Tales from the Morgue

1981: Vigor, religion initiate El Paso's first schools

04/02/1981

Janis Marston
El Paso Times -

Gutsiness and unflappable religious fervor launched El Paso’s first schools.

Visions of a more genteel Southwestern society kept them going when setbacks such as mere survival, boy scouts, bordellos and booze were on many minds in those early years.

It wasn’t until 1867 that book-learnin’ made a big enough impact here to be recorded. Two persons began teaching then – a lawyer who taught at his Main and Mesa office when business lagged and a judge’s wife who gave lessons around the kitchen table.

After their educational breakthrough, some even pitched tents for classrooms.

The Rev. Joseph Wilkins Tays started a mission school in 1870 for 10 American boys and girls and several Mexican children. Mary Dowell, daughter of El Paso’s first mayor who learned to read in the lawyer’s office, taught at the mission school.

Teaching Ysleta-area children began about this time too.

One of the earliest schools was on a ranch about 3 miles from Ysleta.

But Mexican parents boycotted it, saying the classes violated Christian doctrine and spending time with books robbed children of valuable time in the fields.

Parents eventually lifted the boycott and the fledgling desert schools limped along for about a decade until Catholicism entered the classrooms.

It began with the arrival of five Sisters of Loretto at the Foot of the Cross, a religious order whose nuns seemed fearless of the Southwest’s hardships in teaching Spanish-speaking children in New Mexico, Arizona, and Colorado.

The Sisters arrived in San Elizario in 1879 and opened St. Joseph’s Academy in the convent that fall. It was not the most conducive place for learning: an adobe house with dirt floors and windows of glazed muslin, not glass. Malaria weakened both teachers’ and students’ ranks.

“It seemed we had reached God’s forsaken part of the world,” one Sister wrote.

But their faith did not waver. They replaced the dirt floor with wooden slats, planted gardens and trees and added buildings to the convent grounds.

Their reputation grew and the Sisters soon recognized their boarders needed a high school.

A sick pupil who needed doctor’s care eventually led them to El Paso, where they opened St. Joseph’s Academy for Girls in 1892.

They packed five wagons, loaded with parlor furniture, two pianos, mattresses and other furnishings for the new academy. The 22-mile trek from San Elizario to El Paso took five to six hours by wagon; the horses trudging through ruts of sand sometimes a foot deep.

St. Joseph’s – the forerunner of today’s Loretto Academy – opened on North El Paso Street in September 1892. A month later, the Sisters opened Sacred Heart School at 610 S. Oregon for elementary-age children.

By this time, non-church schools began struggling for acceptance in El Paso and Ysleta. As more people rode the rails to El Paso, parents began supporting education. However, they sent their boys and girls to private schools, such as D.W. McKay’s two-room “Select School for Males and Females.”

Free, public education for all required constant prodding and patience that could have turned lesser visionary persons to drink.

A three-member school commission hired Ella Nunn to teach the county-run school on South Ochoa Street. When school started in 1881 with 42 pupils, it appeared public education was well on its way.

But the landlord kicked Miss Nunn and her students out in December. Some say he didn’t think the $10-a-month rent was enough and got a better deal by turning the building into a house of pleasure.

Christmas vacation that year stretched into February when Miss Nunn returned to a makeshift classroom in a tent. El Paso’s winds and heat were too much to ignore, and the city’s leaders realized the necessity of a permanent school and a school board.

This was 1882. Nothing materialized until the next year, however, much to the chagrin of the newspapers in town. Frequent editorials chided El Pasoans for their lax attitude toward educating their children.

Finally, in 1883, a two-room school building rose at Myrtle and Campbell streets, site of the old Mountain Bell Telephone office. It was the first public school building in town.

It opened with 53 children, enrollment doubled by March and teachers turned away 25 children because there wasn’t enough room for them.

