ET Historical Association spring meeting Feb. 15-16

The East Texas Historical Association will hold its spring meeting in Tyler on Feb. 15 from 9 a.m. to 4:15 p.m. and Feb. 16 from 9 a.m. to noon.

The public is invited to the spring meeting at the Holiday Inn Select, 5701 South Broadway Ave. Tyler Junior College is the host institution, and there are many talks scheduled on the history of Tyler and East Texas. A complete program is posted at www.easttexashistorical.org.

One need not be an ETHA member to attend, and there is no registration fee for students. Other attendees are requested to register at the door at a cost of $25, which covers admission to all sessions on both days of the event. The 20 sessions feature approximately 50 speakers. A silent auction of antiques and historical memorabilia will be held. Program chairs Linda Brown Cross and Dr. Jeffrey Owens of Tyler Junior College included many sessions with a direct appeal for citizens of Tyler.

Highlights include:

-- Session One, the history of the Texas Rose Festival and the rose growing industry, Ann Lawrence presiding, with talks by Julie Ischy, director of the Rose Museum, former Rose Queen Jill Ramey, and Dr. Brent Pemberton, Texas A & M's professor of floriculture.

-- Session Four, the Future of Higher Education, presents viewpoints from state government, higher education, and industr y challenges that face Texas colleges as they prepare the workers of tomorrow. Dr. Cheryl Rogers of TJC presides at Session Four, with talks by former Lt. Gov. Bill Ratliff; Dr. Marshall Schott, assistant vice president for instructional outreach for the University of Houston; and Pete LaMothe, manager of workforce development for Texas Eastman.

Session Seven has papers by Tyler attorney Randy Gilbert and Shannon Cross of TJC about the Civil War and Reconstruction in Smith County.

Session Ten is a roundtable about the famous "Hair Case," Lansdale v. TJC (1970), in which TJC was sued for refusing to register long-haired male students. Federal courts decided in the students' favor, and the Supreme Court let the decision make college dress codes illegal, nationwide. Two of the students who sued will speak, as well as teachers and students who were at TJC when it happened.

Ellen Musselman, president of Historic Tyler, presides over Session Fourteen on historic preservation.

In Session Sixteen, Brent McCauley of Kelly Springfield give insight into why the plant shut down.

M'Liss Hindman of TJC and other personal friends of Lady Bird Johnson offer their reminiscences of the late first lady in Session Seventeen.

And in Session Nineteen, three members of the Smith County Historical Association tell about the Smith County Poor Farm, the days when cotton was king, and the nuclear frenzy of the 1950s that led to building Tyler's fall out shelters.