which were spent standing in a
kitchen
baking,
Shirley
Rooney talks about her life.
She was born in Balmorhea
in 1934, the oldest of the five
children of Charles and
Marjorie Smith. Her earliest
years, and best memories, are
of Marfa, where her dad ran
the café in the Greyhound bus
station from 1946. She says, “I
was raised in a restaurant.”
The family moved in 1948
to Marathon, and her dad
took over the Bluebonnet
Café, later named the Big
Bend Café. Shirley, then 14,
was put to work washing dish-
es, handling cash and waiting
on table.
That early experience of
dealing easily with the public
has stayed with her to this day.
Married in 1952 to Pat
Rooney, who worked for the
Gage Ranch, Shirley lived
below Black Gap and brought
up three daughters, Becky,
Francene and Betty Jo.
The family returned to
Marathon in 1963, and
Shirley worked as a cook at the
Big Bend Café. She then
bought out her dad and ran
the café for 11 years until
1975. Subsequently, she
worked in Sanderson as super-
visor of the school cafeteria,
then at the Gage Hotel for 13
years, where her baking
expertise became widely
appreciated.
In 1998, at an age when
most cooks might hang up
their aprons, Shirley, respond-
ing to a suggestion from her
daughters that she start her
own bakery, did just that.
Shirley’s Burnt Biscuit
Bakery opened May 1, 1999
and was a quick success.
Shirley started work at 3 a.m.
and opened at 5. Truck drivers
and cowboys quickly got to
know this and were knocking
on the door. Tourists loved the
place.
Shirley baked bread, bis-
cuits, bread, donuts, fried pies
and cookies. (The donuts and
fried pies were the most popu-
lar). Coffee was available, and
two chairs provided seating. A
modest place, the bakery nev-
ertheless gained regional
notice because of its strategic
location, the excellence of the
baking and the effervescent
character of the owner.
Favorable
press
notices
appeared in Texas Monthly and
other magazines.
Shirley sold the bakery in
August 2006, and, happy that
it’s in the good hands of Don
Boyd, she keeps herself
involved with the community
that means so much to her
by working in the Marathon
library on a temporary
project.
This allows her plenty of
time to do what she does even
better than baking – chatting
with people.
B
orn in Alpine in 1955 to
Jack and Wilmuth Skiles,
who were both attending Sul
Ross graduate school at the
time, Raymond came between
his sister Peggy and younger
brother Russell.
The family home was in
Langtry, and Raymond’s
teenage years involved hunt-
ing, fishing and visiting neigh-
boring ranches. After some
years of teaching, Jack Skiles
took the job as manager of the
new Judge Roy Bean visitors’
center and introduced an
excellent native plant garden
there, which survives to this
day.
Following graduation from
Comstock High School in
1973, 6-foot-3-and-a-half-
inch-tall Raymond headed for
Angelo State with basketball
on his mind. But changing
direction, Raymond trans-
ferred to Texas A & M, gradu-
ating in 1979 with a degree in
wildlife biology.
He took his first job with
the concession company at
Chisos Mountains Lodge in
1979, which led to early con-
tacts with Big Bend National
Park personnel.
For the next seven years
Raymond worked a variety of
positions with the National
Park Service.
He trained in law enforce-
ment as well as emergency
medical procedures and
moved around the country
from Death Valley National
Park, in California. to NPS
headquarters in Washington,
D.C.
In 1987, he took up the
position as park ranger in
resource management in Big
Bend National Park. Later, his
first hike across the Rio
Grande into the mountains of
Coahuila introduced him to
rough, raw land and the differ-
ent wilderness philosophy
practiced by the Mexicans.
In his many years of work
at Big Bend National Park,
Raymond has consistently
engaged with the wider com-
munity of the Big Bend, sitting
on the local school board,
attending Brewster County
Historical Commission meet-
ings and participating in
Leadership Big Bend.
He acknowledges that
action by National Park
Service employees in the early
days of Big Bend National
Park unnecessarily alienated
local residents but says that
today relations have improved
hugely between the park serv-
ice and local residents.
Differences will remain, but,
an optimist and a diplomat, he
believes “even differences can
help us work together” if we
share the same values, such as
love of the land.
Working in resource man-
agement as a wildlife biologist,
Raymond deals on a daily
basis with the park service dual
mission: to provide a good out-
door experience for visitors
and to protect the park’s natu-
ral and cultural resources.
The National Park Service
could not have a better
ambassador.
Moonlight
Gemstones
D AVIS
M OUNTAINS
R EALTY
Mon - Sat • 10am to 6pm
Sunday by appointment
1001 W San Antonio St
Marfa
432.729.4526
moonlightgemstones.com
103 State Street
Fort Davis Texas
u
432.426.2175
davismountainsrealty.com
Alpine Classic Inn
Complimentary Hot Breakfast • High Speed Internet
Pool • Business Center • Hot Tub
2401 E. HWY 90 • Alpine, Texas
432-837-1530 • 432-837-5077 Fax
Cenizo
Third Quarter 2009
15