Living in Texarkana

Living in Texarkana is a choice for my family driven by family, friends and roots.

I have been in business headquartered in Texarkana for the past 45 years, although I do not make my living out of the Texarkana marketplace.

We have maintained our permanent home in Texarkana since 1970 and have done projects around the world over past 50 years. Each time, we rented an apartment, made it our temporary home and returned to Texarkana after completion of each project. Our work allowed us to live anywhere we chose, but Texarkana is home. At times, it was not easy to live in Texarkana, due to canceled flights, bad weather and being stuck in Dallas and not able to get home other than renting a car and driving. But it was the price we paid to live in Texarkana’s Liberty-Eylau community, which is like a boomerang that keeps bringing us back home.

It surprises me how many other people that I have met traveling (at the airport) who live in Texarkana area and work in other parts of world. The number is quite high, I think, and it tells you something about how great of a place Texarkana is to live.

Things change, but most people do not change. Buildings can fall down, people come and go, and evil can come into a community, but over time, people adjust to it and drive it out. One does not know how good our community is until you live and work in another city. Being raised in Texarkana—leadership from teachers, friends, church and neighbors who had same values and beliefs—has been a blessing to me and my family.

I never dreamed when we started our journey after marrying in 1959 that a boy from Liberty and a girl from the Eylau community would have the opportunity to do so much, see so much, make friends with people from around the world and to lead projects that have become standards within our industry today. We were taught in school that one could do anything they wanted to do if they were willing to pay a price to accomplish success. The only difference is one person’s price is different than another.

Living in a community that has strong values, integrity with strong roots and great families is a quality that remains with people of Texarkana. People still will wave at you passing by your home, people looking out for their neighbors, respecting people who make things better for us, such as real teachers with a calling now fourth and fifth generations of following in the footstep of their forefathers, policeman, firemen along with first responders. These are reason we make Texarkana our home and are thankful for them.

God-fearing people do not change, and people are the same today as when my wife’s greatgreat-great-grandfather arrived in Bowie County from South Carolina many years ago. When he arrived, the only thing he had was a horse and saddle, and he traded it for 711 acres to build a home upon. Part of the land is still in the family today; my wife has 4 acres and home that she was raised in at Kings Highway and U.S. Highway 59. Over the years, heirs sold off parcels that had been inherited. The home place was located in same place the Burger Kings is today on U.S. 59. Today, we live 2 miles from where my wife was born, and our daughter and son-in-law live in the home place.

Growing up in Texarkana, I did not realize how many great people within our community we had, people who left a mark upon my being, and they were gallant and courageous. That has helped our community to hold onto who we are. It is our hope to pass our feeling on to our granddaughter and great-granddaughter so they too will hold onto our roots and want to live in Texarkana.