Mayor featured speaker at event
By LISA CARNLEY Staff Writer

PHOTO BY DAVID LOWE Mayor Judy Hetherly, whose family roots in the community go back more than 100 years, will address honorees at the National Honor Society/PTSO-sponsored event on Monday.

Lampasas Mayor Judy Hetherly, the first woman mayor in the community, will be guest speaker for Monday night's Honors Awards Banquet that recognizes Lampasas High School students for their academic achievements.

Ms. Hetherly was elected in May 2007 after longtime Mayor Jack Calvert chose not to run again.

Soon after her swearing-in, she was kept busy overseeing disaster efforts when the community suffered devastating losses from massive flooding.

A number of residential areas, the municipal golf course and city parks endured major damage, and officials were concerned about getting everything ready in time for the annual Spring Ho Festival, which is an economic boon for the community.

Things quieted down after that, and Ms. Hetherly has settled in to handle the routine business of Lampasas and overseeing twicemonthly City Council meetings.

Chairman of the Lampasas Economic Development Corp., Ms. Hetherly also serves on the Preservation Lampasas Inc. board, which is heading up revitalization of the historic Lampasas Colored School.

Ms. Hetherly said Lampasas is important to her as her family has resided in the community for more than 100 years.

Born and reared here, the mayor graduated from Lampasas High School then earned a home economics degree from Southwest Texas State and a master's degree from Texas Woman's University.

She went on to teach high school at Bay City and remained there for three years before moving into retail, where she was a clothing buyer for a store in Austin.

After four years, Ms. Hetherly returned to the classroom and taught home economics at Churchill High School in San Antonio for five years. She then was offered an opportunity to work with the Texas Education Agency in its Houston field office, with responsibility over 13 counties' public schools and se- nior universities as a consultant for home economics.

Her duties included curriculum planning, teacher in-service, personnel development and equipment purchasing.

After eight years, Ms. Hetherly headed to Austin as an assistant director of home economics education for the TEA, and was named director of home economics education in 1982. She remained in that post until her retirement in 1996.

Ms. Hetherly then accepted a job with the National Coalition for Home Economics, helping develop national testing standards for home economics.

She returned to her hometown in 1999, and until 2001 was a project manager for the state of New York to help officials implement state home economics testing.

In 2002, she ran for Lampasas City Council because she wanted to be a part of the changes she foresaw in the city.

Ms. Hetherly also operates Old Town Antiques on Courtyard Square.