Jewel Lawrence Jewel Lawrence is my remarkable Lampasan for November. Just as I celebrated my 80th birthday, I discovered her. What a consolation to find someone older! They are becoming fewer and farther between.

Jewel celebrated her 100th birthday on Halloween, and I was fortunate to be invited to the party at Gateway Gardens Assisted Living Center in Marble Falls. With her as an inspiration, maybe I can figure out how to live joyfully for the next 20 years.

When she was 90 and living on Broad Street in Lampasas, she wrote her life history in the beautiful penmanship of a student brought up in the Palmer Method of handwriting. I will try to relay the high points.

Jewel was born on a farm in Taylor County, near Abilene and the smaller town of Bradshaw. Her parents were J.H. and Carrie Herrington, who had birthed 13 other children; 11 lived until adulthood. Jewel was the youngest. The only remaining sibling is John, a 102-year-old brother who lives in Arlington.

Jewel remembers her childhood as happy even though her family had little wealth and few comforts. Her father raised cotton to support his large family; sometimes the children had to drop out of school in the fall to harvest the crop.

She recalls how her back ached from stooping all day to pick the bolls of cotton and her knees would be sore from crawling to harvest the low ones. The children rarely complained, though, because they realized how valuable that crop was to their family’s well-being for the next year. Maybe she could have a new dress if the crop were good!

After working in the fields, school seemed like the most desirable place to be. Jewel attended Bluff Creek School, a two-teacher learning institution for the first eight years.

Bluff Creek was a lively community of farm families who worked together to see that their children had a good education. In Jewel’s history, she writes, “Some of my happiest recollections are of community gatherings for picnics or school programs. The school house was the community center, and it was usually packed with people; some standing in doorways or sitting in open windows. Everyone enjoyed being together, especially after working at home all week.”

The Lawrence family in front of their Burnet family home includes, from left, James, Oscar, Ray, Jewel and Janet. Her memories continue: “Friday or Saturday nights when the weather was warm enough to be out in the yard, we attended parties at various houses where young and old were welcomed. Saturdays, at home, were given over to house cleaning and baking for Sunday.”

In the spring, the family planted a big garden, and all were involved in gathering the vegetables and canning them. Also, there were always peaches from the orchard that were either canned or dried.

Jewel recalls her mother was a “whiz” at making peach cobblers and tea cakes. All the kids in the neighborhood knew where her tea cake drawer was in the kitchen cabinet. The children in the family always felt free to ask friends for a meal. Food was bountiful, thanks to her mother’s planning and hard work.

One highlight of Jewel’s week was the Tuesday visit of the country peddler. The nearest shopping site was Winters, a town 14 miles away. A trip there in a buggy was more for necessities than for pleasure, so the peddler usually provided their only chance to shop.

The peddler’s horse-drawn wagon was divided in the middle. Jewel remembers that on one side were the non-perishable grocery items, and on the other were the dry goods with bolts of checked gingham, muslin and cheesecloth, along with buttons, thread and elastic all arranged neatly on shelves.

Jewel said she never sees a Cracker Jacks box without thinking of the country peddler. He would let the children swap three eggs for a box of Cracker Jacks. That made her brothers and sisters eager to help gather the eggs on Tuesday mornings. Cracker Jacks were usually the first purchase, then the children would go off to enjoy their feast while their mother did her shopping.

Of Jewel’s school memories: “In the two-room school, the first four grades were housed in the little room; in the big room, grades 5, 6, 7 and 8 were taught. Each morning the children lined up in front and marched into their classrooms.

“My first reader was titled ‘Playmates,’ a story about Will, May and little Nell who lived on a farm; Tom and Kate came to play with them. The pictures in the book were colorful and pretty. The children seemed to have such a good time; I wished that I could be there to play with them.”

Jewel remembers that at Christmas, Miss Bess, their beautiful teacher who had her long black hair done in a bun on the back of her head, would ask the children to put their heads on their desks with their eyes closed. When they were told to open their eyes, each student found an apple, a banana and an orange on their desk. These fruits were such a treat because the Herringtons’ only fruits were peaches and apricots grown at home.

The high school she attended in Drasco was a five-teacher school. After she adjusted to the bigger school, she thought she was having “the time of her life.” She was captain of the girls’ basketball team for one year and won a declamation contest in her junior year.

In 1928, Jewel graduated from high school along with 13 other students -- three boys and 10 girls.

Jewel remembers: “The girls had new dresses, and the boys had on their best suits. We had our own class picture, and all the girls had sleeveless dresses except me. My mother would not allow her girls to wear a dress without sleeves. Mine was a peach-colored georgette, but it had long sleeves. I was a little embarrassed but knew I couldn’t do anything about it, so I just consoled myself by thinking that my dress was as pretty as theirs.”

