Honoring Decades of Service to Hudspeth County – Tom and Winnie Neely are 2015 Independence Day Grand Marshals
The Sierra Blanca Chamber of Commerce has selected Tom and Winnie Neely to serve as grand marshals of the 2015 Independence Day celebration, in recognition of the couples’ years of service to the Sierra Blanca community, and to the Hudspeth County community as a whole.
In their professional lives, and as volunteers and through the church, Tom and Winnie have had an impact on several generations of Hudspeth County residents.
Tom’s family history is closely joined to the history of the region. Tom’s grandmother, Mary, moved to the region with her father, Dr. Francis Holmsley, and other family members, in 1902, settling first in Weed, N.M. and then at Cornudas Mountain. Mary married Joe Neely, who worked at ranches at Cerro Alto, in what’s now northwestern Hudspeth County, and at Round Hill, near present-day Dell City. Tom’s grandfather drilled the first irrigation well in the valley west of the Guadalupes. The family later established a farm on the banks of the Rio Grande, south of Sierra Blanca.
Tom grew up on the farm, attending the one-room Cox School as one of a dozen grade school students, before moving to El Paso for high school. He went on to work at the old store in Esperanza and then to take over the family farming operations on the Rio Grande. He farmed there for more than a decade, until the river ran dry. He farmed cotton for two years in Dell City. Later, he owned and operated a grocery store in Ysleta for 13 years. He worked as a bailiff in district court in El Paso. In 1980, Tom returned to Sierra Blanca, to ranch in the Quitman Mountains, and he has been in the community ever since.
Winnie moved to Sierra Blanca from the lower Rio Grande Valley in 1976, to teach school. From 1976 to 1998, she taught chemistry, biology, physics, life science and earth science to Sierra Blanca students.
Winnie said that teaching science was a deeply rewarding experience.
“I enjoyed the interaction with the kids, getting to see their faces light up when they got a concept,” Winnie said. “I loved opening their eyes to see that science is not just a topic in school – it’s the study of everything. Everything is really a branch of science – our bodies, the weather, the lakes and streams, the stars and planets.”
After her retirement, Winnie continued to teach part-time in Sierra Blanca, and she taught for a semester in Dell City in 2007.
Winnie said that it is a pleasure at gatherings in Sierra Blanca to look around and see so may of her students – and to remember and laugh with them about the experiences they shared at the school.
By the 1990s, both Tom and Winnie had lost their first spouses. The couple married in 1997.
“We were naturally thrown together,” Tom said, “being the people who were of similar age, and after a few years we decided we’d just get married.”
Winnie has a son and two daughters, and Tom has four sons. Between them, they have 12 grandchildren – “scattered from California to Houston to New Mexico,” Tom said – and they are “now starting to work on great-grandchildren.”
Tom said that, until his sister reached school-age, he was the only Anglo at the Cox School, and he grew up speaking both English and Spanish. That early experience has served him well. He worked as both a bailiff and a Spanish-language interpreter for seven years in district court in El Paso. When he returned to Hudspeth County, he worked as an interpreter in district court here, in addition to translating for attorneys with Spanish-speaking clients. He continues to interpret in district courts in both Sierra Blanca and Van Horn.
Both Tom and Winnie are deeply involved in the Sierra Blanca Methodist Church.
Tom’s involvement grew after the death of his first wife. He first became a lay speaker, filling in at the pulpit when the church’s pastor was on vacation or when the church was between pastors. Later, he attended a year of classes to become a Methodist lay minister. Tom continues to preach – later this summer, he will preach for three weeks at the church.
Winnie also takes an active role in the life of the church. For many years, she taught Sunday School for young children at the church, and she now assists with church administration, serving as chairman of the church council.
In a volunteer service that impacts almost a third of the county’s population, Tom and Winnie organized and continue to administer the Sierra Blanca Food Pantry. The pantry began in the late 1990s, when the Methodist pastor would bring small quantities of food to Sierra Blanca from the other church he served in Van Horn. Before they knew it, Tom and Winnie had taken leadership of the food pantry.
“I was on the phone with the pastor one day,” Tom said, “and he said, ‘Tom, call this number and order the food,’ and I was stuck with it ever since.”
Tom and Winnie established the food pantry as an independent nonprofit organization. The food pantry remains a mission of the Sierra Blanca Methodist Church and is coordinated with a regional food pantry in El Paso. The effort grew and extended to Fort Hancock. Eligibility for food is determined by state guidelines.
Now, once a month, the food pantry distributes free food to more than 100 families in Sierra Blanca and more than 300 families in Fort Hancock. More than 1,000 people in Hudspeth County receive free food through the program.
Winnie does the bookkeeping for the nonprofit. And volunteers in both Sierra Blanca and Fort Hancock, as well as trustee inmates under the supervision of Sheriff Arvin West and participants in the Ranch on the Rock rehabilitation center, assist with distributing the food.
Tom has been unparalleled in working to preserve Hudspeth County’s heritage and history. He contributes a weekly column to the Hudspeth County Herald – “Filosofy and Phoolishness by Sag-Ashus“– that draws from personal experience and from his knowledge and study of the region’s history and lore. Tom has served as chairman of Hudspeth County’s historical commission for more than a decade and has worked to preserve and improve Sierra Blanca’s depot museum.
In recent years, Tom established the Sierra Blanca Cemetery Organization. The cemetery – which has been used since at least 1914 – was in the ownership of the Fort Hancock Masonic Lodge, but the lodge was seeking to transfer ownership. Tom created a nonprofit to acquire and administer the cemetery and saw the transfer of ownership through, in a lengthy process. The cemetery organization’s board is composed of one representative from each of Sierra Blanca’s four churches.
Tom currently serves on the board of Project Vida, which operates a clinic in Sierra Blanca. He has served in the past on the county’s tax appraisal review board. He was Hudspeth County Democratic Party chair, a position he resigned to run for county judge. Tom’s father served as county judge for 18 years. Tom lost to Becky Dean-Walker, in what he described as a “friendly race.”
“I used to tease her, that come 8 o’clock, you’ve got to be in that office,” Tom said, “and all I’ve got to do is open one eye, roll over and go back to sleep.”
For Hudspeth County children, Tom and Winnie’s faces have particularly happy associations. About 15 years ago, Sheriff Arvin West invited Tom to be Santa Claus – and distribute gifts to children in Sierra Blanca, Fort Hancock and Dell City through the sheriff’s department’s annual Christmas season toy drive. Winnie joins the deliveries as Ms. Claus. In many years, Tom and Winnie travel to the schools in the three communities on a helicopter provided by the Texas Department of Public Safety. It’s a thrilling arrival for the schoolchildren, and Tom and Winnie said it’s a pleasure for them as well. Tom starts growing his Santa Claus beard each July.
“We get a big kick out of it,” Tom said, “especially when we get the helicopter. I get all all the credit, and everybody else does all the work – that’s a good gig.”
As grand marshal for the Independence Day parade, Tom plans to try out a new costume – as Uncle Sam.
To Tom and Winnie – Hudspeth County is grateful for all you’ve done – and we look forward to seeing you in the parade Saturday!