COUNTY LIFE
Strickler brings trips of wool to life – Rug hooking, color dying passions for textile artist
This is the final story in a three-part summer feature series on unique Montague County artists.
By BARBARA GREEN
editor@bowienewsonline.com
Betsy Strickler wants the colors she creates to “sing” and the brighter the better.
While she shares her dyed fabrics through her company The Ringgold Kid Wool Fabric and Patterns, she also takes those colorful strands to create hook rug art. Her rural home is cozy with her artwork from geometric patterns to people, animals and landscapes.
Strickler, 56, and her husband Frank, both retired commercial airline pilots moved to the Ringgold area in 2012 from Decatur. They found themselves moving further away from the Metroplex so they could enjoy being in the country. Frank spends his time working around the property while his wife cultivates her growing business.
Her interest in rug hooking may have been stimulated by her mother who had been a quilter, and after she and her other daughter took an afternoon class on hook rugs they“got into it whole hog.”
“I picked up a hook and started it, but eight years ago I started my business selling fabrics and dying them. My sister also got me interested in dying and I read a lot of books to learn about it. Many dyers are proprietary about their recipe and others publish it all,” explains Strickler.
Read the full feature in the weekend Bowie News.
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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