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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (April 19, 1989)
The Battalion 2 STATE & LOCAL Wednesday, April 19,1989 ' i: ■ ■ ■ IGraham’s owner helps rebuild fire-gutted Hall artfelt April 17 By Sherri Roberts STAFF WRITER uestioning that it would ese things need y- eatA&M. Itis :vative foamat [hat may need j [act words, illivan Ross at t.u. and the vay, Carol, if it even attend rmgement on aeing wasted alth spital bill of a bill of an ent of their blic pays an accident nets so that e state tax ote in which d. Mr. ,f since God he Power It does not embers of the ? between dling an $18 o evangelist are all sinful, race. Why re none good ^wer Team, ae Power s, God’s gift was not re you et the facts then write you and me. Dance clubs and restaurants come, change names, and disappear as fre quently as the weather changes in College Station — evidence of the dog-eat-dog competitiveness among local businesses for student dollars. However, Herman Lawyer, owner of the country/pop dance club Gra ham Central Station, lias decided to take a swim in the opposite direction Investigators say officer shot in self-defense DUNCANVILLE (AP) — In vestigators say a Duncanville offi cer who killed an intoxicated, off- duty Dallas police sergeant dur ing an early morning shootout fired the fatal shot in an attempt to debilitate him. Also, detectives said Duncan ville Sgt. Glenn Repp III fired the first shot in the exchange of gun fire, killing Dallas Sgt. Larry Wise, who got off one round as he was hit. Repp was uninjured. Initial reports indicated Wise had fired first and that Repp re turned the gunfire. Repp, who is the son of State Rep. Glenn Repp II, R-Duncan- ville, and a 12-year police vet eran, was placed on administra tive leave following the confrontation. Duncanville Police Chief Mike Courville told the Dallas Times Herald Repp was simply trying to debilitate Wise. “I understand that the family was saying our officer should have attempted to wound (Wise) because he was a big enough tar get,” Courville said. “But believe it or not, Sgt. Repp did try to wound him.” Steve Crawford, Duncanville’s chief investigator on the case, concurred. f ,., , "Officer Repp was attempting to disable Officer Wi,se. to just hit him in the shoulder,Crawford said. "He didn’t want to shoot, but was forced into the situation,” Crawford added. Wise, 39, and a 19-year veteran of the force, died early Sunday of a gunshot wound to the chest. He was shot in front on his home af ter returning from a nightclub where he and his ex-wife, Cyn thia, had celebrated her 38th birthday. The couple, who were di vorced two years ago but had been living together for the past year, got into an argument and Mrs. Wise went to spend the See Shooting/Page 6 from other business sharks by ex tending a helping hand to his friend and Texas Hall of Fame owner, Paul Emola. Grahams is donating the proceeds it generates from tonight’s business to Emola and his wife Janie to help rebuild the country and western dance hall, which was damaged and shut down by a fire on Feb. 23. Bobby Fletcher, a manager of Grahams, said Lawyer is returning the favor that Emola did for him in 1984 when Graham’s was bombed and about 90 percent of the club was destroyed. Emola was one of the first people to come to Lawyer’s aid by helping him locate contracters to rebuild Grahams, Fletcher said. “We’re rivals in business, but we’ll do anything for each other,” Emola said. “We’re not out to hurt one ano ther.” Emola said he was “dumbfoun ded” when Lawyer approached him with the idea to help his club, but that the gesture wms typical of Law yer’s nature. Emola and Lawyer, who met when Emola opened the Hall of Fame in 1978, have a relationship not only as rivals, but also as business partners. The two reconstructed and opened the Austin restaurant “Ale- ta’s Fajitas” in 1985. Emola said he and Lawyer try to have lunch or dinner together when Lawyer visits College Station from his home in Longview. Emola said proceeds from the Graham’s benefit will finance a por tion of the $250,000 needed to re construct the Hall’s interior, much of which was damaged by smoke. Reconstruction will include the in stallation of an interior sprinkler sys tem to reduce fire hazards, an ex panded bar area, and a new color scheme, Emola said. Emola said he also is in the proc ess. of getting insurance for the dance hall. Although the Hall probably will not reopen to the public until May 15, it will host the Senior Bash on April 28, Emola said. The bash is one of the festivities of Senior Week end. A majority of the rennovations will be completed by then, he said. Fletcher said Grahams has experi enced only a slight increase in cus tomers since the closing of the Hall because the dance halls attract dis tinct groups of patrons. A cover fee of $3 will be charged to attend the benefit. Principal nixes story of pregnant valedictorian HOUSTON (AP) — There likely will be no story about the 1989 Jack Yates High School valedictorian in the school paper because the school’s top scholar is pregnant — again. Breaking tradition this year is Yates Princi pal Chester Smith, who vetoed an article by a student reporter about Carrie Mae Dixon, 17, a straight-A student who carries a full load of honors classes, including physics, calculus and economics. The story, titled “Against all odds . . . Stu dent becomes valedictorian despite moth erhood,” details Dixon’s first pregnancy, how she was shuffled among relatives after her mother died and her stepfather deserted her and eight siblings, and her dream of a “mid dle-class home and a middle-class life.” Dixon also takes computer math and word processing — an elective she said she chose so she could learn to type faster than her boyf riend, who also is a senior honor student. Dixon, who spends two to five hours a night with her books, has no one to baby-sit her 18-month-old daughter. She says she keeps the child occupied with paper and a pencil, and “she writes while I write.” Dixon has been accepted to the University of Houston and has two scholarships. She plans to major in electrical engineering. A school reporter first tried to do a story about Dixon last year after she was spotted on a cold, rainy day standing at a bus stop, hold ing an umbrella over her daughter, Terrisha KeAnli while she was studying a math text. A school official nixed the story idea. Dixon said she has doubts about whether she will be permitted to give the valedictory address on graduation night June 10 now that Yates administrators