Voices of the
BIG BEND
Jim Glendinning continues the tradition of his popular radio interviews from “Voices of the Big Bend,” an original production of
KRTS, Marfa Public Radio. The program continues to be broadcast occasionally throughout the region at 93.5 FM.
by Jim Glendinning
FRAN SAGE
“I didn’t know we were poor, every-
one was the same,” explains Fran Sage
when talking about her upbringing in
Belvedere, Ill., 50 miles northwest of
Chicago. Born Frances Kellogg on Jan.
16, 1932, the second of three girls, her
lasting early memories are of her moth-
er, Esther, whom she describes as a life-
long influence on her education. Her
father, Jack Kellogg, an electrician,
struggled to find work during the
Depression, and the family moved sever-
al times to California and later
Montana. Finally starting a promising
business of his own, Jack died tragically
during a botched operation in Missoula,
Mont. in 1945.
Fran enjoyed school, studied hard
and did well. At home, she studied the
Greek philosophers and taught herself
French. She lived in Montana from
1943 to 1966 and graduated in 1950
from Billings Senior High School, salu-
tatorian in a class of 300, with history
and political science her major interests.
She had met Jim Sage, a cousin of a
close friend, in 1948, and the couple
married in June 1950. A daughter,
Sandy, was born a year later, and a son,
Steve, followed.
She joined the League of Women
Voters around that time, a move which
“saved my life,” she says. The 25 mem-
bers of the local group met regularly
and discussed issues of national interest.
In 1961, dropping out of the league,
which had changed its focus, she
enrolled at the University of Montana at
Missoula, graduating four years later
with a B.A. in English. Jim, who worked
in Billings for a paper company, joined
the family in Missoula at weekends.
Fran next was awarded a fellowship
16
Photo by Jim Glendinning
FRAN SAGE
Calamity Creek
from the University of Texas at Austin
for a National Defense Education Act
Ph.D. program. The family moved to
Austin in 1966. Jim earned a B.A. in
Spanish and later an M.S. in foreign lan-
guage education while Fran completed
her Ph.D. on the poet Robert Bly. She
later taught in the English department
on a second fellowship until 1974 and
subsequently at St. Edwards College. In
the 1980s she moved out of teaching
into education administration, working
in Austin for the American Association
of University Professors and later the
Texas Faculty Association.
In addition to office work, she trav-
eled, lobbied the Texas legislature, put
out a newsletter and arranged confer-
ences. She retired in 1994.
Seeking to retire in mountain terrain
Cenizo
Third Quarter 2011
Photo by Jim Glendinning
KATE THAYER
Marathon
that reminded them of Montana, but
without the cold, Jim and Fran immedi-
ately took to the Big Bend region, build-
ing a house in South Double Diamond
south of Alpine in 1995. Looking to the
south one morning she was appalled to
see a cloud of pollution obscuring the
view. She called the Sierra Club and got
involved.
Fran Sage became a steadfast activist
voice on environmental matters, writing
regularly for the local media as well as
building the local Sierra Club chapter to
110 members. She counts as victories
the Entrada al Pacifico movement and
the bentonite crushing plant east of
Alpine, both blocked. But the environ-
mental fight never ends, she believes,
and the “Water Wars” are now on, she
warns.
Photo by Jim Glendinning
ZOEY SEXTON
Terlingua
KATE THAYER
It comes as a surprise to find out that
the person responsible for the most
beautiful table arrangement and health-
iest breakfast in the Big Bend region
used to work in a Houston steel mill. But
as Kate Thayer, co-owner of Eve’s
Garden Bed & Breakfast in Marathon,
describes her life, this fact emerges. And
in addition to her fine baking and cook-
ing skills, she does beautiful flower
arrangements.
Kate Thayer was born in Houston
on June 27, 1946, the fourth of seven
children and the first born in Texas.
Both parents came from the East Coast,
and both were painters. She remembers
childhood as outdoors, up in trees and in
the woods of East Houston, where her