Milton and Kay Boone were Spring Ho Grand Parade marshals in 2007. My remarkable Lampasans for December are Milton and Kay Boone.

The Boones are well known around Lampasas because they have been in business in the downtown area; Milton, as an insurance agent, and Kay, as owner of The Alley Cat gift shop.

Milton, along with Gary Martin, started the Spring Ho Festival back in 1972. More recently, the Boones received city-wide recognition when they were selected as grand marshals of the Spring Ho parade in 2007.

I have known them since they were teenagers, as Milton was my brother’s close friend. Along with what I know and what they have told me, I hope to give my readers a peek at their lives.

Back to their beginnings: Kay was born in Lampasas in 1940 to Roger and Ruby Carpenter. Both her parents grew up here and graduated from Lampasas High School; both sets of grandparents lived here, too.

Bobbye Alexander Behlau was born in Lampasas and graduated from LHS in 1946. After living in San Antonio for 50 years where she was an elementary school principal, she and her husband, Joe, have retired in Lampasas. Recently a new school in Northside ISD in San Antonio has been named for her. She is a descendant of the Alexanders and the Davises who settled here in the 1800s. She can be reached at 512-556-4076 or at beh1323@sbcglobal.net. Kay always knew her parents loved each other and doted on her. She considers her childhood idyllic and her teenage years carefree.

Milton was born in 1936 to Lewis Walter and Lydia Field Boone. He was the firstborn; sisters Carolyn and Mary Helen followed. He didn’t get to Lampasas until 1951, when he was 15, after having lived in Coleman County, Golthwaite and Bangs.

Their childhoods were very different. Kay lived the comfortable life of a businessman’s daughter. Her environment was so safe that she was allowed to walk with friends from her Third Street home to the Leroy Theater to see a movie. She remembers going to the Candy Kitchen with her parents for special treats and to Mott’s Variety Store to spend her nickels and dimes.

The Boones were married in 1959. Kay’s maternal grandparents owned the Flanagan House, a boarding house on Third Street just one-half block east of the square. She remembers draping sheets over the dining tables to make playhouses and of making the mistake of trying to improve her houses by cutting holes in the sheets to create windows. The scolding she got was not one of her pleasant childhood experiences, she said.

Milton had the hard-scrabble life of a farm boy. He was born on a farm in Coleman County, where he learned to milk cows and drive a tractor. Each morning he took a 10-gallon can of milk on the school bus with him from the Boone dairy for use by the school cafeteria. He also remembers helping with the gardening at an early age.

Looking back, Milton said he is thankful he learned how to work. He’s also thankful his parents required him to be with them at church every Sunday. No exceptions.

Milton not only worked at home but also as a soda jerk at the Bangs Drug Store, where he earned 35 cents an hour. After that, he began his career as a theater projectionist. He readily found employment when he moved to Lampasas and worked for S.T. Donnell at the Leroy and Rio theaters.

Milton says one of his claims to fame is that he ran the last movie shown at the Rio Theater. He continued his career as a projectionist while he was in college at Southwest Texas State University, and he became the assistant manager of another Leroy Theater in San Marcos.

He and Kay started dating when she was a freshman and he was a senior in high school, and continued off and on after he left to go to college. He worked summers at his dad’s Red & White Grocery Store, and Kay did lots of grocery shopping.

After Kay graduated from LHS, she enrolled at TCU before transferring to Southwest Texas, where she got her M.R.S. degree when she married Milton in 1959.

When her mother died in 1960, Kay was just 20. Her dad offered Milton a job in his insurance agency, and they came home with two-week-old daughter Beverly to help raise Kay’s sister, who was still in high school.

Kay was a stay-at-home mom to Beverly and to their son, Roger, for 20 years. In the ’60s, she did a brief stint as “society editor” at The Lampasas Dispatch, where she worked with veteran newsmen Ward Lowe and Norris Monroe.

After that, Kay wrote Lampasas news as a special correspondent for five state dailies.

When Roger left for college, Kay opened a gift store, The Alley Cat, on Third Street and discovered she had a knack for the retail business.

Kay said her shop kept her occupied, entertained and fulfilled for almost 25 years until she had to close it due to health problems.

