Sperry – Page 5 – Welcome, all y'all.

History of the Clarks, Andrews, Tilghman, Flewellen families from cousin Gary Helm Darden, Ph.D.

Hello Everyone,

I most appreciate this conversation and help with family information. To clarify to all in this conversation my relation to you is that I’m the youngest son of Nancy Clark Ince Darden (1937-2010), the sister of Elizabeth “Betty” Ince Hughston (1934-2015), and they were the daughter of Eugenia Helm Ince (1909-2007), whom we called “Nina.” She was the oldest daughter of Elizabeth “Bessie” Clark Helm (1884-1966). So the names Elizabeth, Eugenia, and Nancy have been carried down for many generations. Sadly, Nancy died of lung cancer in 2010 and Betty died of pancreatic cancer in 2015. I live in New York City and am a university history professor at Fairleigh Dickinson University (FDU) in New Jersey. It’s a large private university similar to SMU or TCU. My father and brother are all still in Dallas.

I’ll add below what I know, and I apologize if you’ve already heard it or already knew.

Per Sperry’s question –– and as I understand it from my grandmother –– Elizabeth “Bessie” Clark Helm and her sister Nancy Ella Clark (1888-1977) were largely raised by Eugenia “Jennie” Andrews Flewellen (1840-1923), their great aunt, at the house on 410 Austin Street. The girls’ mother Nancy “Nannie” Tilghman Dickinson (1862-1888) died due to complications from giving birth to Nancy Clark in 1888. The newborn Nancy was adopted by one of the sons of Eugenia Flewellen, but Bessie was not adopted and officially remained a Clark. So I assume that’s why Bessie was not in the Flewellen will.

However, I do know that “Aunt Nancy” Howard as she was known to my grandmother, transferred the deed to at least 3 or 4 farms to her sister “Bessie” Helm because, as I was told, Aunt Nancy thought it was only fair given their childhood and upbringing. That land went to my grandmother and was sold off (minus the mineral rights) from the late 1960s and through the 1970s.

Continue reading “History of the Clarks, Andrews, Tilghman, Flewellen families from cousin Gary Helm Darden, Ph.D.”

Gene Helm Ince, Nancy Clark Ince Darden and Elizabeth “Bessie” Clark Helm

Thanks for the photos from our cousin Gary Helm Darden Ph.D.

Gene Helm Ince - Engagement Photo 1933 — Gene Helm Ince – Engagement Photo 1933

Nancy Clark Ince Darden at UT in the late 1950s

Elizabeth "Bessie" Clark Helm as an infant ca. 1884-85 — Elizabeth “Bessie” Clark Helm as an infant ca. 1884-85

“You don’t even know where the library is.”

Sperry and the judge at C.W. Post College Library 1967

My parents visited Robin in Manhattan, and me at college in my freshman year at C.W. Post on Long Island. It was springtime and their anniversary (4/29). In high school I used to tell Dad I needed to go to the library on weeknights, which was not always true, of course. He would say, “You don’t even know where the library is.” He and I reenacted this into a little skit for Mom and the camera that day at college.

Lennie Sherman

This was a print from a painting. According to Eugenia Hunt this is the woman who made or helped to create the battle flag at San Jacinto. She was the wife of [later] General Sydney Sherman. Sherman was second in command at the battle. It is who is credited in Bartletts Quotations as the author of the phrase “Remember the Alamo.” She was the grandmother of Lucy Brady, who married Wilmer Sperry Hunt.

Brady Kiesling on NPR 2/1/2017 regarding Donald Trump and the State Department

On February 1, 2017 National Public Radio aired Ari Shapiro’s interview of very our own (John) Brady Kiesling regarding President Trump’s ban of Muslim refugees from seven majority Muslim countries, and the President’s refusal to seek counsel from the Department of State. Brady was well-known for his 2003 resignation from the State Department in protest over the US invasion of Iraq. Click below to read the text. You can also listen to the interview by clicking on the blue and white arrow on the left of that page.

Listen to Brady’s Interview on NPR 1/1/2017

2003 NPR Interview

“When you are my age you will understand.”

Good stories have clear characterization, character being defines as desire, drive, ability, compassion and perspective all of which change over a lifetime. Here’s a simple example of those changes from my own family history. I’ve been thinking about this lately as I ponder my upcoming knee replacement.

Philo Howard, my mother’s brother, was a frank, funny, energetic man. At sixteen, he ran away to Canada from his home in Houston. There, he lied about his age and joined the Canadian Royal Air Force to fight in WWII, which the US had not yet entered. His whereabouts were determined by my dad’s mother who read an article in the Houston paper listing Texas volunteers. Uncle Philo was returned to the bosom of his family forthwith. Several years later he enlisted in the American Air Corps and flew P-51s over Europe.

