Last month I wrote about Linda Sawyer and her three sons, all of whom played in a Lake Highlands High School football team which made the playoffs, and it got me wondering.
Doesn’t Lake Highlands seem to have an uncommon proportion of families with extra-multiple male offspring? I know of several. I see unique things everyday in my real estate career, but one thing that sticks in my mind is a home on Caribou Trail with so many sons the family installed a stand-up urinal in the boys’ upstairs bathroom. That’s a fixture I haven’t seen before or since in a residential setting.
Lenore Hiney recently sent us an update on her four sons. Lenore reports that her son, Jim, ’80, is the new editor of Texas Shores magazine. She sent me a copy and it really is a beautiful publication dedicated to promoting a better understanding of Texas’ marine environment. Oldest son, Larry Hiney, ’77, resides in Spring, Texas, where he is a manager for Compaq. Her other two sons are police officers – John, ’82, is with the Mesquite police department and Bill, ’85, her youngest, works with the Plano police department.
More mail came in about the movie filmed at the high school, Cotton Candy. Tammy Kinney Sherwood, ’78, wrote to remind me that besides Ron Howard directing and brother Clint in a supporting role, the movie featured Charles Martin Smith, who has become one of my favorite character actors. He was the nerdy guy in American Graffiti, the accountant/G-man in the Untouchables, and most recently portrayed the campaign manager for one of the candidates in Speechless.
I also heard from Nina Boothe, long time art teacher at Lake Highlands Junior High, and a 1965 graduate of Lake Highlands High School. She was able to contribute a few more interesting Cotton Candy details.
In addition to remembering the “fab disco tuxes” in the prom scene, she pointed out that 1965 grad, Bill Bickley, was the key to bringing the Ron Howard movie to Lake Highlands. Bill has been a producer for Lorimar Productions for years, producing shows such as Room 222, Family Matters, Step by Step, the movie, H.A.W.M.P.S., and Happy Days, (the Ron Howard connection). Nina also recollected that Jeanie Wilson, ’65, was only Miss Texas (not America), and reminded me that Jeanie was the Dodge girl on television, regaled in hot pants, boots; and hat.
Mrs. Leonard Snyder, proud mother and bigtime Lake Highlands booster wrote to tell me that her daughter, Donna Snyder Scarborough, ’65, teaches high school calculus at Friendswood High School, a 5-A school near Lubbock. Donna was recently honored by one of her former students at the University of North Texas.
More Teachers
And Paula Rose reports that her daughter, Lara Grubb, ’90, graduated from Stephen F. Austin University in December with a degree in Special Education and Early Childhood Education. While student teaching in Nacogdoches her cooperating teacher was 1988 graduate Jennifer Moliason Avey. Jennifer’s parents also live in Lake Highlands.
I received a telephone call from another parent of a math teacher. Good neighbor Roger Pryor called to offer two suggestions for the Most Famous Graduate from the trivia quiz of several months ago – Pro football players Scott Livingston and Merton Henks. Pryor also reported that his son, Stoney, ’90, is teaching math and coaching freshman football as well as varsity soccer at A&M Consolidated High School.
Maybe those guys are very famous, Roger, but after watching what Merton (San Francisco ’49ers) did to the Cowboys during their first meeting with the ’49ers this season, I have a hard time even putting his name on paper.
