L A (that’s all, just L and A, the letters don’t stand for anything else) Hudson’s father was a successful merchant in Colgate, Oklahoma, who longed to be a show business impresario. “He was a public speaker, and he promoted entertainment to advertise the store,” said Hudson.
“Some time between the time I was a toddler and a first grader, I got interested in show business. I always loved it,” said Bob Leeman of Sherman. Leeman grew up in Bonham, and even as a small child he exhibited talent as an artist, painting and drawing. At 10, he found another outlet for the “ham” in his veins, a little wooden friend he named Nicky.
What do ventriloquists talk about when no one is listening except the dummies? Do they move their lips?
Joan Douglass once believed that wall-to-wall carpeting and a white telephone were evidence of a successful life. That was when she and her husband Bill were first married and had few assets other than their love for each other.
Some people may think having a shoeshine is simply about improving or restoring the appearance of their shoes, but don’t you believe it. If Willie Riles, who has been bringing up the shine at Kelly Square in Sherman for 18 years, has ministered to their needs, they know that it is about something more, including a smile and an entertaining conversation.
Ray Bledsoe doesn’t believe in day-old cookies. They have to be fresh to be good in his estimation, which is why he mixes his dry ingredients the night before and puts them into zipped plastic bags, three batches at a time. In the morning all he has to do is add the eggs and liquid or oil and whatever other ingredients are called for, and he is in business.
There is a large map of Grayson County set into the floor just inside the main entrance of the courthouse in Sherman. The county’s boundries—Fannin County to the east, Collin to the south, Denton to the southwest, Cooke to the west, and the Red River and Oklahoma to the north—are delineated by dark strips of metal, and the four county precincts that existed at the time the courthouse was built in the 1930s are shown in different colored stones.
Think of a pinball machine, the kind with the little steel sphere that rockets off the end of the plunger, a bundle of kinetic energy that bounces and careens and ricochets off the bumpers and over the triggers, making lights flash and bells ring and things go whirr until it runs out of momentum and slips through the return slot.
“This poem has been on my refrigerator since my children were very young as a reminder of all that really matters in life. When I (or my children) get confused about what’s really important, we simply go to the refrigerator and read this poem. It says it all.”—Sherry Christie
If you want a home on Lake Texoma, you see Lezlie Rube. It’s just that simple. There are other realtors of course, but there is only one Queen of Lake Texoma Real Estate. She works under the umbrella of Century21 Dean Gilbert, Realtors, and Gilbert says that she is, “a high energy person with an enthusiastic positive outlook on life.”