Tyler County News

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JIM POWERS | TCB Rider falling off a horse at the Tyler County Rodeo

Last weekend saw the traditional Western Weekend portion of the annual Dogwood Festival in Woodville. From the two-day Lions Club Rodeo to the parade on Saturday, the weekend was full of activities, sights and sounds for folks of all ages to enjoy.

Here is a selection of some of the fun, from both the rodeo and the parade.

Photos by Jim Powers

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COURTESY PHOTO Thomas Thornton

TOWN BLUFF – Law enforcement and family members are asking for the public’s help to locate Thomas Thornton, a 72-year-old Town Bluff resident who was reported missing last week.

According to Tyler County Sheriff Bryan Weatherford, Thornton’s family last saw him on Wednesday, March 24. Thornton’s sister, Norma Armstrong, said that Thornton is in the early stages of dementia and she fears for his wellbeing.

Armstrong said that her brother makes frequent trips from his Town Bluff home to the Walmart in Jasper, and that he left to go to the store on Wednesday and did not return.

Thornton has grey and black hair and typically wears a baseball hat bearing a veteran slogan, carpenter-style blue jeans and a T-shirt. He stands 5’7” tall and weighs 255 lbs. Thornton drives a dark grey 2017 Ford Edge with the Texas license plate number NJJ-8580. A Silver Alert was issued on Sunday evening for Thornton by the Texas Department of Public Safety with further details, including his eye color (blue) and the fact that he has a visible scar on his right arm.

According to Weatherford, law enforcement was able to track Thornton to a gas station in Hemphill on March 26. Sabine County Sheriff’s deputies reviewed store video footage showing Thornton purchasing fuel and then travelling north on Highway 87.

Deputies were last able to track his phone to a location in Shelby County, but were unable to locate him, and currently unable to track him due to power issues with the phone.

Along with the dementia diagnosis, his family told deputies that Thornton is also dependent on medications.

Anyone with information regarding Thornton’s whereabouts is encouraged to call the Tyler County Sheriff’s Office at 409-283-2172.

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COURTESTY OF PIXIBAY student

WOODVILLE – The continuing pandemic has been especially tough on how schools carry on with the business of education. As part of the T.L.L. Temple Foundation’s efforts to address the issues East Texas school districts have faced, it awarded grants totaling $377K to 12 school districts, with each district getting $30K of the amount. Woodville ISD was one of the districts and district superintendent Lisa Meysembourg said she and the faculty, staff and administration are extremely excited to recceive the grant money.

Meysembourg said WISD will utilize the funds to address instruction and achievement at all grade levels, from Pre-K through grade 12 “to ensure that all students have equitable access and opportunity to learn, progress and master learning expectations needed for future success,” she said.

T.L.L. Temple Foundation President and CEO Dr. Wynn Rosser said that although educational inequities existed prior to the pandemic, “the most vulnerable students are bearing the heaviest burdens.”

Recent studies have posited that the learning disruptions brought about through COVID-19 will only continue to widen underlying achievement gaps, and could ultimately prove detrimental economically, due to increases in dropout rates and reduced postsecondary education completion.

“Research has shown that without an intentional targeted response to accelerate learning in reading and math in our schools, this event could impact the educational achievement and future of students for generations to come,” Meysembourg said.

Meysembourg added that the grant funding will help give the district financial resources to provide additional focused instruction and intervention support services to meet the individual needs of the district’s student population in order to increase potential success in school as well as life after school.

Specifically, she said that on the district’s elementary, intermediate and middle school campuses, master reading and math instructors will be hired as interventionists in order to provide targeted small group instruction to students who are identified as being at-risk, and to help fill learning gaps.

Also, a summer credit recover program will be offered for WHS students, and the district’s teachers and staff will be provided ongoing professional development in order to strengthen their curriculum knowledge and to build skills toward helping students to recover from the pandemic’s impact upon their learning.

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FILE PHOTO Blue Light

SAN AUGUSTINE COUNTY – A multiple-vehicle crash in San Augustine County left a young Colmesneil woman dead, another seriously injured and a community in mourning.

According to the crash report from the Texas Department of Public Safety, on Tuesday evening, at approximately 5:45 p.m., a Kia passenger car was northbound along FM 1277, and failed to yield to the right-of-way from a stop sign and headed into the path of an eastbound vehicle on state highway 103. The driver of the Kia was identified by DPS as 18-year-old Lacy Reynolds of Colmesneil, and she was pronounced dead at the scene by a San Augustine Justice of the peace. A passenger in the vehicle, Kaitlyn Byrum, 17, of Colmesneil, was transported via helicopter to a hospital in Tyler.

The driver of the other vehicle involved in the fatal crash, identified as Joe Worry, a 37-year-old San Augustine man, was transported to CHI St. Luke’s Hospital in Lufkin for treatment. There is no report on Worry’s condition, but sources indicate that Byrum has undergone tests and is showing some improvement.

While investigators with DPS were investigating the crash, a Freightliner tractor truck semi-trailer was eastbound and, according to the report, took evasive action to avoid the crash, and left the roadway, striking a parked pickup truck.

The news of Reynolds’ passing sent shockwaves through her hometown. The 18-year-old recent graduate of Colmesneil High School was involved in the community and a myriad of extracurricular activities in school. She was the 2019 CHS Homecoming Queen and represented Colmesneil as a Dogwood Princess last year.

Reynolds was attending Stephen F. Austin State University, majoring in business, where she’d recently been named to the President’s List. Her mother, Chrissy Reynolds, in a public social media post following the crash urged everyone to pray for Byrum, her cousin, and stated that although the family’s “hearts are completely shattered,” the family and friends know that Lacy “is walking those streets of gold.”

Several events that were scheduled for CISD were canceled or postponed in light of the crash. The crash remains under investigation by DPS.