Sorry, you need to enable JavaScript to visit this website.

Memories of Ennis

A Fish Tale

Article Image Alt Text

UP International supplied the following brief to newspapers in 1937 about an event that took place at the old Ennis Country Club: “Ennis, Tex., April 21. Helpful hint to fishermen: Take up golf. Owen Satterfield of Ennis drove his ball from a tee at the Lakeside Country Club today. The ball fell in the lake and killed a fish.”

Items of local levity

Article Image Alt Text

C.W. Duke of Ennis would have answered “yes” in 1930 when a plane ride reportedly restored his hearing. According to an AP release, Duke allowed a stunt pilot to go into a nose dive during a flight recommended to benefit – if not cure – the deafness in his left ear from which he had suffered for eight years. Duke told reporters on landing that his hearing had completely returned.

Evelyn Goble: Magical memories

Article Image Alt Text

For lovers of local history, the name Evelyn Goble will likely ring a bell. She died in 2009 at the age of nearly 100, fragile in body but not in mind.

For many years, this daughter of former Ennis mayor J. P. Sims was active in civic clubs here and in Waxahachie, was especially beloved for her “Divinity” chocolate candymaking, and in her later years was known as a reliable source on local history, a distinction she shared with the late George Graves, her contemporary and friend.

Memories of Ennis - Jack Lummus: Who was he?

Article Image Alt Text

Who was Lt. Jack Lummus, the man whose name has been embraced by the city of Ennis for his bravery? The following biography of Lummus was written as a monologue for a tour of Myrtle Cemetery in 2016 in which the lives of famous citizens were profiled as visitors stopped at their gravesites. Monologues, which included a number of other well-known Ennis residents, were read by local actors under the direction of the the Ennis Public Theatre and the Ennis Historical Society.

Memories of Ennis - Emma Sims

Article Image Alt Text

EDN treasurer Emma Sims is seen here with a copy of the paper from around 1937. Courtesy Photo

This postcard shows Tabernacle Baptist Church

Article Image Alt Text

This postcard shows Tabernacle Baptist Church of Ennis as it looked in the 1920s. Courtesy Photo

Memories of Ennis - Miss Katie

Article Image Alt Text

Community activist and volunteer Charlie Mae Presley, widely known in Ennis and throughout Ellis County for her work with many local charities and service organizations, has been mourned by her family and friends since her death at age 93 on Jan. 18th. A celebration of life event was held for Charlie Mae at the J.E. Keever Mortuary Chapel in Ennis on Jan. 22nd.

Partying at the Cerf house:

Article Image Alt Text

Interest in the Cerf mansion, profiled on this page at various times, knows no end. The passing of Bill Snodgrass who helmed the Heritage Foundation to rescue the old place from demolition has put it back in the local spotlight.

What a center of cultural life the Cerf home once was in Ennis. The following stories are excerpted from the society pages of the Corsicana Daily Sun in 1925, 1927 and 1929:

Afternoon tea

Mamie Cerf gave a December 1925 tea at which she presided as hostess, accompanied by her friend, Mrs. Baldridge. The Daily Sun wrote:

Memories of Ennis - Easter Bluebonnets

Article Image Alt Text

The Ennis Garden Club announced that the opening of the Bluebonnet Trail would coincide with Easter Week in the spring of 1955. A freeze, however, damaged some crops and the opening was delayed.

Memories of Ennis - Too Hot to Swim

Article Image Alt Text

The heat was so intense in the late summer of 1956 that few sunbathers and swimmers were turning up at the Ennis Community Center. The Corpus Christi Caller-Times reported that the manager of the pool was seeing such a drop off in patronage during mid-day hours that he was considering closing after mid-morning for the rest of the week.