Columns:
How
the Rabbi's Son Learned to Cope with Life's Challenges 9-24-19
Rubbing
Shoulders with a President By Brent Clanton 10-29-13
Praise
for a Common Man By Mary Boner Creighton 9-21-13
How
Photographer Drew Kapalach’s Camera Sees Galveston 8-22-13
There is a photo taken by Mr. Kalapach that reminds me of a great
George Mitchell story, one that’s completely different; one no one
knew to tell.
Winifred
Gordy, the Selma, and a Vaudeville Act Were in the Same Family
6-8-13
From
Potential Lyrics for a Johnny Cash Loser Tune to A Turned Around
Life 5-3-13
Rev. Al Jandl
The
Day Oscar Ekelund and I Met the Hotel’s New Manager 3-18-13
Moments before, George Mitchell had finished up the stuff necessary
for him to buy the long out of business flop house called the Belmont
Hotel...
The
English Gentleman and the Beer Joint 2-8-13
Not one soul thinks he isn’t a better person from having known him.
And everyone has his own story to tell with a smile in remembrance.
The
Island’s Domestic Goddess 1-10-13
It seems to be more generic to Galveston than any other place I
know about. I’m talking about this special breed of people who seem
to intuitively know how to make money, how to contribute to the
whole, how to gain and keep self-esteem...
Francisco,
Rudy, and Mr. Russell’s New Adventure 9-6-12
"What’s the lesson? I’m not sure that I know. Perhaps it is
that self-importance often isn’t as grand in the eyes of the public
as it is in our own."
Joe
Garcia’s Legacy Is a Lesson to All about Dyslexia 7-20-12
I remember people who couldn’t write their names, who couldn’t read,
who hadn’t gone to school at all, or who had left as early as the
seventh grade...
Mayor,
Radio Station Owner and Flagpole Sitter Brought Galvestonians to
Houston 6-18-12
When construction on an electric railway was begun March 28, 1910,
to connect the two cities, Galveston had a population of about 40,000.
Houston was just twice as big.
Six
Generation Galvestonians Are Hard to Come By 5-23-12
Because I have written so much about Galveston, her people and her
past, most people assume I’m from a multi-generational island family...
Why
Hasn't Dallas Placed a Historical Marker Here? 3-10-12
There is a historic site in Dallas that isn’t noted on Google, and
I couldn’t find any mention of the man who built from scratch what
became an iconic and copied men’s barber shop.
The
Night of January 16th 1-20-12
Fifty-five years of January 16ths have come and gone since then,
but the lesson taught on January 16, 1957 by Ball High School speech
and drama teacher, Arthur Graham, at the old Galveston County Courthouse
remain intact to this day with those who were there.
Glendon
E. Johnson 12-10-11
Glendon Johnson told his granddaughter, Erin Stewart, that “cowboys
answer to two people: their God and their momma.”
A
Lesson in the Sociology of Galveston Commerce 11-6-11
A story of George and Magnolia Sealy's mansion The Open Gates, and
Daniel Serrato's pushcart of freshly made hot tamales...
That
I Played the Playboy Club Doesn’t Make Me Elderly 10-2-11
CBS’s KMOX-AM in St. Louis called. As part of the public’s interest
in the new TV show, “The Playboy Club,” they wanted to interview
a musician who had played at the St. Louis club...
Cotton
Gottlob and Coach Red Pierce Were a Heck of a Team 9-7-11
"A baseball player from Galveston’s Ball High, Don “Cotton”
Gottlob, talked Sam Houston State Teachers College’s coach, Paul
“Red” Pierce, into letting him try out for quarterback..."
A
Good Education Often Brings Remarkable Rewards 8-7-11
If you were to ask educators why they picked teaching for their
lifetime contribution to the world, you would primarily get one
of two answers...
Jimmy
Beaumont and the Skyliners 7-18-11
"...The last numbers of the evening were "Since I Don't Have
You" with "This I Swear" as the segue; both were by Jimmy Beaumont
and the Skyliners. It occurred to me that no two tunes and no vocal
group are more reflective of my teen years..."
The
Willie Payne Family’s Famous Himalayan Singing Kitten Enterprise
6-6-11
"Willie started wondering what common threads run among all
of those business people who amass great fortunes. It turned out
it wasn’t excessive education or family money or luck. The common
thread was almost all had been child entrepreneurs..."
My
Friend and His Chance New Friend Had Their Faiths Renewed in Little
Rock 5-11-11
Throughout his life, Lloyd W. Criss, Jr.'s faith and the personal
directives he has received from God have led him down many spiritual
paths that he knows he wouldn’t have chosen on his own. Here’s one
of those stories.
Trinity
Episcopal Church 22nd and Winnie, Galveston 4-8-11
By the time the Korean Conflict was going strong in the early 1950's,
Galveston’s Trinity Episcopal Church was 109 years old, and it and
its congregation had been through a lot together...