A better-built, permanent school – Central School – replaced it in 1884. The first high school opened the next year on the two-story building‘s top floor. Total enrollment for elementary and high school that year: 400.

Public schooling in Ysleta was soon to follow.

There were two private schools – one for boys, one for girls – during the early 1800s for most of Ysleta’s school bound youngsters. Other children were taught in homes.

Even though the town’s population leveled off during El Paso’s boom days, Lower Valley leaders foresaw the importance of opening schools for all.

They go their chance after El Paso replaced Ysleta as county seat in 1883.

Ysleta had been the hub of government for 12 years. When El Paso took over, the vacated stone courthouse seemed perfect for a school. Trustees rented the courthouse until 1887 when they bought it for $1,000 and proudly proclaimed Ysleta’s first permanent school building. It stood where Ysleta Elementary School is today.

Educators overlooked black and most Mexican children until the late 1800s.

The first school for blacks opened in a Southside church in 1885 with 16 students.

After moving twice in two years, Douglass School – named for abolitionist Frederick Douglass – opened at Fourth and Kansas streets in 1891 for blacks only. (A new Douglass at South Eucalyptus Street opened in 1921 for all blacks, kindergarten through high school, in the county. Douglass for-blacks-only continued until 1955 when the U.S. Supreme court outlawed all segregated schools.)

The star of teaching poor children of Mexican families arrived in 1887 with a Spaniard who called himself O.V. Aoy arrived her in 1887.

He had been a Jesuit priest, had translated the Book of Mormon into Spanish and had published a newspaper in Silver City, N.M. He set up his school – providing the books, blackboards and chairs himself, plus $5-a-month rent – behind an assay office on San Francisco Street.

For three years, no one but his pupils’ parents knew of the little school. In 1890, Aoy’s classroom came to light after he fell, and the doctor who treated him brought it to the board’s attention. When Aoy broke his leg, he was penniless, sleeping on a bench with a coat for a pillow and only owned the clothes on his back and completely out of food.

The school board put him on the payroll as principal of the “Mexican Preparatory School” until his death in 1895. His name lives on at Aoy School, 901 S. Campbell, the first section built in 1899.

At the turn of the century, El Paso’s public school system supported 48 teachers in seven schools for whites and one for blacks.

A new high school – El Paso High – opened in 1902 at North Kansas and Arizona streets. “From here to the University of Texas” was inscribed in Latin over the auditorium stage.

Like El Paso, Ysleta’s school-age population flourished. A new, four-room grade school replaced the Old Stone Courthouse School in 1915.

Parochial Schools of various denominations also came to El Paso during this time.

The Sisters of Loretto opened another school, St. Mary’s Catholic School at 912 Myrtle Ave., in 1903. It prospered until the 1960s when lack of money and a changing neighborhood forced its closing. It was one of several Catholic schools to start in this period.

The Baptist started the short-lived Anglo-Mexican Institute at Stanton and Fifth streets in 1907.

The Methodists also came to South El Paso, starting Lydia Patterson Institute in 1913 to teach English to Spanish-speakers.

Mexican Jesuits fled their country during Pancho Villa’s uprising and established a seminary near Tigua in 1914. The exiled priests taught at Ysleta College until the 1940s and 1950s, when they returned to their homeland. The college became Jesuit High School in 1958. A lack of money and teachers closed the school in 1972.

Perhaps the city’s most unique school started in 1910 when wealthy ranchers wanted their daughters to get educated in an exclusive school but without having to send them back East.

It was 1910 and the start of the El Paso School for Girls.

Four small buildings in the Sunset Heights area housed 18 girls from the area’s finer families.

The school moved to its present Austin Terrace site at the corner of Radford and Hastings in 1918. Owned and operated by stockholders, the school was the first of its kind in the Southwest. It taught kindergarten through 12th grade girls.

The school’s name changed to the Radford School for Girls in 1931 after the Radford family in Missouri bailed out the financially-hurting school with a large endowment; the name changed again in 1976 – to Radford School – when boys started going there.

