Member Spotlight, Amber Beckermann
One of Amber’s hidden talents is cooking. She doesn’t have a single special dish so you could say her specialty is trying new things. “I cook really well and I love to cook. I like trying new recipes,” she says. Happily, Daniel is not a picky eater, and he enjoys the new recipes.
Member Spotlight, Nellie Ledesma
Member Spotlight
Nellie fondly remembers her childhood on the ranch. They would go to the river, which she loved. “I loved listening to the river,” Nellie says. Since Cotulla was very dry and hot, a favorite thing to do was to play in the huge spigot from the irrigation pipes. She had a pet deer, brought home by her dad when the mother was killed. Nellie loved the faun, and the faun loved her, even after she grew up and had two baby bucks. Even as an adult, her doe would eat out of Nellie’s hand.
Nellie rode the bus from the ranch to school, and remembers trading her tacos for sandwiches. She thought sandwiches were wonderful because that meant being rich. The kids who came to school with sandwiches thought they got the better deal because they though tacos tasted better. School was rough in the beginning for Nellie, as she spoke no English and the school spoke no Spanish. A big change for her came when one of her teachers took a special interest in Nellie, and she made the promise to learn what she needed to learn.
Nellie has been married to Rob Ledesma for 20 years. Rob does commercial flooring for places such as Army bases, schools and hospitals. He is on the road constantly, since they have been blessed with a lot of contracts. They have no children, but she has three dogs, and they have lots of nieces and nephews. She is now taking turns with her sister caring for her elderly mother.
Nellie no longer works because of an accident that left her disabled two years ago when she fell off a ladder. Before the accident, she worked in the prison for seven years, and before that in other positions as an administrative secretary in Round Rock and Austin.
A member of Taylor FUMC for a month, Nellie used to be a Catholic, but likes her new Methodist experience. Betty Brown invited her to come to church and she especially appreciates our pastor who was most welcoming to her when she attended. She reports she was actually shocked when she first came because the members of the church were so outgoing and welcoming. Her Catholic experience was of a much more reserved and quiet congregation. “It’s awesome,” she says. “Before when I left a service, I felt like I was carrying the cross, but now I feel uplifted when I leave.”
Nellie reports that she always wanted to sing in the choir. [The writer enthusiastically let her know the choir welcomes new members and would love to have her take part!] Her favorite hymns are “I’ll Fly Away” and “Go Rest High Upon the Mountain.” She loves those because they free your spirit, and remind you that it is okay to let go. She loves the bluesy, belted-out, soulful, old gospel music.
As a good friend, Nellie can be boisterous and out-spoken but she gave up being snarky for Lent. “I want to be a friend people would like to have,” says Nellie. Her husband says she’s a good wife.
If money were no object, Nellie would be a missionary somewhere she knows the language. She would love to help communities. And as for where to travel, she would love to go to Nazareth and the Holy Land.
The most fun Nellie has ever had was going to Costa Rica, sightseeing and learning about the county. She particularly enjoyed getting to know the citizens of Costa Rica, and remembers one family who was selling coconut water on the beach. The mother was working very hard, and had several children helping out as well. Rob asked one of the boys if they liked soccer. They replied “Oh, yes!” Rob and Nellie came up with the idea to go to the little market near there, and buy the boys a soccer ball and whatever else they needed so that they could play. “That made their day and it made our day,” says Nellie. “It made me feel so good.”
Member Spotlight, Don Hughes
Don Hughes
Member Spotlight
Don Hughes, Donald Jay Hughes to be precise, is probably the first person you meet when you come to Taylor FUMC. His smiling face is there every Sunday as the usher for our services. He sits on the back row, which he and the other faithful laughingly call “Sinner’s Row.” From that alone you can tell the merry twinkle in his eyes stems from a great sense of humor.
Don likes nothing better than help people. He had a beloved aunt who was in a wheelchair. He would pick her up and bring her to church. He has helped several others in the same way. He remembers enjoying singing with his aunt their favorite hymn: “How Great Thou Art.” And his other favorite hymn is “In the Garden”.
Don loves Taylor FUMC, having attended since childhood and during the time the church worshipped in the old building on Fifth Street. “It seems like a close-knit group,” he says. He likes the get-togethers and the events where people work together. He fondly remembers Vacation Bible School from the old church, as well as MYF when the youth would play the Baptists in different games.
