KILGOROUND
BILL WOODALL

THIS IS ONE OF those times that make one want to stand up and holler: It's about time.

TEXAS Department of Transportation has installed a flashing light at the intersection of FM 3053 and Hwy. 31. They haven't got the electricity in place to turn it on yet so it's not officially flashing, but, by golly, the light is up and someday soon it'll be flashing.

THAT'S an intersection in which we have a personal interest since we were darned near killed there - and others have been killed at that corner.

WE don't know who all asked TxDOT to study the intersection, but we know that Bob Barbee, Gregg County commissioner, was among them. And we're grateful for it.

THANKS for the light, TxDOT.

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AND traffic lights - we haven't decided yet how we feel about them - are

up at the intersection of the I-20 on/off ramps and Highway 42.

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EAST TEXAS' murder historians are at it again.

BOB and Doris Bowman of Lufkin have published their fourth book of historic murders.

Historic Murders of East Texas, Book 4, traces the origins and outcomes of twentyfour murders occurring between 1834 and 1947 in Angelina, Bowie, Cass, Cherokee, Gregg, Harrison, Henderson, Hopkins, Jasper, Kaufman, Lamar, Marion, Nacodoches, Orange, Polk, Rains, San Augustine, Shelby, Smith, Trinity, and Wood counties.

THE new book deals with some of the region's most famous murders, including two murders emanating from a school play in 1926 at Nogalus in Trinity County, a murderous 1936 Fourth of July in Lufkin, which left five men dead; the mysterious 1881 death of Dr. Hamilton J. Avinger, the founder of the Cass County town; the 1935 shooting death of Orange's police chief by his preacher; and a mother's murder of six of her children at Goober Hill in Shelby County in 1938.

THE Bowmans are the authors of nearly forty books about East Texas. Bob Bowman also writes a history column for more than seventy newspapers in the region, including the News Herald. He also serves on the Texas Historical Commission.

Historic Murders of East Texas, Book 4, is available from Best of East Texas Publishers, 515 South First Street, Lufkin, Texas 75902, telephone 936-634-7444, e-mail bobb@consolidated.net. The book is $25, plus postage and sales tax. The book can also be ordered at bob-bowman. com

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HAPPY BIRTHDAY today (Sunday) to Lillian Spinks, Mrs. H.L. Pyle, Ronnie Moore, Tod Hayman, Clay Reagan, Michael Dean Jordan, Danny Taylor, Kathy Majors, Johnnie Ruth Henderson, Freda Rodgers, Troy Johnson, Dianne Morris, Lori Sanders, Eloise Walker, Joe Taylor, Christi Lawler, Tracey Savell, Jacob Dunaway, Tate Nicks, Ray Linthicum, Deborah Varnett, Blayne William Risinger, Ashley Garcia.

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY Sunday Mr. and Mrs. Rudolph Mendez, Mr. and Mrs. C.E. Ligon, Roger and Nancy Patterson.

BLOWING out birthday candles Monday are Kylie McKinnon, Aaron Knight, Stephanie Parker, Patty Clark, Chris Dorsey, Stan Martin, Mrs. Luther Holland, David Wheeler, Tommy Freeman, Heath Cleary, Karen May, Jenny Partain, Cathy Bradley, Cindy Frazier and Penny Thompson, Gerardo Diaz, Lindsey Inez, Britnee Hightower, Mary-Lynn Thrash, Kelsey Young