Lucinda de Leftwich Templin, principal from 1927 to 1968, embodied much of Radford’s educational philosophy. Before her death in 1969, she was like a cornerstone in the school’s tradition.

A sticker for discipline, and described as one of El Paso’s first liberated women, Dr. Templin lectured throughout the country in the 1950s.

“It is futile to attempt to make education easy and pleasant for all,” she said. ‘There is no easy way to become an educated and disciplined person. It requires work, stamina, courage and vision.”

2007: Mysterious Tunnels

03/26/2007

By Adriana M. Chávez
El Paso Times

[ Underground mazes, Chinese immigration reportedly linked ]

Some think they cross the border as part of an elaborate illegal immigration plan, others think they once housed Chinese opium dens and all those who dare enter them without permission are cursed to meet an early death.

Historians and residents near at least two underground "tunnels" or dens in Central El Paso have been perplexed for years about the origins of the dens, but historians agree that it's a slight possibility that they lead into Mexico.

Chihuahuita resident Beatrice Gomez, 77, has lived in her home on Canal Road her entire life, but discovered the den underneath her home about 30 years ago. Gomez said she has always been too scared to explore the den's depths, but told the story of a cousin of hers who dared set foot into the den's dark, concrete walls.

"He asked me if he could take a look and I told him he could go in to see what was in there and where it led to, and I remember that it smelled," Gomez said in Spanish. "When he came out he was scared. I didn't see anything behind him. It was too dark, but he looked so scared, and a week later he died, I don't know why."

Gomez has since sealed the den's entrance with a concrete slab and moved a storage shed on top of it.

Local historian Fred Morales said he's familiar with the den underneath Gomez's house and doesn't believe that Gomez's cousin's death had anything to do with having entered the den.

"It's just a basement. There are no tunnels between Juárez and El Paso," Morales said. "A lot of homes in Chihuahuita have basements that were used by Chinese bootleggers to smuggle alcohol, and (used) for the smuggling of arms during the Mexican revolution. I don't believe in curses. Those are fables and stories, like La Llorona and the chupacabra," two well-known Mexican folk tales.

Another local historian, Leon Metz, agreed with Morales.

"If (the tunnels) did go into Mexico, you would have had to dig under the river, and ordinarily that would be difficult," Metz said.

In 1972, researcher Nancy Farrar studied the city's Chinese population. The study seems to support claims that the underground passages were built for Chinese immigration.

In her study, "The Chinese In El Paso," published by the University of Texas at El Paso's Texas Western Press, Farrar said the city's Chinatown, which was located in a section bordered by Mills, Stanton, El Paso and Fourth streets, featured opium and gambling dens along with legitimate businesses such as markets, restaurants and laundries.

The city's most famous tunnel is beneath The Turtle House apartment building at 516 Corto Way in Sunset Heights. Many Turtle House residents said they've cautiously ventured through the maze of rooms beneath the building, but haven't walked through the rooms long enough to see where the maze ends.

However, Doug Yost, president of the Sunset Heights Neighborhood Association, said the rooms may have more to do with drainage rather than any illegal activities.

"The theory or the legend is that they were smuggling tunnels for the Chinese, but no one in their right mind would dig a tunnel through Sunset Heights," Yost said. "Personally, I think it's just natural drainage through the rock like you see at Carlsbad Caverns."

Chinese in El Paso

•On May 19, 1881, about 1,200 Chinese laborers came into the city after the arrival of the railroad.

•To ease homesickness, Chinese business owners opened restaurants, stores and laundries.

•The new businesses created a Chinatown, which stretched from Mills, Fourth, Stanton and El Paso streets.

•Opium dens and gambling houses also became popular among residents.

•As the railroad lines were completed, most Chinese workers moved to other U.S. cities or returned to China.

•In 1983, Chinese artifacts, including medicine vials, pottery, cooking utensils and bird and fish bones, were found near the Cortez Hotel, which was being renovated for office space.

