Mentioning Lois Witt reminded me of Charlie and in the conversation with Mike I
learned that Charlie had lived in Mike’s home town of Jasper after he graduated from
Lamar. He married a Jasper girl. Thinking on this, I found Charlie’s number and gave
him a call. Charlie lives in the Dallas area now. He said he didn’t think he would be
able to come and I asked was it heath, finances or something else? He said a
combination, so I offered him the option of staying with me in my hotel room at the
Hampton, since my wife was unable to go. He called me back a few days before the
reunion telling me that he could not work it out and thanked me for the offer and we
agreed to keep in touch. He said to tell all of the brothers hello.
Another brother that I called was Gilbert Easley, a charter member. I left a message
and he called me back and left me a message. He and his wife were going on
vacation and would not be able to attend. They apparently had their trip planned for
a long time. He said to tell everyone hello. Gilbert is a doctor in the Dallas area.
I tried unsuccessfully to contact Joe Norville, whom I had not seen in perhaps 50
years. No luck, but then I saw on V.J.’s list that he was going to be there. Sure
enough, Joe was there and had not changed that much, or least I recognized him.
Sure glad to see you again Joe!! Joe lives in Bridge City; retired from banking.
I also called Larry Eaves and we had a good conversation, but he didn’t think he
could be there. Later I saw his name on the “Y” list, but he never showed up as far as
I know. Larry was also a charter member and an original Kappa Phi. Larry said that
he was originally recruited to play football for Kappa Phi frat football. I remember
after one of our Kappa Phi parties; Larry was kneeling and praying before he went to
bed. (We all should have been) I related the story to Jack Cockerham (who
remembers everything) and he said that Larry would not eat meat on Fridays in his
strict Catholic way. Some of the guys, late at night, would ask Larry to go out to a
place that served chicken fried steaks and of course, Larry could not eat chicken
fried steaks. Jack said that he would order and let the steak set there until it was after
mid night, making it officially Saturday. Sure would like to have talked again with Larry.
To speak of anything having to do with Epsilon Chi without expressing a BIG THANK
YOU to Jack Cockerham, would be a miscarriage of justice. Jack Cockerham was “the
number one” driving force behind Epsilon Chi securing our charter. Without Jack’s
tremendous efforts, I seriously doubt if we would have ever been Sigma Chis. Jack
was president of Kappa Phi and also our first Sigma Chi president. All of the brothers
salute you, Jack, for a job well done. Jack lives in Corsicana, a few miles west of that
famous city, Malakoff.