Page 14/The Battalion/Wednesday, April 10, 1985
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by Jeff MacNeiiy state group reviews
indigent health care
Associated Press
AUSTIN — Preventing pregnan
cies might be the most cost-effective
method of dealing with health care
for the indigent, said Rep. Brad
Wright, R Houston, chairman of a
House committee taking testimony
Tuesday on the matter.
uninsured in Texas, said Helen Fa-
rabee, head of the task force.
Oliver said his bill would provide
prenatal care and birth services for
about 50,000 women, resulting in
about 150 fewer infant deaths each
'We’ve got to address that issue,”
Wright said after a brief session of
the House Public Health Committee.
"We’ve already heard it will save
money."
Wife finishes husband's term
Widow recalls sheriffs job
The committee was assigned the
task of considering four bills recom
mended by the Task Force on Indi
gent Health C.are, including one that
would levy a 1 percent tax on net
profits of private hospitals.
Dr. David Smith, head of the
Brownsville Community C linic, said
he had three patients who needed a
Caesarean section but did not have
the money to go to a hospital for the
surgery. He said he had a "waiting li
ne” of 300 women who did not hav e
the $400 or $500 necessary for tubal
ligations so they could not have any
more children.
Associated Press
BIG SPRINT; — Lucille Merrick
tenderly picked up the pair of pol
ished handcuffs.
“My husband had these en
graved," said the county’s only
woman sheriff. She held the steel
cuffs up to the window so light
gleamed on the block letters spelling
her late husband’s name, “A.j. Mer-
rick."
She sorted through the rest of the
items on the table near her: the
pearl-handled Colt automatic pistol;
the short, lead-heavy leather club; a
set of four sheriff's badges — keep
sakes of her and her husband’s ten
ures as Howard County sherif f .
The gun is hers, though she never
used it during the 1 1 months she fol
lowed her husband in office. She
served as Howard County sheriff
f rom Feb. 7, 1944, to Dec. 31, 1944.
“Working helped me cope,” said
Merrick, 78.
“Mv husband died Feb. 3, 1944,
from a heart attack,” she said. “They
buried him the 6th, and the commis
sioners appointed me sheriff the
7th.”
‘I didn 't ever lock but one
person up. There was a
teenager who had given
us a lot of trouble. I saw
him walking down the
sidewalk (in front of the
courthouse), so I called to
him and brought him into
the office, and we arrested
him. ,i ~~~ Lucille Men ick
called to him and brought him into
the office, and we arrested him.”
Merrick also had a jailbreak dur
ing her term in office.
“One of the lesser deputies left
the door open after feeding the pris
oners," she said. “There weren’t very
many. We got them all back within a
couple days.
Wright said the four measures
probably would go to a “friendly"
subcommittee chaired by Rep. (esse
Oliver, D-Dallas, author of three of
the measures, to be returned for a
vote next week.
"If the state has an obligation to
take care of the indigent, do we have
the right to stop people from having
children?” the committee chairman
asked.
“There were always jailbreaks
then. We had a combination lock,
arfd after the deputies fed the pris
oners, they weren't always careful to
see if it was locked right.”
The first bill to be heard would
provide more services and tare for
indigent mot hers and their children.
“Basically the indigent are the
Smith said, "I think many of these
people would like to have the opera
tion but don’t have the money.”
Wright said. “It seems to me we
should have some means of dealing
with repeat pregnancies and the vol
untary way may not be the way to do
it.”
Gl twins ‘buddies’
Merrick stayed away f rom the of
fice when she was first appointed to
fill her husband’s place. Later, she
came to enjoy working in the office.
Other widows in the nearby coun
ties of Dawson and Glasscock had
been chosen to replace then hus
bands about the same time.
In Dawson County Mrs. Joe Ray
ran for re-election after her appoint
ment and won, Merrick said.
“It was not unusual (for a widow
to be appointed),” Merrick said.
“ There were several men who asked
for the appointment but the com
missioners court and the county
judge, James Brooks, asked me to do
it. They were very supportive.”
“If I hadn’t had the the responsi
bility, it would have been much
harder," she said. “I would have
been alone more. I felt like it was
something I must do. My husband
was elected to the office, and I felt I
had to finish his term.”
Merrick said she concentrated on
the administration and office work
in her tenure; the chief deputy un
der her husband, Denver Dunn, was
in charge of the field work, she said.