•Many Chinese artifacts are now on display at the Centennial Museum at the University of Texas at El Paso.

1973: Bassett Maintenance Chief Is A Man of Many Talents

07/10/1973

C. B. "Charlie" Little was born with an oversize hump of intellectual curiosity. Whenever something catches his attention. he is not satisfied until he learns everything he can about it.

Among things he has mastered so far are flying multi -engine planes, making false teeth. riding camels and elephants, repairing locks, training horses to do circus tricks, photography including processing photos, breeding dogs, operating a hardware store and a tavern, and doing electrical, plumbing, and mechanical repairs.

AS MAINTENANCE superintendent at Bassett Center. Little's drive to keep at a thing until he has mastered it is very useful. He supervises a regular crew of five, plus other specialists and workers from time to time. He is responsible for the upkeep of the buildings and grounds of the shopping center. If a store basement is in danger of flooding, an alarm goes off day or night, and Little is called to take charge until the sump lift station under the street is operable again.

If a roof leaks, if someone breaks a bottle of hair dye on the mall, if a shrub dies, if someone vandalizes the restrooms,if paint starts to flake off the outside of a building, if mall decorations must be changed, if tables and chairs need rearranging in the community hall, if there is a hole in the parking lot pavement, Little is the one who must see to it.

Although he uses a number of his past accomplishments in his present job. he does not need all of them. He no longer

flies, although he has had a pilot's license for more than 30 years.

WHEN HE was growing up in El Paso, he and his brother, Joe Little, spent as much time as they could exploring the mountains and desert. His interest in aviation came about because he was looking for legendary buried treasure in the Franklin Mountains, and decided it would be helpful if he could fly over the area and get an aerial view of it. He paid a pilot to fly him the first time, and flying seemed such a good idea that he decided it would be better to learn to fly himself than to have to hire somebody else to do the flying.

After the got his pilot's license, he got involved with a group of pigeon-racing enthusiasts and used to take the pigeons up in a plane and release them for races back to El Paso.

He learned to make false teeth and other dental prosthetics as a young, single man. In those days he ran with a group of young .men who enjoyed life too much to be entirely serious about jobs. "One of us would work at a job until he got tired of it." Little said, "and then he would quit and another of us would apply for and get the job."

ONE OF his friends had worked at a dental laboratory and when he quit Little got the job. He made teeth and crowns for dentists until the depression came along and dentists quit using the dental lab and began doing their own lab work.

Little owned several horses and with Sheriff Chris Fox formed El Paso's first Sheriff's Posse. They kept their horses in the county corral at the present location of the El Paso County Coliseum. Some time later a Tom Mix circus that was having financial difficulties came to town. The circus veterinarian, a Dr. Shaw, and his wife left the circus in El Paso, taking a number of the trick horses with them. They kept the horses at the county corral, giving Little an opportunity to become friends with the Shaws and learn from them how to teach horses to do circus tricks.

NOT ANY one interest quieted his restlessness. In addition to his hobbies of exploring, flying, and training horses, somewhere along the line he added dog breeding. He has raised a number of different breeds, including Great Danes, Blue Tick Hounds. and Cocker Spaniels. At the present time he has a toy bulldog, a gift from his daughter, Louise, and her husband, Tom Bakofsky.

He also took up photography. At one time he had a portrait studio set up in his home and look free photos for ' any Austin High School seniors who could not afford to have senior pictures made.

He learned bookkeeping after going to work for Loose Wiles Cracker and Candy Co. as a bookkeeper. He attended

and graduated from the old International Business College having mastered short-hand and typing as well as bookkeeping.

FOR 14 YEARS prior to World War II, he worked for the telephone company, starting as a linesman's helper and moving in to different jobs as he learned them all.

