"I am heading to my hometown (Nocona, Texas) tomorrow to see, and be with my uncle, Bud Meekins. He is seriously ill in the hospital, and I have been told that he does not have much longer to live. He is almost 80 years old. Bud is one of the last surviving members of the family on my mother's side. One of his sisters is still living as well. I believe she is 82 or 83 years old.

My heart is heavy. Bud was twelve years old when I was born. We grew up together - off and on - as my mother visted her parents, and I stayed with my grandparents during the summer over the years. I used to go out with him and my grandfather to the pasture to feed and work the cows. He was always there for his mother, and helped his parents more than you can imagine. Bud is a true example of the Pioneer spirit of family morals and values.

When I was in the third grade in Decatur, Texas he lived with me and my parents for awhile as he attended community college. I remember watching him play basketball for the college. He was very good. He wore the number 33, and when I played basketball in junior high, I wore the same number - proud to represent my uncle on the court this way.

In the late 1950s, my father went to Alaska to work on a contract job. A few weeks later, Bud helped my mother drive our car from Texas to the territory (not a state at the time) to join my father. He stayed with us for awhile to enjoy the sights.

As both of us grew older, we didn't see much of each other, particularly after my mother's death in 1983. This was a devastating year for both of us. He lost his sister (first sibling death), and I lost my mother. I remember both of us being so distraught, that we had difficulty in communicating. Not long after that tragic day, I moved totally out of the situation, and relocated to the East Coast. My grandmother (my mother's mother) was just as distraught, and she couldn't understand why I wanted to move so far away.

I moved even farther away in the 1990s when I joined the Peace Corps, and then went to Zimbabwe, Africa and later to South Korea and even later to China. I returned to the States in 2007, and Bud was there for me, even though it had been close to 20 years since we had last seen each other. He with one of his sons helped me acclimate as I prepared to live and work in America again. Since I had been overseas for a long period of time, my driver's license had expired, so Bud drove me to a neighboring town to take the written and driving tests. I remember using his oversized pickup truck for the driving portion of the test - I passed.

I relocated to Houston in 2007 and since that time, I have visited Bud a few times, and talked with him over the phone, particularly when two of his sisters became ill, and passed away. On some of my visits back to my hometown to see Bud, I made photographs, and the photo that you see as a part of this post is my favorite of Bud. It shows him walking through the pasture of his land - his father's land - towards the windmill and tank (water) that he and his father installed many years ago to nurture the cows.

I cherish the memories that I have with him and his involvement with my mother and father. He is one of my last connections to immediate family."

School photograph of Bud Meekins used for the project:

History of Prairie Valley School, Texas:

According to school records, the forerunner schools of the present PRAIRIE VALLEY District go back as far as 1876. This first school was known as the ONE-HUNDRED ACRE PRAIRIE, NO. 39. It was consolidated with SPANISH FORT in 1919. In 1876, the RED RIVER STATION SCHOOL was located on the present Crenshaw Ranch, west of PRAIRIE VALLEY. In 1889, the MARCH SCHOOL, also known as RIVER VALLEY, was located where Raymond Tucker's home place is located. The PRAIRIE MOUND SCHOOL was established in 1892 near the area that was later known as the Meekins Store (Chambers' grandfather, Willie Meekins owned and managed this country store in Hynds City.). A school called GRAYSON was located on the Ed Hinton land. There were two EAGLE POINT SCHOOLS. One was located between Sam Young's and the Alcorn Creek Bridge; the other was where the PRAIRIE VALLEY SCHOOL is now located. PRAIRIE VIEW was located south and east of Newell Cunningham's, and was established about 1920.

The following schools formed PRAIRIE POINT: EAGLE POINT NO. 1 and NO. 2, SALMON, PRAIRIE MOUND, PRAIRIE VIEW, GRAYSON, WALSER, WHITE & PRIDDY, WALNUT SPRINGS, and GIST SCHOOL. ROLAND and MARCH SCHOOLS were consolidated in 1919 to make VALLEY VIEW. Schools that came into SPANISH FORT, which were established in 1877, were: BURROUGH OAK, and LIBERTY CHAPPELL. In 1940, VALLEY VIEW was consolidated with PRAIRIE POINT to form the PRAIRIE VALLEY SCHOOL. The new school took PRAIRIE POINT'S school colors of blue and gold, and VALLEY VIEW'S mascot, the bulldog. The SHADY GROVE SCHOOL came into the PRAIRIE VALLEY SCHOOL DISTRICT, and the SPANISH FORT High School students came in 1940; the district was annexed to the school in 1951:

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