Saturday, February 21, 1998

Reporter-News salutes

Legendary status

Four area rodeo legends of days past have been awarded official status of their stature by being inducted into the Texas Rodeo Cowboy Hall of Fame in Belton. The honorees are Bill Barton, 78, a former rodeo competitor who now runs a saddle shop in Abilene; 77-year-old former Wild West showman Bobby Estes and his wife, Marianne Estes, of Baird; and the late Billy Weeks, a professional cowboy champion in the 1940s and '50s from Abilene. Weeks' wife, Jerry, attended the ceremonies. Congratulations to these pioneers who helped spread the popularity of rodeo worldwide.

Hall of fame

Three Abilene residents are among five former Wildcats who are being inducted into the Sports Hall of Fame of Abilene Christian University at a luncheon today. Mrs. Rebecca Morris, of Abilene, the widow of the late longtime ACU coach A.B. Morris and a former drama teacher at ACU, will receive the hall's ninth Lifetime Achievement Award. Also honored will be former Abilene City Council member Tommy Morris, a three-sport letterman at ACU in the 1950s who is now a member of the ACU Board of Trustees, and Don Smith, who was both a letterman and a coach for the Wildcats. Also inducted will be Carl Coleman, an ACU football standout and coach in the 1930s who now farms in Big Spring, and Roger Colglazier of Cookeville, Tenn., who was captain of the ACU track team in 1972.

Hamlin honors

Ruth Wilkinson was named Woman of the Year, and Cecil Sellers was named Man of the Year at the annual Hamlin Chamber of Commerce banquet. Wilkinson, the mother of five and a great-grandmother, is a director of the Hamlin Child Care Center and involves herself in practically every volunteer capacity you can think of. Sellers, who has operated Sellers Cattle Company for more than 50 years, has served on the board of the Hamlin schools and the West Texas Rehabilitation Center. He has been chairman of the Cattlemen's Round-Up for Crippled Children and is now a director of Hamlin National Bank. Such outstanding individuals, dedicated to their communities, are what make the towns of the Big Country so strong.

Business salute

Zachry Associates has been recognized with the first quarter of 1998's Small Business Salute by the Abilene Business Council, an affiliate of the Abilene Chamber of Commerce. H.C. Zachry founded the company here in 1970 and continues to lead it.

Not fiddling around

The Cooper Fiddlers, directed by co-founder and Cooper High School string teacher Mark Best, wowed the Texas Music Educators Association last weekend in San Antonio with a down-home, hand-clapping, hootin' and hollering' performance. Congratulations to this group, which continues to serve as goodwill ambassadors for Abilene.

State board

Former Abilene City Council member Betty Holmes Ray has been named a public member of the Texas Board of Examiners of Psychologists, which certifies and licenses psychologists, enforces rules and regulations and suspends or revoke licenses for violations. Her term runs through October 2003. Ray serves on the boards of the Community Foundation of Abilene, the Grace Museum and Hendrick Health Systems.