With his pilot's license and reserve commission in the Army, Little-was all set when World War II came, to be in the Army Air Corps as a pilot. But somehow he ended up as a Signal Corps officer with a desk job. He was so bored that he applied for a transfer "anywhere as long as it is in a hot, dry climate." He quickly found himself in the Sahara Desert as liaison officer to Gen. Montgomery's British 8th Army. It was there he learned to ride camels and elephants.

DURING this time he was in charge of installing all the communications system for the Office of Strategic Services in Africa, and he set up all the communications and codes for the Mena House Conference in Cairo. Egypt. that was attended by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Sir Winston Churchill , Premier Josef Stalin, and Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek.

Little was in North Africa for 19 months, then went to England escorting a load of Italian prisoners of war. Also on the prison ship, going to England, was a load of missionary families fleeing Japanese armies that were trying to get over the Hump into Burma and India.

HE TOOK part in the invasion of Normandy as a Signal assault officer in charge of a tank unit with the 13lh Armored Corps. He was wounded and, when he was able to travel , he escorted a group of hard-core Nazi troublemakers from all over Europe back to the status. Leaving the prisoners in New York, he went to the 4th Service Command in Dallas, and on to Ashburn General Hospital where he served as Post Signal Officer and also was treated for his wounds. He stayed there until the war was over.

After the war, he returned for a while to his old job with the telephone company, but he was tired of being an executive and thinking how pleasant, it must have been for the Army private to have somebody make all his decisions.

Little went to work on the construction of Van Home Park, a Ft. Bliss housing project at that time, as a common laborer. He had just thought he was tired of decision making . He did not last even two days as a laborer until he had organized his fellow laborers into work crews and was demanding that they turn out more efficient labor.

He stayed with the construction of Van Home Park as a supervisor and when the project was finished, he was asked to stay on in charge of maintenance.

WHEN BASSETT Center was built. Dan Ponder of Ponder Construction Co., which with C. H. Leavell Construction Co. had built both Van Home Park and Bassett Center, asked Little to take charge of maintenance at the shopping Center.

Little has been at Bassett Center for 11 years, and the physical activity and variety of jobs and challenges seems to satisfy him. In his spare time he has been active in the Masonic Lodge and is a 32nd Degree Mason. He lives with his wife at 3801 Savannah avenue. In addition to his daughter and 'brother, he has one sister. Mrs. Wiley Casteel, also of El Paso.

1949: Superintendent Shudders at Expense Of Maintaining Remodeled Liberty Hall

10/10/1949

Cohen Sees Higher Prices for Seats

Sam Cohen, Liberty Hall superintendent, eased himself into one of the hall's new plush seats. "I've got problems," he said, gesturing at the hall's pink and maroon interior where workmen were busy hammering, testing electric switches and measuring the floor for carpets.

"No one will know how many problems I'm going to have when this is finished. Liberty Hall is going to be beautiful. But it's going to be expensive."

That to Superintendent Cohen is problem No. 1—the expense. The County is spending $267,140 to remodel the hall. Too much, Mr. Cohen thinks.

Patrons to Pay More

But the real bite will come when Liberty Hall patrons, who used to pay from $3 to $3.90 for front row seats at top shows, will shell out $4 for any good seat at any good show, Mr. Cohen said.

Booking agents will have to charge more per seats because there are fewer places to sit now. Liberty Hall, as a splintery, draft structure, had 2984 seats. But in taking out the splinters and the drafts, the County also took out 587 seats.

Mr. Cohen plans to use the woman's touch in cleaning Liberty Hall.

An all male crew used to do it.

Women with vacuum cleaners now because of the thick carpets must be hired. More police will have to be on duty to prevent vandalism. The old Liberty Hall was a target for that, and still carries some of the vandals' scars.

One ruined seat in the new hall means a $25 repair job. Mr. Cohen patted a finished wall in the hall lobby. It will be covered with plastic wainscoting, giving the appearance of a finished cocktail lounge.

So will the door leading from the lobby down the carpet aisle.