UTMB
Professor “Old Test Tube” Took the First X-Ray Ever Taken in Texas
3-4-11
Everyone, students as well as the medical staff, got to calling
him “Old Test Tube” rather than Dr. Morris. He apparently didn’t
mind...
Daddy
and His Buckeye 2-1-11
“There’s only one thing that brings good luck. It’s the buckeye...
And it’s even better if your buckeye was blessed by a voodoo priestess.
Sister Veressa in the Des Ourses swamp of Louisiana has ‘extree’
power.”
Joe
Pajucie, His Cheap Looking Girls and Macino Rapuchi, the International
Continental Stylist 1-2-11
Gigs for Italian singers had been terrible for a long time. But
then out of nowhere came “That’s Amore,” “Mel Blu di Pinto di Blue,”
and “Al di La.” And things got very good for them. And that’s when
Macino Rapuchi, with his Maceo-esque billing, “the International
Continental Stylist,” hit Galveston with his guitar and accordion...
Being
Sent to the Abattoir Wasn’t Sam’s Lot in Life 10-13-10
Mr. Sam, like his brothers, cousins and uncles, worked for the patriarch
of the family, Jasper Tramonte. Mr. Jasper had a meat-packing business
on Broadway, near 61st Street. It was called the High Grade Packing
Co...
The
Famous Portrait of the Little Girl Named Judy 9-17-10
During the war years, Edolia (Ed) Rees and her daughter, Joyce Crainer,
drove into downtown Houston for Miss Joyce’s appointment with the
doctor. His office was there on Main Street above a very famous
portrait photographer’s studio...
Lieutenant
Richard H. Schiebel’s Last Flight 8-12-10
Coach had flown many dangerous missions and had survived a lot of
enemy fire...
No
One Called Him Anything But Mr. Russell 8-5-10
You’ve known people like that. It just doesn’t feel right calling
them by anything other than Mr. or Miz So-and-so...
No
One Could Out Negotiate Lincoln Dealer, Kyle Gillespie 7-1-10
How
the 1943 Roof of Mike Gaido’s Drive In Helped Him Keep His Feet
on the Ground 5-1-10
Mike Gaido’s first business venture in Galveston was not a big and
glorious seafood restaurant like it is today, but a drive-in...
Father
John Caskey - Galveston's Pied Piper 3-21-10
All
About Badgett, McCulley and Sis, the Belching Tractor 2-7-10
If you know anything about Galveston’s past, you surely know that
it’s always been the town’s hobby to cover up one body of water
while opening up another...
If
He Were to Write His Autobiography, Its Title Would be Dance Hall
1-1-10
Every
Year at Christmas Time I Miss My Friend, Mel Torme 12-1-09
1935
Professional Baseball Pitcher, R.S. Maceo, Sr., Says It’s All in
the Olive Salad 11-15-09
There’s
a Little Known Story at Haak’s Vineyard and Winery in Santa Fe
11-3-09
The
Big Hurt 10-3-09
Even though it had come out in 1959, seven years later it remained
Number 1 on the Metropole Club Hit Parade, six plays in succession
for a quarter. Its title was “The Big Hurt.”
The
Purity Ice Cream Factory and the Ten O’Clock Valve 9-6-09
Like Blue Bell ice cream, until it closed, Purity was so popular
in Galveston County that few drugstore soda fountains or neighborhood
grocery stores carried any other brand...
Johnny
Garcia's Flagship 9-1-09
The Twisted Ironies of the Brantly Harris Recreational Pier
There’s
Got to Be More to His “Galveston” Than That Glen Campbell Sings
It 7-3-09
If you know singer Glen Campbell’s real relationship with the island...
The
Billionaire Developer: George P. Mitchell 6-1-09
George P. Mitchell was born on Galveston Island 90-years ago May
21st. And for all 90 of those years, he’s been making history, and
with a good portion of that history he has made life better for
other people and for future generations...
Play
Misty For Me - A Reprise 5-4-09
I saw the 1971 Clint Eastwood movie, “Play ‘Misty’ for Me” by accident...
But I quickly knew that the tale had to have been conceived by a
late-night disc jockey...
Milton’s
Rosenberg Library 4-3-09
Leon
Breeden 3-7-09
The Man from Oklahoma and Jazz: They Brought Academic Notoriety
to a Podunk Teachers College
The
Island’s Terrain and Hurricanes 2-4-09
Island visitors often comment on how close together the Victorian
homes are in the East End Historic District. But it wasn’t always
that way...
