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Katherine Newton (Courtland) (1968)
Hi
I really enjoyed reading some bios and reviewing the history of SHHS. My great aunt graduated in the early 1900s and I have her graduation charm, gold with the letters HHS and the year, which I think was 04. Aunt Lillie Newton was in the Black Batallion. I had a huge gorgeous photo of the group with oval individual pictures of each gal in Victorian high neck black dresses. Wish I had not donated it to the school at graduation because it seems to have disappeared. I think it was in the Houstonette office rather than the Library, where I should have left it. I have recently inquired but no one has the photo. Hope it was passed on to the downtown library or in an antique shop somewhere!
I attended Elem in the Rice University area but was quite disadvantaged for the neighborhood after age 9, as my father died and we had very little except for our house. As I reached 12, Mom remarried a man who owned a northside business which brought me to Fonville and Sam Houston. We moved to a new home just north of Canino. My stepdad owned Cornell and Co Tax Consultants at E Hardy and Roxella. We attended Melrose Bapt. My life changed 180 degrees in a matter of weeks. I went from bring one of the poorest in my school on the Southside to having reasonable financial security, certainly more than many on the Northside. I enjoyed friends from all walks of life and was taught to never feel less than or better than anyone else. My Mother also taught me to feel confident (on most days) that I could do most of anything I wanted to accomplish. I made decent grades and just loved Houstonettes, where I was honored to be elected Pres for my senior year. I had the same boyfriend from 7th grade to 12th grade, who was editor of the Aegis in 1967-68, but thankfully he dumped me the summer before my senior year which enabled me to date around and have more fun with the girls, going to Domed Shadows and the Catacombs or Hermann Park and Market Square. I love to see old and make new friends at our reunions. With over 500, I never knew more than half, it seemed. Learning of dear friends who are sufferring or who have passed on makes us reflect how precious these reunions can be. We lost a precious 50 year friend, Lance Cooper to Dementia recently and he had been the MC of our 40th!
My whole life, I never questioned that I would attend Baylor University like my older sister. In 1968, I stepped on that campus without a visit since I was 2, and without knowing anyone at all. Baylor and Waco was a bit strict then for my liking but I completed my degree in Education. I got married, started teaching and several years later, hubby and I got scholarships to get our Masters. Turned out that 1974 was a great football year for Baylor too. I had more good times than bad in college, including my Junior year at Univ of Houston where I detoured to try out a closer relationship with my future husband. We were both in Greek fraternities/sororities which provided us with loads of fun, leadership training, and lifelong friends. I am a teacher, diagnostician, homemaker and travel consultant with 2 adult children who live on the East Coast. I'm with the same husband of 46 years and we enjoy travel and dancing. We are working toward 100 countries, with 67 so far. Most exotic places so far are Doha, Qatar, India and the mid Atlantic Azores Islands. My faves are Italy and Ireland. We have managed to go dancing in many unlikely places. Last month we danced salsa to a Raggae band playing in a pub in Conwy, Wales. We have danced in Venice, Paris, London and Belfast too. We enjoy ballroom steps like swing or rhumba to bar music. We prefer cruising or staying in Air BNBS over bus tours, but we do take some of those also. We spent the 1990s in Birmingham and the rest in Houston, mostly the south central part. Retired back to Birmingham recently and love the weather and the lower property taxes here. Sorry we are too far to attend some of your gatherings, but I delighted in walking the old school halls this summer for our 50th reunion. The visit brought back memories of Pep Rallies, lunch room shenanigans, Houstonette tryouts in the gym, a quick kiss in the stairwell, pranks in Algebra, and many other special times. Hope many of you get to enjoy this last opportunity on Nov 3rd.
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