The Donaldson/Fredericksburg Intersection

Do your remember the corner?  You passed through it and probably did not give it much thought.   The photo below was scanned from a July 13^th newspaper which recounted the history of the location.  The article did not scan well, so here is a summery. 

On the far left is the Woodlawn Theater., which opened in 1946 with a premiere of National Velvet.    More famously, the world premier of The Alamo with John Wayne premiered in 1960.  A lesser know fact is that the theater was designed in Art Deco style by the same architect who designed the Majestic Theater.   The theater still stands and has been home to a number of local theater companies over the years since it closed as a movie theater.  Today it houses a comedy club with well-known touring comedians.

Digressing, this area along Fredericksburg Road is known as the Art Deco section . 

The right end of the buildings was the original home of the Jefferson State Bank, which was opened in 1946 for the underserved banking needs in the Jefferson area.  Of course, it has relocated and grown .   Starting with an investment of $125,000, the bank today has a $2.75 billion value.  I believe it is still privately owned but would only bet a week of my current wages.   Of note is that Byron LeFlore, from our class, was one of only four CEOs in the past six decades.

Above the bank was one of San Antonio’s first bowling alleys, with 20 lanes.  Pin boys originally set reset the pins until the alley became the first in town to install automatic pinsetters.  The alley closed in 1970 and was dormant until converted to a ball room that is still its main function today, although it hosts other activities, including a burlesque show.

To wrap it up, whether you ever bowled there or not, you probably remember Mrs. Schneider’s Baker cattycornered across the road on the southwest corner.

In Memoriam–Moving On To Less Pleasant Topics.   As advised in the recent class blast email searching for classmates, several deaths were reported or found on line.  Herer is the list of those   

Joan Adams Adkins                 8-9-2022     No Obituary Found

Bob Blake                                 7-5-2025

Ron Bridges                              9-18-2025

Eliazbeth Clemmons Wright    8-6-2025

Joan Hodge Rieber                    not known   No Obituary Found

Bobby Hunt                              6-24-2025   No Obituary Found

Kay Matteson Gregory              2025            No Obituary Found

Pete Sweet                                 4-19-2023

Jay Wiedenfeld                          8-27-19       No Obituary Found

Obituaries:  The several obituaries found are fairly long.  Rather than print them here, I will make a few comments about those I knew.   You can search the Internet for the obituary by typing the “name and obituary’—e.g. Robert E. Blake Obituary.  His obit will be found.   If you have special memories of any of them, please reply  and tell us.  I will be happy to share in future blogs.  Reply on the blog or send an email to me at jeff-54@satx.rr.com.

Kay Matteson Gregory was a backbone of the reunion committee which planned our many successful reunions.   I did not know her well in school but considered her a front-runner at Jefferson, yet Kay was extremely modest and claimed to me many times that she was just a wallflower.   The only details I have of Kay’s death is that she was out walking and fell, hitting her head and dying earlier this year. 

Joan Hodge Rieber was married to Ney Rieber and lived in North Carolina for many years.   Joan and I met at Mark Twain.  She always walked with a bounce, and somewhere along the way, she was christened Pepsi because of the bouncy walk.  My recollection is that Ney became a preacher, but that may be faulty memory.   Joan was not an emai person, and efforts to contact here in the past few years failed.

Bob Blake was one of the score or so students who lived at Fort Sam Houston and commuted to Jefferson.  Others I recall included Harry McEldowney, David Bamburg, Joan Isheerwood, and Joan Ivanoff.   Bob was a proud Aggie followed in his dad’s footsteps and made the Army his career.   After Bob was widowed,  he moved back to San Antonio into the my neighborhood .   He connected and Bob became part of the Reunion Committee.  He later moved to a retirement community where Penny and I also live, so we continued the friendship.

Pete Sweet was a Student Council rep, a member of the Senate and the track team.  He was my seatmate at graduation because we were alphabetically entwined at all the graduation festivities.    If you look for his obituary,  search for Horace C. Sweet.  You can understand why he chose Pete for a nickname.

Ron Bridges was known at Jeff for his tenor voice and in later years for his singing in city productions.   I recall seeing him in Pirates of Penzance in school.   That production started, like so many, started at sixth period, and if you bought a ticket, you could skip sixth period and go to the show. At that point in my life, I had zero appreciation of Gilbert and Sullivan and thought it was a terrible show.   When intermission came, I and probably95% of the audience left and went home.  Maybe about 112 remained for the rest of the show.  I will comment that today, I have seen and enjoyed a number of Gilbert and Sullivan productions.   Tastes change and mature.

Ann Adams, Elizabeth Clemmons, Bobby Hunt, and Jay Weidenfeld.  Sadly, I have few recollections of these classmates.   Please send along any memories.

And finally, my apologies for a drab, colorless blog. I have not learned the updated editing features and probably will not. Old dog, new tricks, etc.