Balinese
Room Had Two Last Hoorahs 11-1-08
Webb
and Yankee Had Different Solutions to the Bank's Move 10-5-08
An
Irony of Hurricane Ike 9-15-08
Churches
Have Been Doing Their Best to Mask Financial Troubles 8-3-08
Baytown’s
DJ of the ‘50s, Bill “Rascal” McCaskill, Conducts His “Night Train”
Once More 4-10-08
The
Oryoku Maru and Lieutenant Walter A. Kelso, Jr.'s Journey 2-18-08
No
One Who Truly Knows the Mansion Would Ever Call It The Open Gates
1-23-08
Slick
the Shoeshine Man, Sam Maceo and Christmas Eve 1949 12-21-07
Carolyn
and Sammy, Her Daddy's '52 Ford and the Singer Roy Hamilton
11-2-07
Champ
Did His Experiment at the State Theater and in the Name of The Enforcer
9-27-07
"Set
'em up, Bascigallupi!" 9-3-07
George
Roy Clough Invents Call-in Radio 8-15-07
One
Time a Kitten Named Elijah Came to the Passover Seder Table to Bring
Wisdom 8-3-07
The
Magnificent Montague 7-15-07
He’s probably one of the most important contributors to American
black culture that has ever lived...
At
First Galveston's Stewart Beach Was Called the Riviera of the Gulf
6-30-07
The
Strand: A Lingering Shadow of Riches Untold, Whispering Night Bay
Breezes 6-16-07
Now that the battle that made Texas a republic in 1836 had ended,
the founders of Galveston were finally able to get down to the business
of building the new city...
Jewish
Immigrants Competed with Galveston's Former Slaves in the Beginning
6-4-07
"When the Jews began temporarily settling in the Galveston,
they were faced with a new problem, one that hadn't existed in New
York and Baltimore and Boston and Philadelphia..."
The
Korean War Hero Who Swung the Board of Education at Ball High
5-27-07
Lt. Col. Richard H. Schiebel
"Wanting to defend one's country, even if it cost you your
life, was something his generation understood...."
Cartwright 5-14-07
Mayor Herbie, His Time in Jail and the Big Downtown Parade that
Followed
The
Only Only 5-1-07
He Was the World's Oldest Trapeze Artist and He Lived in Old No.
25
Stanley
Marcus 4-2-07
Copyright William S. Cherry
All rights reserved |
William Speakman
Cherry
He may not have
been vaccinated with a phonograph needle, but his middle name proved
to be prophetic.
"Born on the island" of Galveston in 1940, Bill Cherry became a
R & B disc jockey at the tender age of 14, using the nom d'air "Brokenhearted
Bill." When he wasn't talking he was writing, and at 16 he sold
his first feature story to a Houston paper. He has since written
for Fortune Magazine, The Houston Business Journal and numerous
other Texas newspapers including The Victoria Advocate, The Dallas
Morning News, and The Galveston County Daily News.
In the late '50s, Cherry was attending classes at New Orleans' Tulane
University while working for AM radio station WWL. Broadcasting
from behind a plate glass window of a French Quarter furniture store,
Cherry was the tuxedo (and short pants) host of Music 'til Dawn.
He also subbed as host for broadcasts from the famous Blue Room
of the Roosevelt Hotel.
In 1961, he married well-known St. Louis classical and jazz concert
pianist and Vogue fashion model, Judy Fosher. They traveled as a
team, each playing different venues. Cherry performed at the piano
at such spots as the St. Louis Playboy Club, New York's Waldorf-Astoria,
LA's Beverly Wilshire Hotel, Chicago's Blackstone Hotel and St.
Louis' Chase-Park Plaza Hotel.
Two years after their marriage, Judy died from a heart attack. She
was just 24.
In 1964, Bill returned to the University of North Texas for additional
studies and briefly worked as the second manager of KNTU, the school's
FM station.
Cherry became a vice president at Houston's Guaranty Federal Savings
and Loan and headed that company's real estate investment company
before moving to Houston's Columbia Communities where he served
as vice president of residential home building. In the mid 70's,
Cherry, with partner Steven Jay Rudy, founded The Old House Company,
a Real Estate company specializing in restoring historical housing
and commercial buildings.
For twenty years, Cherry was the historical real estate consultant
for George and Cynthia Mitchell (who developed The Woodlands, Texas).
The Mitchells restored and leased many of Galveston's 19th century
cast-iron buildings in the historic district now widely-known as
the Strand.
Cherry taught finance, economics and investments at Houston's St.
Thomas University and at Galveston College and even did a brief
stint as a high school English composition and debate teacher at
Dallas' Thomas Jefferson High.
Cherry's childhood memories of life on Galveston Island was the
basis for his popular column in the The Galveston County Daily News.
The title Bill Cherry's Galveston Memories was used
again when he assembled 60 of his best columns for his first book:
The book's dedication is to his family, teachers and professors
who had influenced him, and to his friend, commedian-musician Steve
Allen, who died just before the book was published.
Bill Cherry's Memories, also appeared as a
series of television features in 2001, for News 24-Houston,
where it was voted the station's most popular feature.
Now living in Dallas with his wife (a former college sweetheart),
Cherry is a Financial Management Coach for individuals, families
and businesses. His web site is www.parkavenuewealthcoach.com
He is a frequent speaker for business clubs, church groups and business
conventions where he tells his Galveston Memories stories as well
as talks on how to plan and manage finances.
Editor:
We are proud to include Mr. Cherry's Galveston Memories as a monthly
feature in Texas Escapes. The abbreviated biography that appears
here is paraphased from his Wikipedia entry.
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