KILGOROUND
LINDA BALLARD

"I most remember grandfather as being the Sheriff of Gregg County when I was young," said Lottie Guttry. "He always slept with his gun by his bed and I thought that was very exciting…"

A.A. King was born in 1883 at Oak Hill (Crims Chapel) in Rusk County. When A.A. was seven years old, the family moved into Kilgore at a time the community boasted of a population of 500 residents.

The family located about a mile from the business district. A.A. became a farmer and a gin man operating cotton gins in Smith County, Kilgore, Snyder and two in Longview.

In 1920, King began a two-year term as a Gregg County Commissioner. Then, in 1923 he began his first term as sheriff. In 1936-38, he served a second term as sheriff. In between terms he was deputy sheriff.

"During the boom, he made himself popular by keeping a strong upper

hand," said Lottie. "He enforced the midnight closing of gambling houses and saloons before it became a state law. He also transported a whole car load of criminals to Huntsville by himself.

"Because of his dealings with notorious people, he stayed very concerned about his own family. He sent my mother to a 'safer' school in Longview and from there to college. She told us of the shock she felt when returning to what was once a peaceful little town to one overflowing with people.

"My mother married Dabney Lipscomb, an architect who worked for a Dallas firm which had contracted to build the Longview High School. Mother was teaching at the high school at the time.

"I was born in 1934 at the Florence Nightingale Hospital in Dallas," said Lottie, "and named after my grandmother, Lottie Whittington. I was raised in Kilgore and graduated from Kilgore High School in 1952." She attended college at SweetBriar, University of Texas and Kilgore College.

"In 1985, I wrote the first production of the play Boom. It was a spin-off from the oil field days of East Texas and the family stories I grew up with and, yes, grandfather had a lot to do with the writing of the production. It was first performed in 1986," she said.

Today, Lottie is once again busy with rehearsals as she has made revisions to the original script to encompass more of Kilgore in the production. "One of the students that I taught at the college has been cast in the new production," she said proudly. There will be two performances on March 8 - one at 2 p.m. the other at 7 p.m.

"Grandfather loved people and he loved this land," said Lottie. "His love was passed on to the rest of the family."

The production of Boom will take place at the Kilgore High School auditorium. Why there, we have been asked? What better place, when the school rests on part of the original 1700-acre tract of King Estates. To some in this community, going to see Boom will be like going home.

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YESTERDAY, MITCH LUCAS, our sports editor, tried to do a good deed by mentioning the upcoming Kilgore High School Hi-Steppers mini camp coming up.

Unfortunately, he mentioned that it was this Saturday. It's actually Saturday, March 8. He did get the details right, though - the camp will be for girls kindergarten through eighth grade at the KHS gym, and the cost is $20 per camper, for which campers get a snack and a T-shirt. The camp will be conducted that day from 9 a.m. until noon.

Girls may pre-register up to that time, or they may also register the day of the camp, just before camp begins.

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HAPPY birthday to Dallas McClendon, Alan Blackstone, Jan Miller, Alexis Mc- Cubbin, Michael Stewart, Mrs. Eugene Hablinski, Sherry Villyard, Evelynn Jackson, Yolanda Jones, Adam Richardson, Jayson Hayes, Michael Dale Henley, Tina Zapata, Ray Chanler, Vivian Morris, Sherry Perry, Terry Fout, Connie Cowan, John Cohagen, Darcy Council, Dannita Smith, Verneitta Hamilton, Nikki Williams, Terry Quintanilla, Morgan Peden, Emily Cubine, Yneshia Austin

CELEBRATING wedding anniversaries today are Mr. and Mrs. Jesse Dickerson