COUNTY LIFE
‘One big family:’ Nocona Thanksgiving feast a true community project
By DEBRA DUNLAP
About 13 years ago, Belinda Hendrix had an idea. That idea became a vision. She shared that vision with members of her church and they embraced it and made it a passion.
Once implemented, that passion became a Nocona tradition.
Belinda and her husband, Don, founded and became pastors of Christ Community Church in Nocona 14 years ago. Like many churches, when the holiday season came around, the congregation donated food and made up baskets to deliver to the least fortunate of the community. After having done that for two years, Belinda came up with a different plan.
“It always kind of bothered me that we were taking all the ingredients for a Thanksgiving meal to the families, instead of taking the meal itself,” recalled Belinda. “I had worked with the poor before, and I know that there are sometimes circumstances where there are not facilities to prepare the food that we take to them.”
She pondered many of these people may not have propane to heat their homes or bake a turkey, water to wash potatoes or even have anything to cook with. Hendrix said the food they deliver is worthless if that is the situation.
Her idea was to actually prepare a Thanksgiving feast and invite the community to join in, along with delivering meals to anyone who requested it. Read in your mid-week News. how this idea has evolved into a major community event with hundreds being fed.
Pictured: Folks enjoyed last year’s Thanksgiving Community Dinner. (Courtesy photo)
Don Hendrix and his wife Belinda gave life to the idea of a community Thanksgiving feast in Nocona. (Courtesy photo)
Michael Bohling, chief meteorologist from Channel 3 in Wichita Falls, will have a presentation at the Montague County Courthouse Annex Community room in Montague from 7-8 p.m. on April 8. It is sponsored by the Montague County Amateur Radio Club.
Members of the Saint Jo Fire Department will host a fish fry and silent auction from 5-7 p.m. on May 3 in the Saint Jo School cafeteria.
Cost is $12 per plate and to-go orders are available. Enjoy fresh catfish, french fries, hush puppies, beans, cole slaw and desserts. A silent auction is planned.
By BARBARA GREEN
editor@bowienewsonline.com
Kimberly Morris, longtime funeral director in Nocona, has compiled a two-volume set of not only death records, but personal notes from the original funeral home owner covering some 25 years.
She calls it an introduction to the life of the W.L. Scott II who started Scott Funeral Home, the person who tried to make one of the hardest days in life as easy as possible.
Morris sees it as something that not only shows a day in the life, but a historic collection of resident’s deaths, that can be an interesting read as well as a genealogy resource.
The result is “the unpublished” – Volume 1: 1960-1979 and Volume 2: 1980-1985. It is centered around the funeral home intake form where the director made plans for the family, but on the back Scott kept a journal of the activities surrounding this service from start to finish often beginning with picking up a body.
Morris explains it was a different era where there was not a “funeral home” persé as everyone was embalmed at home.
Read the full feature in your Thursday Bowie News.
Also read the Scott Brothers legacy from “the unpublished,” that explains the big impact this family had on business development in Montague County. See page 4A.
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