The Herringtons went to church in Drasco. Services at the Baptist church were on the first and third Sundays; at the Methodist church, on the second and fourth.

Jewel’s dad was a deacon at the Baptist church, and there was a close relationship between their pastor and the Herrington family. The pastor’s wife influenced Jewel with her love and kindness and Jewel, at a young age, decided she wanted a life like hers.

Jewel was the church pianist through her high school years. She remembers that she not only played at the regular services but also at the summer revivals, which usually lasted two weeks with morning and evening services. Jewel said in her history, “We didn’t have much money, but our parents saw to it that we had a way to go the four miles to church.”

Reflecting on her upbringing, Jewel wrote, “My mother and dad were good to their children. However, they were very strict on us. We learned early on what was allowed and what was not. We were not perfect and got our share of spankings, but we always felt loved and wanted.”

Before Jewel enrolled at Hardin Simmons University, she had to take an entrance exam because her high school did not meet the state’s requirements. She attended the university for one year and got a four-year elementary teaching certificate.

The Great Depression was beginning, and jobs were hard to come by. There were more teachers looking for work than schools to hire them. Finally she was hired to teach fifth and sixth grades in Drasco for $85 per month and was able to live with her parents.

Times were hard; men with families were without work or were happy to work for $1 per day.

After going to school for two summers at Sul Ross University, Jewel got her permanent elementary teaching certificate.

The fourth year Jewel taught, she met Oscar Lawrence; they were married on July 14, 1934, at her family home. Her new husband had a job in construction at Stamford. They rented an apartment and lived there a couple of months until the job was over, then moved to another town where a job was available.

That became a pattern in their lives; when no jobs were available they could stay at her family home until another opened.

While living in Winters, Jewel was fortunate to find a teaching job where she taught for two years.

In 1938, their first son, James, was born. By that time, jobs were more plentiful, and they moved to Fort Worth.

Jewel wrote, “We moved many times and lived in some unpleasant places just to have a roof over our heads.”

When two more children -- Janet and Ray -- were born, they were able to settle in Denton and bought their first home. Jewel recalls it wasn’t a very big house but that it seemed like a mansion to them.

During that time, her husband moved around with his construction crew, but Jewel stayed there and kept her children in school.

Finally Oscar got a permanent job at a rock quarry in Burnet. They lived in a multi-colored rock house that is still standing along U.S. Highway 281. The Lawrence family lived there until they had saved enough money to buy a small place between Lampasas and Burnet.

About that time, there was a shortage of teachers, and Jewel was hired by Superintendent Harvey Ballew of Lampasas to teach sixth grade. She says she was nervous because she hadn’t taught for so long, but Bessie Page was a wonderful principal who helped her a lot.

She remembers with pleasure the American Heritage program in Lampasas. Each grade emphasized a character and a document of American history. The sixth grade studied Thomas Alva Edison and The Bill of Rights.

When Norman Hall became superintendent it was mandatory that teachers have a degree, so she had to take out a year from teaching. She got her degree at the University of Mary Hardin- Baylor in 1967 and returned the next year to her sixth-grade teaching position.

Jewel decided to retire in 1974. She had some good years with her husband before he died in 1981, and she later had the opportunity to travel with Wannah Taylor and Nella Casbeer. Although she traveled in Europe, Israel and Hawaii, her favorite place was the Canadian Rockies.

Jewel continued to live in the country until 1992, when she moved to Lampasas. She attended First Baptist Church, where she taught Sunday School classes and enjoyed the fellowship of Christian friends.

Then in 2007, she moved to her present home in Marble Falls, where I visited her. I soon realized she was a vital part of that community, as she always had been wherever she lived. She introduced me to other residents, extolling how fortunate she was to live in a place with such good companions. The director of the independent-living facility said Jewel inspired them with her positive attitude and her piano playing. She confessed that she was alarmed one day when she found Jewel on the floor, but was relieved to find Jewel was doing leg lifts as part of her exercise routine.

In her life history, written in 1999, Jewel reflects, “Now in my 90th year and as I look back through the years, God has been so good. I’ve lived through two world wars, the Great Depression and the sand storms of West Texas. Yet I’ve never gone hungry, have had adequate clothing and shelter -- not that I liked or wanted some of it -- but the Lord knew what I needed. I’m grateful for every blessing.”

Thanks, Jewel, for the good example you have set. I now have a map to guide me to 100.

Bobbye Alexander Behlau was born in Lampasas and graduated from LHS in 1946. After living in San Antonio for 50 years where she was a school principal, she and her husband, Joe, have retired to Lampasas. Recently, a new school in Northside School District in San Antonio has been named for her.

She is a descendent of the Alexanders and the Davises who settled here in the 1800s. She can be reached at 556-4076 or at beh1323@sbcglobal.net.