresswood Dr, Spring 77379, next to Barbara Bush Library.

Karen Rouse Corner

Genie Hackenjos (Kistler)

Yippee!  I just bought 2 boxes of Girl Scout Cookies for $12.00!  Back in my Stevens School Days, I can remember toting them door to door for $.50 a box (only 2 flavors at that time).  There was a house that had burned a block away, and it was being repaired.  Every day the construction crew would buy a box each for their afternoon breaks--that ran up my sales considerably!  

Patricia Bissonnet (Bissonnet)

Genie Hackenjos--

Ai says that $.50 in 1954 would be worth $6.03 today.  You got a bargain!

Stephen Ray Puckett

When young I would go downtown every year and watch the parade. Roy Rogers, The Cisko Kid, & Pancho, Gene Autry, Annie Oakley, Wyatt Earp, James Arness of Gunsmoke. Oh my! To me and my dad, Houston was definitely 'Southwest', with cowboys, horses, cows, etc. None of that Old South stuff.

Even the cops went Go Texan.

The whole town went crazy for the Fat Stock Show & Rodeo.

Sears: 

I got to see Trigger at Sears in 1952.  Wow! 

Young Joe Forrester at the rodeo with his big brother Ron.  Yee haw!

A funny rodeo parade story.  In the early 1990s I worked for First Interstate Bank.   I was in a Portland OR office and we had a work session with accounting people in Houston who were in an upper floor of the Niels Esperson building - there were about a dozen of us.  It was hard to hear the Houston group because of background noise.  We asked about it and they explained that they had the windows up so they could listen to the rodeo parade.  We asked that they shut the windows so we could hear.  They replied that no way would they shut out the rodeo parade!  The Portland folks turned to me for an explanation.  I explained that the Houstonians took this parade very seriously.  Some of the Houston meeting members were senior & executive VPs so I doubted if they would listen to us - and they didn't.   We just had to put up with it. 

Linda Marmion (Linder)

 What great pictures. I share many of the same memories. At that time the parade was on Wednesday, and we got out of school to attend it. 
 My mother and I went every year, and I remember Roy Rogers and other TV cowboys being in the parade and entertaining at the rodeo in the old coliseum. 
  When I was a teenager I went with two friends and all of us got on horses with trail drivers and rode in the parade!

Toni Bracher (Lawrence)

Thanks for reminding of the events when we were teenagers! What fun! 

Genie Hackenjos (Kistler)

One year Roy Rogers and Dale Evans shook my hand after the Rodeo.  I didn't wash it for several days!

Jacquie Campbell (Biggs)

My dad worked in the Espersen Bldg in the 1950's and he took me with him to work for the Rodeo Parade.  I think Talley went with me one year. We would walk around near the block where the parage began and ask people if we could ride on their float, or convertible, or horse.  But no one ever allowed us to. 

Then when we were in IG, we ushered at the Rodeo when it was in the Coliseum and the first year in the AstroDone. Several of us walked theough the Fat Stock Show (Now the Live Stock Show) and watched a young boy who had hoped to show his heifer; however the animal got sick and the boy cared for heifer day and night.  He did not get to show the animal, but it did not die.  That was all we heard about it.

Steven, the folks in my dad's office threw confetti out the windows during the parade.

Thanks for all the memories.

f

Talley Hudson

Ann Robin Trimble (Haney)

When I was in grade school, my family lived on Chamboard Lane. One year, most of the families on Chamboard Lane joined together and chartered a Greyhound bus to take us all to see The Cisco Kid and Pancho at the rodeo. We all dressed in our best "western" attire and had a memorable trip on the bus to enjoy the rodeo. I also remember that around rodeo time, a man with a pony and cowboy "get-up" (hat, chaps, bandana, etc.) would come to our neighborhood to take pictures of kids adorned in the cowboy attire sitting on the pony. He would sell the pictures to our parents, and we would wait with excitement for the arrival of our pictures in the mail. Rodeo days in Houston have always been full of lifelong memories for those of us who grew up there. As a teenager, I got to ride for one day in the Saltgrass Trail Ride with my then boyfriend whose family had ranchland and horses in Waller, Tx. I'll never forget hearing Eddie Arnold singing "Cattle Call" on the loud speakers that accompanied the trail riders as they made their way from Cat Sprngs to Houston.  What a memorable time that was. Yeeee-hawwww!!

Hilda Carol Smith (Godell)

Stephen Ray Puckett

Roy Rogers was a rodeo star 1950, 1952, 1957, 1960, 1968, 1969, 1972.  I saw him many times and associated him with the rodeo

. 

