The tree man of Cedar Park
Raymond Herrington grew up at Pleasant Valley near Marble Falls. He had an active childhood. “We hunted a lot,” says Raymond. “We really did. We had lots of swimming places with the river and creeks right there. We’d go squirrel hunting during the day and hunt coons at night. It was just fun growing up with my 5 brothers and one sister.”
He did some cedar chopping. “I was raised around a bunch of cedar choppers. The area around Marble Falls had some good red heart cedar, then a big bunch of choppers left Marble Falls and went to Medina, which had some good cedar, too.”
Raymond did some posthole digging for fences that are still standing. “Yeah I worked along Highway 71 when they were just cutting that highway through there.”
After graduating from Marble Falls High School in 1949, Raymond was doing survey work along the Rio Grande when he was drafted into the Army. After basic training at Fort Leonard Wood in Missouri he was sent by troop ship to the front lines in Korea. He had some serious bouts with seasickness. Raymond says it was so cold some soldiers experienced frostbite on their feet. “They really know how to make it cold over there. My legs froze some. I always kept socks underneath my arms or next to my body to keep them warm. Every once in a while I’d change socks because they’d get wet from all the snow and ice. Some of these old boys would take off their boots and I’ve seen them take their little toe that was frozen and black and twist that thing off and pitch it to the side, then put their boots back on. There was very little blood, if any, when they took off their toe. Seeing that is something I will always remember. I never lost anything on my feet because I took care of them.”
Raymond is 90. He was with the Austin Fire Department 12 years and later had a career as an auditor with the highway department. “I went to just about every court house in Texas and made friends all over the state. I must have been a good listener because I heard lots of stuff. I feel they told me things they wouldn’t tell anybody else.”
Raymond keeps a garden of flowers and vegetables and does gold leaf paintings from 15 karat gold he gets from Germany. He is known as the tree man because he creates decorative tree sculptures out of wire. He gives most of them away. “They just set them on a dresser or shelf somewhere. Some women hang their earrings on them. I can make them any size, usually 8 to 10 inches high. They’re mounted on polished wood.”
He learned how to twist wire from a good source. “Jack White taught me how to do it. He lived next door.” Jack White was a recognized master artist and was named the Official Artist of Texas in 1976. His paintings hang in the Smithsonian.
Raymond lives in an assisted living facility in Cedar Park that has play stations for bowling, baseball and boxing. “We’ve advanced from just bingo and dominoes.”