"I hate lo think what will happen if a knife got into this." Mr. Cohen said, fingering the plastic.

Renovation Brings Other Problems

'No other theater in North America has this."

Liberty Hall has another feature which Mr. Cohen believes is a No. 1 in North American theaters— its elaborate dressing rooms.

They are finished with (10 feet of mirrors, neon lights, tile floors, six showers and toilets. Most are located in the basement where rats once scampered.

Liberty Hall stars will have mirrors on all four walls of their dressing rooms back of the stage. They will walk on carpets costing $20 a yard.

'That's too much to put in dressing rooms," Mr. Cohen said. "This isn't a hotel. I need all the money spent on dressing rooms for maintenance."

Seats Without Vision

That brought the superintendent face to face with another problem.

"How are we going to get heavy equipment down into the dressing rooms?" he asked, "There's no direct entrance."

He seated himself again. "Look, no hands," he said. The seat sprang down in place from a folded position.

"But look at this." He moved to an end seat in the front six vows. "No vision. You can't see the middle of the stage from here or any other end seat in the front six rows.

"I tell you, I've got problems.

 Liberty Hall photo gallery

1946: Short Pants for Men? El Pasoans Are Hot, Cold Over New Style

06/24/1946

By CALVIN COOLPANTS, Herald-Post Men’s Fashion Editor

El Pasoans have accepted with scrambled emotions the news that representative of the Society for the Promotion of Comfort for Men is town to change male fashions.

The representative. Armand P. Entre-chat, Friday announced his intention of converting El Paso men to the wearing of Khaki shorts, short-sleevcd shirts and pith helmet, la Frank Buck, the renowned lion tamer.

Some El Pasoans were hot for he cool pants while others were distinctly chilly.

A gentleman who gave his name as L. Q. Fisterus telephoned that he will work enthusiastically with the SPCM representative to make shorts popular with men: Mr. Fisterus is El Paso agent for a company that manufacturers sun burn ungents.

A purveyor of anti-mosquito lotion also pledged his wholehearted support to the campaign. "You invite 'em," he said. "I fight 'em "

One of the distinctly chilly reports came from Tom Adams of 1427 Wyoming street, whose ancestors, Mr. Adams said, helped make Texas great and who voted to allow the United States to associate themselves with Texas, during the days of the republic.

Mr. Adams asked the Herald Post to tell M. Entre-chat that he should take his silly notions elsewhere. To a very warm place, in fact.

M. Entre-chat, advised of Mr. Adams' statements, sighed and said: "All the time I run into that type of temperament.

"Such people brag of their ancestors and their hardihood, but they have not the strength of 'character to take a step which would repay them a thousand-fold in comfort.

"I shall not become disheartened. I shall persevere. I have a cause which will benefit mankind. I shall carry on the fight."

Timid Convert

M. Entre-chat felt pretty good because he has recruited a young man who gave his name as Byrdleggs Breezebottom, a blatant phoney if there ever was one, but who said it would be worth his social standing if he were to be known as a shorts wearer.

Breezebottom wore shorts while stationed during the war in Trinidad, where it's almost as hot as it it here.

"You see," said Mr. Entre-chat, 'We're getting converts, even if they are timid. "We must continue our work."

Monsieur Entre-chat Friday proposed to do his spadework among members of the 20-30 Club and Junior Chamber of Commerce. Leaders of these otherwise enterprising groups today expressed an attitude which M. Entre-chat considers definitely reactionary.

William Niland, president of the 20-30 Club, said: "I'm very much in favor of wearing short sleeves and no tie but I don't think much of the short pants.

"Convention, I guess.

"Also, while I was in the Army I was thrown with a bunch of British officers wearing those short pants and I didn't think much of their looks.

"1 wouldn't mind shorts if everyone else wore them, I guess.

Chained to Tradition

"I think we could bring the 20-30ans around." Judson Williams of the Junior Chamber of Commerce approves

but doesn't think such a program, though sound, would go over in El Paso.

