My remarkable Lampasans for this month are Carol and Robert “Bob” Wright III.

I felt as if I had stepped back in time the day I interviewed then at their home seven miles north of Lampasas, not only because of the home’s rustic, comfortable environment but because their outlook is so typical of their forefathers who settled this county.

The Wrights take great pride in their ancestors, children, home, state and country. I walked away with new pride for my greatgrandparents and the succeeding generations who, like Carol and Bob’s, helped to settle Central Texas.

Their roots go deep in Lampasas County history. Carol’s ancestors, the Northingtons, arrived here in 1842; Bob’s in 1884. Their family histories are described in the book compiled by the Lampasas County Historical Commission and published in 1991.

Six generations of Carol’s family were born in Texas. The first was Alexander Jesse Northington, who was born in 1841 in Red River County and moved to Georgetown with his parents when he was one year old. He lived in Georgetown until 1861, when he joined the Confederate Army and served until 1864 when he was discharged because of ill health.

Bob and Carol Wright were married at First Presbyterian Church in Lampasas in 1966. Northington returned to Georgetown, where he began his mercantile career and married Maria Louise Knight, a doctor’s daughter. The couple moved to Burnet where Alex worked in a general store.

In 1868, they moved on to Lampasas, and he opened a general store on the north side of the downtown square. After a few years, Alex built a rock building on the southwest side of the square to house his expanding business.

Ever the entrepreneur, Alex bought land four miles east of Lampasas and became a rancher. He also served two terms in the Texas Legislature and two terms as a Lampasas County commissioner for Precinct 1.

The couple had six children, all born in Lampasas.

The second generation of Texas-born Northingtons was headed by Clyde Alexander Northington Sr., Carol’s grandfather, who was the fourth child of Alex and Maria. He was a stock farmer/rancher on the family land east of Lampasas. He married Bessie Andrew in 1900; they became the parents of four children. After her husband died at age 43, Bessie Northington moved to town and opened a kindergarten from her home on the southwest corner of Ridge and First streets, where the house still stands.

She was a faithful member of the Presbyterian Church, where her parents, Capt. (C.S.A.) George and Sarah Andrew, had been charter members.

The third generation was headed by Carol’s father, Clyde Alexander Northington Jr. When his widowed mother moved to town, Clyde worked first as a janitor and errand boy at the post office. He started his banking career at 18 as a bookkeeper with Peoples National Bank. Clyde advanced to the position of executive vice president, a job he held until 1954, when he became president of Lampasas’ other bank, First National.

He was chairman of the board until his death in 1971.

In 1938, Clyde Jr. married Mary Dee Abney, a graduate of Baylor University and a schoolteacher. They becane the parents of two daughters: Linda, born in 1939, and Carol in 1944.

Carol credits her mother for being a strong influence in the lives of her daughters because of her involvement in Girl Scouts, PTA and Future Homemakers of America.

Now to the fourth generation, Carol and Bob, and their children, Cynthia and Robert Wright IV. The sixth generation is composed of grandchildren Kyle Alexander Wright, Madalyn Anne Wright, Jackson Northington Kemper and Caroline Mary Kemper, all Texas-born except Kyle, who was born at Fort Sill, Okla., but he was fortunate to get here when he was three months old.

Carol and Bob feel especially blessed that their daughter Cynthia and her mechanical engineer husband Lyle Kemper and their children live in Cypress, and that son Rob IV and his wife Myra and children are now stationed at Fort Hood, where he is a lieutenant colonel.

Cynthia and Myra are stay-athome moms, so they have the freedom to be frequent visitors at the grandparents’ home, and Carol and Bob are often on the road to catch events such as sports activities, piano recitals and school visits.

Now to the other side of the family. Four generations of Robert Wrights have lived in these parts. The first Robert was born in 1877, and moved from Alabama, crossing the Mississippi River and coming the rest of the way to Texas by train. His parents settled near Nix, where his father rented land and raised crops.

Robert went to the one-room Nix School where he completed sixth grade before he went to work in Lampasas for a mercantile store. Eventually he became a bookkeeper and then a partner in the Andrew-Wright Grocery Company.

The “Andrew” was Carol’s great-uncle, and the “Wright” was Bob’s grandfather. Long before Carol and Bob were married, there were close family ties.

His son, Robert Jr., graduated from Texas A&M University in 1932 during the height of the Great Depression. He worked for a while with an oil company, then in the family grocery business and in the government-created Civilian Conservation Corps, and finally went on active duty in 1939 as a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army.

In 1941, Robert Jr. married Viva Mae Cox, a Lampasas schoolteacher he had met while living at the Elzie Smith Boarding House on the corner of North and Key Avenue.

After their marriage, Viva Mae accompanied her husband to posts all over the United States and to Germany, France, Japan and Holland. Viva Mae had bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Baylor with a major in Spanish; she was a valuable asset for her husband’s career, especially when in foreign countries where her knowledge of languages came in handy.