My family had a party in Houston in 2003 to celebrate what would have been my late father’s 100th birthday. My uncle, who recently had his pacemaker replaced, couldn’t make the party. He emailed me this tribute to be read at the celebration. My dad, Judge Wilmer Hunt, was nearly twenty-years his senior. To his great sorrow he was denied military service due to his age, very flat feet and a knee injured by my mother. (That’s another story.) The setting of Philo’s account is the rich farmland of eastern Texas in the 50’s. By prison, my uncle was referring to a pea farm, as they were called back then. They were minimum security prisons where inmates grew food for the prison system.

Wilmer was my favorite, because he liked to fish and many times took me along. One time he took me to Kemah and we got in a small skiff and towed [it] out to the middle of the bay for four hours. I was always a little hyper, and I almost jumped out of the boat after about an hour. Wilmer seeing this, started telling me stories. As I remember, this calmed me down a bit and I caught some fish.

Being a Judge he had access to a prison and one near Brazoria had a great fishing pond. He and I went there about three times. It seemed I always ended up having to carry a small Outboard motor from the parking lot to the lake each time. I asked him why, and he said “when you are my age you will understand.”

My friend Clay Lindley, the funniest cowboy poet I ever met

Leading the string of horses in this photograph is Clay Lindley: cowboy, poet, actor, comedian, husband, father and friend. I knew Clay only briefly. He passed in 2005. My friend Joanna Cowell, a leader of the Alpine drama community, recommended him as an actor for the Texas Dick trailer. Clay was one of those rare celestial people who could instantly brightened a room with his warmth and humor. A true comedian, he produced humor from thin air, sometimes it was one’s own expense. I felt the sting of his wit, but it was always delivered with a gleam of laughter that made you like him even more.

I’ll write more about Clay and the trailer. Please click on the first link below to watch his performance. He has the first lines 25 seconds into the trailer. He’s talking to the sheriff of the fictional town of Little Bend, Texas about how – in the manner of a Shakespearean play – the planets are in alignment signaling a portentous event. Click on the image and the trailer will begin:

Here’s more about Clay from his obituary:

Clayton M. Lindley was born on July 21, 1959 in Del Rio, Texas to Jane and Buster Lindley. He graduated from Silver City, N.M. High School, where he excelled as a swimmer. Clay graduated from Sul Ross University in Alpine, then followed his dream by cowboying in Montana. He later became a Range Specialist with the Natural Resources Conservation Service. Clay earned his nickname, Cletus, while working for NRCS in Spur, Texas.
Clay was a rare survivor of childhood leukemia and made it a point to enjoy everyday of his life. He possessed the ability to make everyone around him laugh and smile, and he loved doing it.
Cletus was called home on Thursday, September 1, 2005 following a battle with stomach cancer. Services were held at the First United Methodist Church in Mertzon, Texas on Monday, September 5, 2005. Burial was in the Sherwood Cemetery just down the road from Mertzon.
Pall bearers were Mark Donet, George Ramsey, Marty Donet, Charlie Donet, Robert Gibbons, and John Zeuberbuler.
Honorary pallbearers were Gil Prather, Donnie Franklin, Sonny Fry, Steve St. Clair and Bill Whitley.

A Celebration in Alpine

Robin, Grainger, Sperry and Lalu at Reata Restaurant in Alpine Sept. 21, 1996

If you’ve been reading this blog, you’ll know what a special place Alpine, Texas is to our family. Alpine was our mother’s artist retreat and our father’s vacation home. It was where my sisters spent many of their summers making friends among both the town folk and the ranchers as well. It served as my brother’s respite from the terrible summer asthma he suffered as a boy. It was in Alpine that Grainger got his masters, and his wife Barbara, her bachelors. And it was there that my childhood friend Mary Bell Lockhart and I roamed the hills and streets, and our imaginations thrived.

It was in the dark, in the rear seats of the college auditorium, that I watched Grainger and his classmates rehearse and perform Shakespeare’s Henry IV. (Grainger had the title role, in fact.) It was during those performances, as I repeatedly viewed the follies of Sir John Falstaff, the courage of young Hotspur and the coming of age of Prince Hal, that the seed of my film script Texas Dick was planted. (I’ll have more on that in other posts.) It was my attempt at producing the script that drew the four siblings to Alpine on this occasion in 1996. More importantly, it was a celebration of our connection to Alpine, our shared affection for William Shakespeare, and our deep love for one another. These were three of the happiest days of my life. You can see it in all of our faces. I have footage of us reading the script and romping around Alpine and Marfa. I will share clips with all y’all later.

Uncle Philo Back From the War

Eugenia and Wilmer’s First House at 2920 San Felipe, Houston

Judge Wilmer Hunt bought this house for his bride, Jeana.

The judge claimed that when he showed her the living room, she said, “So, this is where we will entertain our guests.”

He nodded and took her into the dining room.

She said, “So, this is where we will eat our dinner.”

He nodded and took her into the kitchen.

She frowned and asked, “What happens in here?”