Don was born in Taylor, Texas, although his family farmed in Beyersville some eight miles away. His middle name, Jay, was after the doctor that delivered him. Later, during the depression, the family moved to Taylor. He has an older sister, Florean, who lives in Tomball, and had an older brother who passed away before Don was born.
Don’s family is very important to him and in fact it’s kind of hard to get him to talk about anything else. He has three daughters, Brenda and Donna both live in Hutto, and Kimberly who lives in Taylor. Don’s wife, Bonnie, passed away in 2001. Bonnie had four children by a previous marriage, and Don is still close to them. Then, there’s the grandkids. Each daughter has two children. The grandchildren’s professions range from high school coach to police dispatcher.
Family times included a lot of fishing and camping. He would help the girls learn to bait the hooks. He also went camping with his cousins. Once, after a flood, they were swimming in the river and they stepped on a dead cow. Everyone was scared, and they all jumped out. It’s a story that everyone remembers to this day.
Don served in the Air Force for 25 years, having enlisted in 1955. While stationed at the F.E. Warren Air Force Base in Wyoming, he attended technical school, and later became an instructor. His specialty was supply and distribution. He served at numerous bases in the US, and did tours in Viet Nam, France, French Morocco and England. In England, his daughters lived on base with him and Bonnie, and they especially loved him being in the Air Force because they got to travel all over Europe. Don remembers helping coach the softball teams which went to different bases to compete.
After retiring from the Air Force, Don and his family came back to Taylor. For many years, he worked at Westinghouse and Intercraft. He and Bonnie had planned to go traveling when he retired, but she came down with lymphatic cancer and passed away before they had the chance. If he had the chance now, he would love to go to the Grand Canyon and to Niagara Falls.
Be sure to give Don an extra hug when you see him for all of the loving kindness he brings to our church!
Member Spotlight, Carolyn Gautier
Member Spotlight
Carolyn Gautier
January 29, 2017
Carolyn Gautier was born in Chicago. Her father was in law school at Loyola University, and met her mother at an anti-communist rally. She has two sisters in Texas, a brother and sister in Chicago, and a brother and sister in California. There were originally nine children, of whom seven are still with us today. Her family was raised Catholic and always tells the story of when her father was dying, and Carolyn hadn’t been to church in a while. She felt compelled to get a priest to administer last rites for her father. It was the middle of the night, but she went to the church, knocked on the door, and asked the man who answered, “Are you a priest?” He said yes, and she asked him to come say last rites for her father. He agreed, and only later they found out that he was the pope’s emissary, at the church for a temporary time. Carolyn had gotten the emissary of the pope out of bed for her father. It’s that kind of dedication and loyalty that makes Carolyn such a good friend.
Carolyn worked and retired from AT&T after 25 years. She then worked in Austin for 2.5 years as a medical claims analyst, doing Medicaid claims for 99 counties. She retired in November, but may continue to do work for them from home. She liked the way her job was a puzzle, and she had to find the anomaly to finish the claim. She enjoyed the people she worked with, she could wear jeans, and they had good coffee. What could be better?
Recently, Carolyn and her sister purchased a duplex together in Gauthier, Mississippi. The town was founded by her great-grandfather. Mississippi is kind to seniors and seems like a good place to retire, but Carolyn wasn’t really intending to buy property there. This duplex just popped up, and the price and layout was just too good to resist. She is in the process of moving there, but she promises to come visit often.
Carolyn has been a member of the church for six years. She started by going to the Sunday School class led by Mitch and Lisa Drummond. She was most impressed when Mitch and Glynn Tucker got into an argument, but later they remained friends. Glynn, in particular, loves to banter back and forth with Carolyn but when the chips are down, he is there for her. He once came over in the middle of the night to help her get her lights turned back on. And once when she totaled her car, Debi Tucker met her at the police station to take her home. She has many friends at the church and counts Shirley Ball and Linda Clevenger as very dear women friends.
Her favorite hymn is Amazing Grace. Just hearing the hymn makes her cry every time. She loves the story of how it’s written, and that the song talks about redemption and renewal.
Her friends would describe her as funny and telling lots of funny stories. Many have told her to write a book. She really likes children, and has lots of nieces and nephews she enjoys. She is very close to her family. She’s easy going and grateful, and she takes nothing for granted. “I don’t worry because God has control,” she says. As for flaws, she does admit she will procrastinate.