When little, I thought the Coliseum was enormous!

Mar 3 1976 ad, a half century ago.

Linda Marmion (Linder)

I remember seeing Roy Rogers many times. The rodeo in the old Coliseum was the best. I loved having him shake hands with all the kids that came down to the railing!   
                                                                         Linda Marmion Linder

Stephen Ray Puckett

Happy Spring!   This is my favorite season, when the new leaves and flowers spring forth.  I have fond memories of the patches of bluebonnets in Texas.

Pat Clooney (King)

This is the info I have received on Dianne Pace’s service.

There will be a short Memorial Service for Janice Dianne Pace on
Sunday, June 21, 2026 at 12:15P outside at the St. Luke’s Memorial Garden of St. Luke’s Methodist Church located at 3471 Westheimer, Houston, TX 77027.  The Memorial Garden is described as at "the rear of the church & near the church parking lot.”
Church info:  www.stlukesmethodist.org 713 622-5710

Janice Dianne Pace 1947-2026
Preliminary Obituary:
It is with great sorrow that we share the passing of Dianne Pace on February 17, 2026 of natural causes.

Dianne had a small family and is survived by three cousins:
Judy Bridges of Bryan, TX; Nancy Hutchins of New Braunfels; and Marinel Urban of Houston, TX along with many second and third cousins.

She was prededed in death by her parents Harlan Brady Pace on April 16, 2006, and Yvonne White on October 30, 2012.

Dianne had no siblings or children, but she did have a big family at St. Luke's Methodist Church Choir where she sang for over 55 years.

There is a memorial service planned for her at 12:15 PM on June 21, 2026 outside at the Memorial Garden of St. Luke's Methodist church Houston, TX.

(BELOW IS A RECAP of a PRIOR MESSAGE)

Janice Dianne Pace August 7, 1947 - February 16, 2026

Sad news.... Dianne was found deceased today about 5P in her apartment. Her last contacts were yesterday afternoon with her apartment office manager (in person) & myself (via Facebook messenger.)  It was unusual to not hear from her last night OR this AM. After requesting a welfare check today, HPD advised she possibly fell, & died alone - of natural causes. I asked them to please call Sue Sorrels - a good friend of the family to let her know.  I'm hoping Sue (who lives out of town) will know how to help with her affairs & any arrangements. If I hear of any services, I will share it here. Dianne never married and had no children. She was 78. 

Pat Clooney King - Admin Waltrip '67  

Stephen Ray Puckett

Happy Summer.   May it be wonderful for you!

We've been OK here in the mountains.  It's been 9 months since my heart operations and all has been well since then.  I am amazed about the medical technical advances in the last few decades!  Yes, there were some lingering side efffects from the procedures but the heart portions were OK.  I just had a skin cancer removed from my horehead.  This seems to be healing OK.  Apparently my skin type is susceptible to this - my dad and brother had a number of these procedures.  Wish I knew now what I do now and I could have avoided these kinds of worries! Of course, I wish I knew then more about a lot of things!   Wifey is doing OK and spending more time on measures to improve her memory like a lof  of folks our age that live around here.   We still are playing in ukulele groups (Lil 1 and me 2). 

We are still trying to downsize <sigh>

How far we have come in the last 50+ years:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YavThhrC1ik

Stephen Ray Puckett

I tried to add this photo and comments to my profile but could not get it posted there so am putting it here.  Summer 1965 the Houston All-City Symphony Orchestra went to Europe as guests of the French & German governments who wanted to see how the public schools did with their music programs.  We were the first high school (& junior high) age American orchestra to tour Europe.  Class members there were Lester Oliver (tuba), Bill Garrison (french horn), Barbara Curry (violin), and me on bassoon.  A great tour, both for us and the audiences.  

Jeanne Spencer (Adams)

Is anyone still active on this page?  I was wondering if y'all still meet at the park or somewhere?  I would love to see some people again.  We are doing fine in Rockwall and finally have two great grandchildren - little boys, but they are in North Carolina.  -- Jeanne Adams

Lillian Suzanne Vickers (Bilodeau)

Stephen, I saw your post about the orchestra being invited to France and Germany and being the first high school orchestra to do so. My daughter's high school band was invited, in 1995, to be the guest of the Russian government. The invitation came from the Russian Minister of Culture, a general of the Russian Army. We learned later that our kids were the first non-Russian band to ever play on the grounds of the Kremlin, including the Marine band that accompanied Bill Clinton two years before. It was all an amazing life lesson for the kids and the parents.