know she is five months pregnant. “(The Yates dean of instruction) said it’s HISD (Houston Independent School District) policy that if you are having a baby or expect ing a baby, you cannot take part in gradua tion,” Dixon told the Houston Chronicle. The final word from the dean was that she would have to check the district’s policy, Dixon said. “I don’t think having a baby or expecting a baby should have anything to do with it,” Dixon said. “It won’t stop me from (being able to) make a speech.” Newspaper editor Shuronda Robinson said Smith rejected the story Thursday when she submitted the newspaper for approval. On Friday, Smith made his final decision to reject the story during a meeting with Dixon, the woman with whom she lives, the journalism teacher, and the editor, Robinson said. Smith would not comment on why he will not allow the story to be printed. He referred all questions to HISD spokesman Ria Griffin. “He indicated that he had no problems about the story as regards the valedictorian,” Griffin said. “But there were some things that were inappropriate with her personal life. There were some things that were not appro priate for a high school newspaper.” Griffin said the final decision hinged on Dixon’s guardian’s refusal to sign a waiver to print the story. But Dixon, who will be 18 on April 29, said the woman with whom she lived from age 5 until several months ago is not legally her guardian. Dixon also said the woman agreed to sign the release if references to her were deleted. “Mr. Smith told us that even if she signed it, he would still not allow it to be printed,” Dixon said. “He just kept saying something about the community wouldn’t accept it.” Robinson said the newspaper staff also agreed to edit the story to satisfy Smith, but the offer was rejected. Griffin said Dixon’s status as valedictorian will not be affected by her pregnancy. Robinson said she decided to fight Smith’s decision in spite of a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision giving school administrators the right to censor student publications. Group turns hobby into $60 million project CORPUS CHRISTI (AP) — Fish don’t swim lazily in aquariums in the Raymond Dow home anymore. These days there’s not even a fish tank in the Brawner Parkway home that the 75-year-old Dow shares with his wife, Betty. It wasn’t always that way. During the 1950s, the couple, who helped spearhead the formation of the first aquarium organization in the city, boasted an aquarium in al most every room of their house. “At one time,” recalled Dow, one of the first presidents of the Corpus Christi Aquarium Society, “we had an entire room with nothing but fish in it. . . . Later, after we couldn’t get anywhere with getting a public aquarium, we kinda burned out on fish. We got rid of’em in 1962, when our interests changed.” But the Dows’ dream for a public aquarium, which the first aquarium society pursued for nearly a decade, lived on. Other supporters in subsequent aquarium organizations carried the banner over the next three decades before finally hammering out com promises to obtain the aquarium the Dows dreamed of on Corpus Christi Beach. Today, the organization that is di recting and building the aquarium is known as the Texas State Aquarium Association. In July 1990, the first structure — the Gulf of Mexico exhibit building — will open in the long-awaited $60 million Texas State Aquarium. The multimillion-dollar aquarium is a far cry from the modest $4 mil lion to $5 million project first con ceived in 1978 for the Peoples Street T-Head. However, the genesis of what could become a world-class tourist attraction began in early 1952, when the Dows visited the now-closed Young-Wise Feed Store to buy tropi cal fish. “Betty and I actually started the whole thing, but it was a notice that Lorena Jessup put up at the store that got us going,” Dow said. The notice called for a meeting of aquar ium lovers. “Other people soon joined us, and we put a notice in the paper, and some 75 to 80 people attended that first meeting,” he said. “We incorporated and even pub lished a paper called the Fish every month,” Dow said. “We went to aquarium shows all over the state and had a state convention here.” Dow recalled efforts by the society to secure municipal funding for the aquarium. “We couldn’t even get a penny out of the city,” he said, “but nowadays the city gives them (aquar ium association) millions of dollars.” The society at one time even asked the Nueces County Park Board to buy a building on Padre Is land for $4,300 to house about 20 fish-filled tanks. Other ideas sur faced in succeeding years, but nearly a decade passed before the next se rious aquarium attempt was launched and money was raised for a feasibility study. Jack Solka, an architect and active aquarium volunteer, recalled that he first became involved in 1968 as a member of the Jaycees organization. “About 10 years ago, the current aquarium association was estab lished, and now the dream is coming true,” Solka said. Today, the aquarium project, which first had a price tag of $5,000 when it was to be located on the Peo ples Street T-Head, has blossomed into a four-phase, multimillion-dol lar, high-tech project spread over See Fish/Page 6 Former Midland reverend seeks top post of SBC DALLAS (AP) — The Rev. Daniel Vestal of Dun- woody, Ga., has announced he will seek the presi dency of the Southern Baptist Convention when the denomination meets in Las Vegas in June. Vestal, 44, said his decision was based on the con vention having “forsaken its basic principles” in re cent years. Vestal, former pastor of Fiist Baptist Church in Midland, will be supported by Baptists Committed, a new group of centrist, or moderate, Baptists. “He has profound integrity and will bring the con vention together,” the Rev. Winfred Moore of Am arillo, president of Baptists Committed, said of Ves tal. Vestal said for 10 years he has worked quietly in key committees of the denomination trying to bridge fundamentalists and moderates. He said he has “tried to stand in the middle.” Vestal announced his candidacy to his church members Sunday, then returned to Corsicana, where he had been preaching at a revival earlier Sunday. Vestal was pastor of First Baptist Church of Mid land for 12 years before becoming pastor of the First Baptist Church in Dunwoody, a suburb of Atlanta. He will run against the incumbent Rev. Jerry Vines of Florida, who has said he will seek re-elec tion as president of the 14.8 million-member de nomination. 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