Long before Carolyn came to Taylor, she had always enjoyed doing an artistic signature that includes a duck. Quite the coincidence! She loves to play games and especially darts.
Carolyn has fun all the time, and especially had fun one time when she went to China with some friends. They were on a double decker bus and ended up in the bus garage! They all just started laughing. The bus driver didn’t understand why they were laughing and, not speaking English, didn’t know how to help. They ended up taking a bus to the airport, calling the hotel, and getting a shuttle from there. They were just in hysterics.
Member Spotlight, Charlene Olbrich
Member Spotlight
One day, her new dad got a job building the Alcoa plant and the family moved to Thorndale. Charlene was a sophomore in high school, and she graduated a mere year later, after her junior year. Little did Charlene know at that time that being a Thorndale ex would turn into such a big part of her life later on. Today, Charlene spends a lot of her time working for the Thorndale exes association. Every week, Charlene writes an article, most of the time including photos, about the exes for the Thorndale paper. The column is titled “Keeping up with the Thorndale Exes.” Every year, Charlene organizes events for the exes during homecoming week. They send out 2500 invitations, and a couple of hundred exes come every year.
Leroy Olbrich had already graduated from high school before Charlene arrived in Thorndale, but Charlene would see him working at the gas station. Once when they passed by, her mama said about Leroy, “If I were younger, that’d be my boyfriend.” Later, she was invited on a blind date, and some friends upset her terribly by telling her that Leroy was wild. It was a case of mistaken identity, and the “wild” Leroy worked at the gas station too, but the date was with Leroy Olbrich. A few years after Charlene graduated from high school, they married. Charlene walked down the aisle carrying Leroy’s bible that they still read every day.
Charlene and Leroy have a son, Jeff, who lives in Pflugerville. He got his BA, MA, and PhD from the University of Texas. He teaches statistics at St. Edwards University.
Charlene and Leroy joined the church about 15 years ago when the Thorndale UMC closed down. She remembers SR and Carolyn Moss met them at the door, and claimed them as member immediately. They were even put in the church directory before they were members. They had visited several other churches but found Taylor FUMC to be the most welcoming to them. Both she and Leroy love going to church. She loves our preacher and also loves to sit when it’s quiet and enjoy the stained glass windows. Charlene has served for several years as chair of the Finance Committee. Among her many talents, she is an organist and pinch hit for 9 months when we were without an organist, and Ellen Hannington played the piano. She also filled in as secretary once when the church was looking for a secretary.
Her favorite hymns are “How Great Thou Art” and “In the Garden,” because her mama loved it so much.
Charlene worked in the secretarial/financial administration of numerous schools, including Taylor High School. She also worked for a landscape company that she really loved. That company went from 27 employees to 500 employees in 3 years’ time. “I enjoyed working,” says Charlene.
Her hidden talents include painting and she has won first place on two of her paintings. She has numerous of her paintings decorating her house, including one of Leroy’s mother with the turkeys she raised. Another of her paintings is framed with wood from Leroy’s mother’s old house and another with wood from the outhouse. Charlene also has a huge talent for genealogy, and has 75 binders of information on her and Leroy’s families going back 30 generations and including 50,000 people. She and Leroy walked numerous cemeteries scouring the tombstones for family connections. The most famous family she has found are some close relatives of presidents, although none are direct ancestors. She would love to travel to Ireland to see the homeland of her ancestors and to visit the cemeteries there.
Charlene is an amazing woman, and an incredibly hard worker. In fact, I am so worn out thinking about all she accomplishes, I think I need to lie down for a little bit. Give her your appreciation when you see her!
Member Spotlight, Megan Moss
Her biggest influence in the church has been her papaw, SR Moss. He has inspired her with his faithful attendance and dedication. She loves the fact that everyone at church is friendly with each other, and knows each other. “There’s a Sweet, Sweet Spirit in this Place” is her favorite hymn because she likes the music behind it and it sticks with her. She wishes we would sing that hymn more often.
Megan is a senior at Taylor High School this year. Along with the usual high school subjects, she has studied art for years, and also took a course in graphic design, which sparked her interest in pursuing graphic design as her career. Her hidden talent is drawing, which she does with any spare moments she has. Her favorite type of art is black outline drawings with Sharpies which was the technique she used on her favorite project of a tree with a swing and a man sitting in the tree.
