Voices of the BIG
BEND
Jim Glendinning The Galloping Scot, Author, World Traveler and sometime tour operator.
Story and photographs by Jim Glendinning
CHUY CALDERON
Jesus “Chuy” Calderon was born
in his parents’ house in Valentine,
Texas on 27 October, 1950. His
father worked on the railroad, then
served in World War II and was dis-
abled. His mother, Maria Calderon
Rios, brought up Chuy and his sisters.
He remembers Valentine as a good
place to grow up, safe and with a
sense of community. There were 125
students in school in those days, and
the economy was good. Calderon,
after graduating from high school in
1968, went on to Sul Ross. He gradu-
ated four years later in kinesiology,
and biology (under the famous Dr.
Barton Warnock), the only period he
was away from Valentine.
After leaving Sul Ross, Calderon
was asked by Valentine School’s
superintendent Brit Webb to become
science teacher, as well as coach of the
Valentine Pirates. With the exception
of eight years when he ran a local
store (and put his children through
college with the proceeds), he has
been teaching since 1972, a career
which ended in May 2015.
He loved teaching, and was never
happier than when he was sitting on
the edge of a desk talking with a typi-
cal class of just four students. Today,
as Valentine’s mayor (for life, most
likely), he knows that the future of
Valentine depends on the continued
existence of the school. The current
enrollment is a total of 42 students,
with eight in high school. The overall
population has shrunk, and families
are having fewer babies.
Calderon has known his wife,
Viola, since they were children. They
attended Valentine School for 12
years, then went to Sul Ross together.
They were both teachers and are now
both in retirement from teaching, but
still stay connected with the school.
Their two sons, Mark and Gabriel,
have jobs in Pecos and New Braunfels
respectively, and their daughter
Veronica is studying for a MA in
Business Studies at Texas A & M.
14
Cenizo
CHUY CALDERON
Valentine
Calderon jokes that he is mayor
because no one else will run. Despite
a low budget and small population, he
is proud of the achievements (a new
water tower, a community center) of
the four-man council. He is now
working on getting a park. Asked
about the economic future of the
community, Calderon insists that the
laid-back and safe lifestyle of the com-
munity, ideal for raising a family, will
someday be seen as an advantage.
“We haven’t lost hope,” he says,
“Things will work out, in God’s
time.”
Driving around in a FedEx van,
delivering to Presidio and Marfa,
which he has been doing since 1988,
gives Calderon a useful view of what
is happening nearby. The influence of
new Marfa has affected Valentine
with the installation of the nearby
Prada store, and the annual
Valentine’s Day music festival draws
2,500 visitors. These are peripheral to
the long-term prospects for Valentine
but, if any permanent local economic
opportunity is to arise, it will surely
happen through the good work of the
long-serving mayor and teacher.
Third Quarter 2015
WAUNETA KING
Alpine
WAUNETA KING
In the hubbub of Alpine’s Sunshine
House cafeteria, some lively jazz music
is being played on a piano in the cor-
ner. The pianist, Wauneta King (age
88), is playing her beloved jazz as well
as finding time to paint the occasional
landscape watercolor, when the mood
takes her.
She was born in Palmyra, Nebraska
in February 1927 to Elta and Holly
Stoner, and attended the local schools
for 12 years. She recalls a first grade
teacher, Beatrice Lamb, who taught
phonetics, unusual for the times. As a
mail carrier, her father had a secure job
during the following years of drought
and recession. Her mother, an excel-
lent seamstress and typist, paid 50 cents
per lesson for Wauneta to learn piano.
After Palmyra High School,
Wuaneta joined Lincoln Business
School at her mother’s suggestion. She
worked as a telephone operator in
Palmyra and in Lincoln during World
War II and married high school sweet-
heart Dale Andersen in 1946. Her
daughter, Judy, was born in 1948.
Recalling her music career many
TOM MICHAEL
Marfa
years later in her Alpine residence,
Wauneta broke into “Beautiful, beauti-
ful Texas” to illustrate a point. The
point was that music had been a vital
part of her life since the early days,
when she played clarinet in the high
school band and sang “Springtime in
the Rockies” at the Fire Department’s
fundraiser.
What really energized her was the
post-war jazz and big band music
(Tommy Dorsey, Glenn Miller) sweep-
ing the country. She recalls in her early
days playing dance music with a band
for four hours and being paid 90 cents.
Piano was her chosen instrument and
jazz her genre, which she believes
comes from the soul and indeed from
her soul, despite her good Methodist
father, she adds.
She met Shark King (“The love of
my life”) in Midland, where he worked
as a construction superintendent, and
they married in 1975. Sometime later
the couple retired to Llano, Texas.
After Shark’s death, Wauneta moved
to Alpine in 1993 to be near her daugh-
ter, Judy, (recently retired director of
Human Resources at Sul Ross), and
her son-in-law Ken (then director of