In the meantime, Milton worked at the Carpenter Insurance Agency, which ironically was housed in the same building as the Rio Theater where he had worked before college.

He also was involved in civic affairs, serving as president of the Lampasas school board, and being a member of the PTA, Jaycees, Rotary Club, chamber of commerce and the Spring Ho Committee. In addition, he worked with Child Protective Services, the Industrial Development Foundation and served on numerous church boards at both Central Christian and the Methodist church.

One highlight of the Boones’ civic involvement came in 1978, when they hosted a reception in their home for Ronald Reagan who was campaigning for a congressional candidate.

The entire family got involved; daughter Beverly hosted the group of high school students who were chosen to meet with Reagan, and son Roger, who was in eighth grade and president of the National Junior Honor Society, got to sit at the head table with Reagan at a breakfast earlier in the day.

After 23 years as an insurance agent, Milton retired but didn’t stay idle. He had always enjoyed cooking, so he and Hal Harton designed and built a barbecue cooker from an old Allis-Chalmers tractor.

Milton excelled at cooking and won trophies for his barbecue. He could boast, if he wanted to, of being in the top 10 out of 150 cooks at the Brady Championship Goat Cook-Off for the last five years. His trophy-winning rig often can be seen at special events around town.

Both Milton and Kay have been active at First United Methodist Church. Kay sings in the chancel choir and serves on the Administrative Council. Milton usually is in the kitchen cooking, or helping guide activities of the Tri-Counties Methodist Men’s Organization.

Kay has served as a chamber of commerce board member, on the Lampasas County Tourism committee, as the Courtyard Square Association publicity person, and she is an active member of the 36 Club.

Now that she has time for hobbies, Kay enjoys paper crafting, making greeting cards, playing the piano and reading. She works parttime at Coming Home to keep her “people skills” honed.

Milton’s catering business keeps him busy, and fishing is one activity he enjoys when he can get away.

Milton has been plagued with illnesses and surgeries for years, starting with a horse accident that damaged his hip back in 1952. The hip healed improperly and over the years he has had many operations to deal with the problem. He has had a total hip replacement, two knee replacements and a couple of heart attacks, but nothing compares to what he has been through since November 2008.

At one point during the year, Milton was receiving daily infusions of antibiotics at Rollins- Brook Community Hospital to combat a staph infection. At 11 a.m. on Sunday, March 27, 2009, he told his attending nurse he didn’t feel well; his heartbeat was 176. He was rushed to the emergency room where his heartbeat moved to 212. The ER staff was fearful Milton would not survive.

About the same time, retired pastor J.W. Hutcherson was asking the congregation at First United Methodist to write a prayer for Milton on their church bulletin, and 145 members responded. At 11:20, Milton’s heart rate moved from 212 to 80 beats per minute, and the medical staff decided he was out of danger.

In a recent talk to church members, Kay summed up their experiences this way: “Hello, dear friends. It has been one year since Milton stepped out into our den and felt excruciating pain in his leg, which turned out to be a blood clot, which in turn changed our lives forever. We have since battled multiple surgeries on that leg, including three to his artificial knee, plus three heart procedures, 165 days of hospitalization, weeks and weeks of physical therapy, 12 weeks of IV antibiotic therapy to combat MRSA staph infection, and we’re still here!

“The infection is gone, the new knee is healed, and he is beginning to walk with his canes. He can go outdoors on his scooter and hopefully will be driving again by the first of the year. Life is good again.

“We have survived this year through God’s grace, the love and prayers of our friends and even some folks who don’t know us, the skill and caring of some wonderful doctors and nurses, and a whole lot of pure grit and determination. It has not been an easy year -- or one we would care to relive -- but we have learned trust, patience and hope.

“We thank you, our friends and family, for being there for us as we lived through this year. God bless you.”

In the past year, the Boones have “missed” Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter, their birthdays, the high school graduation of their oldest grandchild and their 50th wedding anniversary because Milton was in the hospital, so they look forward to this Christmas with great anticipation.

Son Roger, who has been working in South Korea since April, will be back home in Tyler just in time to spend Christmas with his wife Mary and their kids -- Derek, Brady and Reanna. They, along with the Boones’ daughter Beverly, will spend a couple of days with mom and dad -- at home.