"Mighty hard to break tradition,' said Mr. Williams. "Women change with the season, but look at us men—coat and pants, pants and coat, the same old rut the year 'round.

"Someone should start, the rest might follow."

W. T. Tippen. also of the Junior Chamber of Commerce, said: "Jud Williams in shorts. When 1 see it, I'll do it, too. He won't. No strength of conviction."

1955: Woman Football Coach Passes, Punts And Gains Admiration of Students

11/05/1955

Miss Lydla Sierra Proud of Trophies

Miss Lydia Sierra, athletic coach of St. Joseph's Catholic School, is proud of the school's bulging trophy case.

When she went to St. Joseph's five years ago, there was one basketball trophy.

Since she has been coaching, the school has won several dozen trophies for fencing, baseball, football, basketball and sportsmanship.

When she began coaching at St. Joseph's, she had the task of proving herself.

She Can Pass and Punt

"It's a natural reaction with the boys," Miss Sierra said. "Sometimes they resent having a woman football coach and sometimes they don't. But the popular reaction is to wait and see how I play the game."

So Miss Sierra shows them.

When they see her pass and punt, their attitude, regardless of whether it is one of resentment, doubt or curiosity, turns to admiration.

"I haven't had any difficulties," Miss Sierra said.

"Of course, it's not difficult to beat boys at the age level of 13, at kicking. When they see how far I can kick as compared to their rather shorter kicks, they decide I'm all right"

Miss Sierra has been coaching football for almost 15 years.

She Changed Her Mind

"I've always liked the game," she said. "I came from a family of football players. My brothers liked to play.

"I never intended to teach football, but when I saw the need for coaches, particularly in grade school, I changed my mind.

"When I came to St. Joseph's, the boys played touch football, softball and volleyball We decided to start tackle football, baseball and fencing."

Miss Sierra attended Las Cruces Union High School. While she was a high school student, she coached basketball and track at Holy Cross Catholic School in Las Cruces.

She attended New Mexico A. and M. College for two years.

"I took several coaching courses," she said. “We used to play football to get the fundamentals of the course and for the purpose of demonstration. We had two teams. We played regular games except we didn't tackle."

Miss Sierra spent eight months observing recreation programs in Manhattan and Brooklyn, N. Y. She trained as a parachute and fabric inspector at Kelly Air Force Base in San Antonio for nine months, then went to Biggs Air Force Base where she worked for four years as a civilian during World War II.

After she quit work at Biggs Field, she taught at Alamo School for two years. During this time she was in charge of sports of the Catholic Community Center. She taught swimming, basketball, badminton, football and tennis. Next, she took a job as physical education instructor at Sacred Heart School for two years.

Then came her job as athletic coach-at St. Joseph's. This is her fifth year there. She is parish recreation director and physical education teacher for the boys. She coaches all sports. This includes football, fencing, baseball, track and basketball. She also teaches square dancing to boys and girls and a "little ballroom dancing."

Miss Sierra Is the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. James Sierra of Las Cruces. She lives at 1015 North Florence street.

She has three brothers, Bernard F. Sierra of El Paso; Frank Sierra of Los Angeles and James Jr. of Las Cruces. Her sisters are Mrs. Harlan Stamm of Long Beach, Calif., and Mrs. Paul Maese of Las Cruces.

She started two of her nephews off in the fundamentals of football. They are Bernie Jr., president of the El Paso High School senior class, and Paul Jr., a student at Las Cruces Union High School.

1950: El Paso Giant Goes Over Big in New Career

 

Photo: Jake Erlich, world's tallest man at 8'6" and Elliott Roosevelt at El Paso's Hussman/Cortez Hotel. 1937. Elliott was on his way to Arizona to hunt. (El Paso Times Blumenthal Photo Collection)

 

05/16/1950

The thing that Jake Erlich of El Paso hated most about being a circus giant was having people ask, "How's the weather up there?"