Robert Jr. retired as a colonel in 1957. They returned to Lampasas and Viva Mae to the LHS classroom she had left, teaching Spanish. Her husband was employed first at the Methodist State Home in Waco, then at First National Bank in Lampasas.

The third Robert, the subject of this column, went to school intermittently in Lampasas.

Whenever his father was sent overseas, he and his mother came back home. He graduated from LHS in 1962 and moved on to Texas A&M, as his father had done.

One weekend when he was home, he renewed his acquaintance with Carol Northington, a homesick freshman attending Trinity University in San Antonio.

They started corresponding and seeing each other at Lampasas, College Station and at San Marcos, where Carol was in college.

Date nights usually meant going to the picture show at the Leroy Theater and following it up with lemon Cokes at the Dairy Cue. Carol remembers that she didn’t dare order a hamburger because they cost 25 cents, and she didn’t want to be an “expensive” date.

Their memories of school days in Lampasas: Carol walking to town with Jack, her dog, feeling secure and safe. She remembers the many summer days when she swam at the pool in Hancock Park. She recalls Hazel Jones and Lucille Norris as her most influential teachers -- and parents who were consistent in their rules. She took pride in her family’s reputation in the community and never wanted to disappoint her parents by her behavior.

Bob remembers walking after school to his grandfather’s grocery store to get the 12 cents required to go to the picture show. He and his friends swam in Sulphur Creek and dropped from the rope swing at Chestnut Street into the creek. He doesn’t recall parents ever coming to check on them.

Bob also remembers hunting with teacher A.A. O’Neal and Coach Sam Fowler, and that coming in late to school during deer season was permitted. He was told once not to have blood on his hands when he reported to class.

The Lampasas of their youth was different from today in that no stores were open on Sunday except Crockers where, after church, people picked up a loaf of bread and milk. Few did their main shopping on Sunday.

They recall also that everyone they knew went to church, which was not optional for children. Movie attendance was forbidden on Sundays by some families, Carol’s among them.

Carol and Bob were married in August 1966, shortly after they graduated from college; she from Southwest Texas State University and he from Texas A&M, where the month before Bob received his commission as a second lieutenant in the Army.

The Wrights were fortunate that their first assignment from 1967 to 1969 was at the Killeen base.

Daughter Cynthia was born at Darnell Army Hospital, and the doting grandparents were close by to spoil the baby.

Bob was assigned to Vietnam in 1969. Carol and Cynthia came back to Lampasas to live in Carmen Briggs’ apartment on Sixth Street.

When he returned to the States, Bob was assigned to Pueblo Army Depot in Colorado, where Robert Wright IV was born.

In Bob’s 22-year Army career, he had many assignments: at Fort Gordon in Georgia for military police training, at Fort McClellan in Alabama, with Recruiting Command in central Pennsylvania, at Criminal Investigation Command at Fort Polk, La., and at Fort Riley, Kan. They even had a tour of duty in Germany, and lived at Bad Kreuznach and Heidelberg.

Sometimes they didn’t have plush quarters or the best assignments, but they soon learned to make the most of their experiences.

In 1986 at Fort Riley, they were selected as Military Family of the Year.

Even when they were overseas, they were active with their children. Carol wonders now how she had the courage to take her Girl Scout troop through East Germany en route to Berlin. Bob took his Boy Scout troop there the same year.

They were involved in their children’s sporting events and school activities.

While stationed in Europe, Carol made another trip with her Girl Scouts to England where they stayed in a youth hostel and toured London.

Bob retired from the Army in 1988, and the family settled in Copperas Cove, where Bob taught high school economics and Carol was a substitute teacher.

They had it in the back of their minds to return to Lampasas, so in 1995 they bought the land where they now live and built their home.

In 2003, Bob retired as a teacher, and their move to Lampasas has benefitted the community. Bob has served as third adjutant of the American Legion Post, served on the Saratoga Underground Water Conservation District and been named to the Lampasas Central Appraisal District board. He is a Master Mason in Saratoga Lodge #546 and a member of the Sons of the Republic of Texas.

Carol has been involved with Keystone Square Museum for 12 years, serving two terms as chairman of the Board of Directors and starting programs for children, including the Teddy Bear Tea Party and Little Wrangler Round-Up. She is a member of the Pierian Club, Daughters of the Republic of Texas, The United Daughters of the Confederacy and Daughters of the American Revolution. In addition, Carol has served two terms on the LHS Alumni Scholarship Fund and has worked for 17 years on the Quilt Show Committee.

Active in the Presbyterian Church, Carol has been a deacon, an elder and president of the Presbyterian Women. She also serves on the Board of Directors of First State Bank of Burnet.

In summing up their lives together, the Wrights remember difficult times as well as happy ones. Perhaps the worst times were the separation due to Bob’s military assignments.

The happiest times are now, on their ranch in Lampasas surrounded by friends and family -- and many memories. They agree their faith in God and in each other has sustained them.

As I close this column, it strikes me that many in Lampasas do the best they can day by day, and trust God in good times and bad. The Wrights have set us an excellent example.

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.

A new school to open in October was named for her in Northside School District in San Antonio.

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