Since my mother passed away in 2018 and my dad in 2020, I’ve given lots of thought to how best and honor their memory in a meaningful way they would approve. There were so many special people, places, and causes which were close to their hearts during their long lifetimes. But in the end, it was their passion for education that always kept coming to mind.
Mom and Dad spent a combined total of 66 years in public education as teachers and school administrators. They touched untold lives from the sports field to the classroom and in the leadership of school districts in Mills, Palo Pinto, Erath and Bosque Counties.
But no place was dearer to them than Huckabay, the rural Erath County Class 1A school district northwest of Stephenville and long known for academic excellence and basketball championships. While they never taught at Huckabay, they both attended school there and graduated together in 1945 and would later return there to spend 30 happy years in retirement.
The CE and Beutonne Davis Scholarship was first presented last year – 80 years after my parents graduated – to the class valedictorian. This young lady began college last fall at Texas Tech as a junior due to her number of dual online credit classes completed in high school. She is now well on her way to becoming a veterinarian.
Then two weeks ago, the 2026 scholarship was split between this year’s valedictorian and another outstanding student. The valedictorian will be attending Texas A&M and intends to become a physician. The second student is a young man who will be attending Oklahoma State University this fall to study mechanical engineering.
I was given the opportunity to introduce the first scholarship bearing Mom and Dad’s name in 2025 during the Huckabay ISD Awards Ceremony, and again just two weeks ago. I shared with the students, faculty and family gathered that my parents were born on family farms in the late 1920s just a few miles away.
My parents came from very humble backgrounds but were rich in faith and family and reaped the benefits of hard work during the hard times of the Great Depression. They met at the Huckabay school as children, fell in love during high school and never dated anyone else. They graduated in 1945, mother only 16 and as class valedictorian.
World War II loomed heavy throughout their high school years. They both had family and friends who died in the war, and mother’s valedictorian message addressed fighting to preserve democracy, dying for freedom, and defeating Adolph Hitler. Not the kind of challenges you’d prefer your children to face.
Mom and Dad’s heroes growing up weren’t actors, athletes or singers; they were the coaches and teachers at Huckabay High School who encouraged them to dream big and that all things are possible if you dream big and work hard. Here in the classroom were their role models growing up, and they saw education as a way out of the cotton fields to a better life.
After high school, Dad served two years in the Navy and they married at 19. Mom worked to help put Dad through Texas A&M – along with the GI Bill – but she would attend Tarleton as women weren’t to study at A&M at the time. Both became teachers, just like their role models back at Huckabay.
Dad worked first as a coach, agriculture and math teacher. Then he became a school superintendent serving a total of 36 years. Mother first taught elementary and then high school business for 30 years.
They ended their careers at Valley Mills, where our family had moved in 1968. But no matter where their careers and lives took them, they always called Huckabay home.
When they retired, they returned there and loved to garden and raise cattle on the land and in the community their grandparents first settled 140 years ago. They were a couple for more than 70 years and now rest side by side at the Huckabay Cemetery next to six generations of family, including two of their three children. About a half mile down the road stands the Huckabay school, where their story first began.
No matter where life took Mom and Dad, Huckabay always had their heart. It’s comforting to see young people still motivated by that drive to learn and succeed so that their futures are just as bright and promising as that of my parents.
This year’s scholarships were presented on what would have been Mom and Dad’s 78th wedding anniversary. They would be extremely proud of these young recipients. I’m proud to have been their son, and ever grateful for their encouragement to generations of young people eager to leave their mark in a challenging world by realizing their educational dreams.
Bryan Davis is an Erath County native who has called Bosque County home for six decades. He holds a journalism degree from the University of Texas and worked as an award-winning writer for area newspapers before becoming a postmaster for 33 years. He’s an active community volunteer who enjoys history, gardening, writing, and sharing good food and good times with family and friends.
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