"I didn't ever lock but one person
up,” she said. “T here was a teenager
who had given us a lot of trouble. I
saw him walking down the sidewalk
(in front of the courthouse), so I
Merrick said she didn’t regret her
h asband’s career, though it caused
many sleepless nights during the 20
years they were married.
“He was a deputy sheriff when I
met him, when I was working in the
sheriff’s and county tax offices in La-
mesa.” she said. “I didn't mind him
being off. He liked that kind of
work. He liked trying to figure out
why people would do things.
“There were many nights when I
stayed up to 3:00 or 4:00 . waiting
for him to get home. I worried about
him. I didn't worry about me. I
wasn’t out in the field."
When Andrew Merrick first
started working for the Howard
County sherif f's office, the town was
in the middle of an oil boom, and
bootleggers had operations all over
town.
“It was dangerous to walk down
the 100 block of Main,” Merrick
said. “My husband wouldn’t let me
walk clown the sidewalk by myself.
Associated Press
FORI HOOD — James Car
penter is seven minutes older than
his brother Jon, but both have been
in the Army for exactly the same
amount of time.
Sgts. 1st C lass James Carpenter
and Jon Carpenter enlisted in the
Army 16 years ago, in then home
town of Stow, Mass., 'under the
“buddy system,” which allows “bud
dies" to enter the Army together and
guarantees they will stay together
through basic and advanced individ
ual training.
But the togetherness didn’t stop
there.
After basic and ATT, both were
sent to the same two-week door-gun
ner course, and then in 1970, both
were sent to the same unit in Viet-
The Carpenters are now together
at Fort Hood — for the second time.
In 1970, after fighting with the
282nd Assault Helicoptei Company
in Vietnam, they were assigned to
the same unit in Fort Hood Fort
Hood is the only U.S. post to which
either one of them has permanently
been assigned, and other than a
three-year tour in Germany and his
Vietnam service, Jon has spent his
entire military career at Fort Hood.
Even though they’re in the same
company again, seperate jobs and
families give the two little time to
gether.
narn.
“You really weren’t supposed to
have two brothers fighting in a com
bat situation at the same time,”
James Carpenter said.
It sounds as if it would get pretty
confusing — two brothers, same ini
tials, same rank and same Social Se
curity number except for the Iasi two
digits.
James said his brother gets all tin-
good assignments and jokingly said
there must have been a mix up.
Halt put
to no-risk
speeding
Associated Press
BRIDGEPORT — Tinders
driving through Wise Cbunit
"kept me hammei down" on their
acc elerators after learning tht
county attorney refused to pro
ecute t rat f it tickets appealed iu
disti u i court, officials said.
Bui that's all a thing ul the pan
nt>w, saitl Pat Morris, who tool
ovei m January as the fiewcounn
attoi nev for Wise County.
1 he old reputation of refusmj
u> proset me the tickets led irud
ers it) thunder down State High
way 1 14 instead of the teurt
mended l S 380-287 to (kfivfl
their 35-ton loads of sand ami
gravel to Dallas area constructin
sites.
"1 didn't go to law school fori
three years to try traffic cases, bu
Wise County is kind of unique.'
M orris told the Dallas limes
Herald.
A state crackdown on reckless
driving produced more than
1,500 traffic tickets last month in
Wise County, and Morris prom
ises that a vigorous effort will be
made to collec t fines on them
Police and local prosecutors so
ihev hope (his enforcementeffott
succ eeds where others hart
tailed In the past, they say, mid
et s slewed traffic tickets in Wist
Countv as little more thansnral
Vol. 80
[Count)
Ivn Ruffir
Ictsion
new trial
del Gabri
ECuadr;
o| tampe
an inves
death of
Goodrich
|Cuadr;
line Jr.,
for a ties
annoyances.
"It’s been a lug problem i»
Wise County for a longtime
Mot t is said. "All those troopers
w rite a lot ol tickets, butithasni
done a lot in terms of deterren
ce.
In Wise County, 1,257 ticket
were appealed to district courtib
1984. and virtually every onew
routinely dismissed, Morrissaid.
Former C.ounty Attorney Sari
Gallo said he used the polk) ol
dismissing the tickets in disttid
conn because lus staff was ion
small and the court dockei W'
ove re rose ded.
I i oopers are scheduled loom-
tinue their Wise County crack
down through June, tsingi
$50,000 federal grant, five amt
tional police cars patrol Wist
County highways II days eack
month.
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