The Battalion
2 STATE & LOCAL
Wednesday, April 19,1989
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IGraham’s owner helps rebuild fire-gutted Hall
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By Sherri Roberts
STAFF WRITER
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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.
Vines is endorsed by fundamentalists and Vestal is
expected to garner early support from denominatio
nal moderates.
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