"I figure I was asked that question at least 10,000 times," recalled Erlich.

At 44 and still standing 8 feet 6% inches, he is happy in his new career as “the world’s tallest traveling salesman."

You must remember Jake, probably the most famous and certainly the most talented of a long line of Ringling Brothers Circus giants.

Rings at 25 Cents

"I used to sell my giant's lucky rings for a quarter," he grinned.

"I sold thousands upon thousands of them. Every once in a while I still bump into someone who pulls out one of those rings, tarnished with age. I always offer to give them their quarter back if it hasn't brought them good luck."

As a child Jake had wanted to be a motion picture actor. And from the age of 13 to 17 he did appear as a gangling, overgrown kid in some 48 film comedies with Baby Peggy and other stars of the day.

One afternoon he went with some other boys to see the Ringling Brothers sideshow. He was amazed to find he was taller than "the world's tallest man." So was the circus. It promptly offered the youth a contract.

Needed Income

'I didn't want to be a sideshow freak," Jake said. "But I did want to earn a living. I traveled with the circus for 14 years. And by then all its glamor and color had ended for me."

After a trip to Australia, Jake returned and looked up an old friend who was working with the wine division of Schenley Industries. The company hired Jake to make a three-month goodwill tour—and he's been with it ever since.

He has graduated at that time from being an oddity to becoming one of the ablest merchandising specialists in the wine business.

Jake only met one man taller than himself in his life—Robert Wadlow, the late Alton, Ill. giant.

"He stood 8 feet, 9% inches," Jake said. "I was so flabbergasted when I saw him the only thing I could think to say was, 'How's the weather up there?'

“He didn't like it either."

Around Town September 4, 1895

The McGinty orchestra had a practice last night.

Collector Chas. Davis will return from his ranch this morning.

A marriage license was issued yesterday to William Helm and Miss Augusta J.M. Peterson.

Mr. Feldman was fined $2.50 yesterday for fast riding on his bike and $2.50 for not carrying a light.

The delayed T.&P. train, which arrived from the east yesterday afternoon, brought in a carload of mail.

The meeting of the El Paso Citizens’ Progressive association at the courthouse tomorrow night will be largely attended.

Down in El Paso the press talks of “alleged lawyer editors.” Has anybody escaped from New Mexico? – Santa Fe New Mexican.

Hundreds of young people in El Paso found the eclipse of the moon a good excuse for sitting up last night until after midnight.

A large bunch of keys on a steel ring were found on the streets Sunday and left at this office. Owner can recover same by paying for this notice.

Officer Mendoza must have secured the right man when he arrested Will Jones, colored, Sunday. There were no burglaries reported yesterday morning.

Cannons were booming in Mexico last night. It was no doubt a preliminary to the big noise to be on the 14th in celebration of President Diaz’s birthday.

Weather permitting a party of ladies and gentlemen from the Pierson hotel and a number of friends, will enjoy a moonlight ride to Orn’s grove tonight and a dance.

Yesterday Messrs. Rackhart & Heckelman turned out of their assaying work, a bar of gold valued at $1000 belonging to two Negroes from Mexico. They also turned out a bar of silver and gold valued at $20.

The Holland brothers, who murdered Dick Ensberry and held up Keesey & Ob’s store at Valentine, were arrested in Sutton county Sunday and carried to Oomstock last night. Mr. Edgar recognized the men the night of the robbery and so informed the officers.

The customs officials at El Paso are discharging their duty just as if such a concern as the Southern Pacific railroad did not exist. That road objects when the officers arrest one of its Outnese passengers who has no certificate.

Yesterday Officer Archie found buried in the Santa Fe stock yards a Colt 45 revolver and rubber scabbard, which the Negro Jones acknowledged belonged to him. Archie made his investigation in the stock yards because he learned that Jones had been sleeping there.