Next year, she will enter the University of North Texas in Denton, and plans to study communication, focusing on graphic design. Her dream job would be to become a graphic designer and design logos and advertising that people see everywhere. She would prefer to work for a graphic design company because she would enjoy the greater variety of projects she could accomplish.
While in high school, Megan has enjoyed spending time with her friends, and learning new things. Her friends say that Megan looks out for them, and is smart because she knows the answers to the questions her teachers ask. She is also funny and can tell a really good story. Her caring nature shows in many ways, but especially in her participation in many community service projects. She gives of her time most generously, working for three community service organizations. Those three are Interact, which is a Rotary Club for high school students, National Honor Society, and Silver Cords, which is THS’s community service group. In Silver Cords, you pledge to do 160 hours of community service during your high school years. Megan is the Creative Officer for Interact and is the historian for NHS. Her favorite service projects are those when you interact with people such as the Kiwanis Club Pancake Supper because it is more personal, and she has done many projects that involve cleaning up a street or park in Taylor.
She also has participated in the High Steppers, THS’s dance team, for all four years of high school. She began dancing when she was little, studying mainly jazz. Her favorite type of dance now is creepy dance which is dark and tells a story. The most fun she’s ever had was to attend High Stepper camp. She admits it was a very stressful experience especially because they rose at 6 a.m. and went to bed at 3 a.m. for three days straight, but was fulfilling and a lot of fun working with her team and getting to know their strengths.
High Steppers also gave Megan the opportunity to become a stronger person. Last year, the director of the High Steppers was very challenging for her to work with, and Megan learned to push through the hard times and not give up. She was able to ignore the bad things, and continue on to a better year this year.
And in the midst of all those volunteer activities, Megan also puts in time at the family store. Something everyone may not know is that Megan started working for her mom and dad when she was in the 5th grade. Work days at the store may include anything from taking cash to wrapping gifts to filing.
With all her varied activities and hard work, next year is sure to be a great success for Megan. We will be looking forward to visits back home so that we can hear of her adventures!
Written by Robin McKinley
Member Spotlight, Roy Rogers
Roy Rogers was born in Poteet, Texas, and grew up on a farm and ranch. His family raised cattle, hogs, and milk cows, goats and horses. His granddad gave him a horse when he was three years old and from that young beginning, he rode nearly every day until he was 40 years old, moved to town and didn’t have room for horses.
Roy was married to Pat for 54 years before her passing in 2013. He and Pat had 2 sons and 2 daughters, and 3 granddaughters and 3 grandsons. They lost one daughter in a car/train accident. “My family was my main objective,” he says.
His friends describe him as friendly, loving, quiet and faithful. “And I’m hard of hearing,” Roy adds with a grin. And he loves to play cards. He has the most fun with his friends and family playing games (42 was mentioned, but Pitch has become a new favorite.) “Doing family stuff is what I enjoy,” Roy declares.
After college, where he studied Ag Ed, Roy worked for the Soil Conservation Service, a part of the USDA. Later he bought out an Exxon agency in Taylor. He distributed gas, and ran 2 convenience stores and 2 service stations. He retired in 2000. He liked best working with the people. “You run into all types of people, and learn to deal with them,” Roy says. He feels his Exxon business was his second biggest success. His biggest was raising his beautiful family.
Roy and Pat joined the church in 1975. His mother-in-law and father-in-law, Mr. and Mrs. George Busby, were already members of the church. Roy appreciates the friendliness of Taylor FUMC. Roy adds, “I like the people. They make you feel welcome.” His two favorite hymns are “Amazing Grace”, and “In the Garden”. He was raised in a Baptist church, and these are hymns they sang.
Roy would like to travel to Wyoming and the western part of the United States, but he admits he is not much of a traveler. He likes New Mexico, and used to go to Ruidoso and listen to music. They had a festival there with old bands, and he and Pat would dance Western dance and the two-step. Together, they won many contests as best dancers.
In fact, dancing was a favorite past time for Pat and Roy. “We loved it,” Roy remembers. They started dancing the day they met at SW Texas. And they were selected by their class to be representatives for Frontier Days. They wore matching shirts and dresses at the special weekends, and rodeos.
Roy taught his kids to dance as well. His daughter, Trisha Copeland, fondly remembers learning to dance by standing on her daddy’s feet. She reports her mom and dad had been dancing as long as she could remember.
Another thing Roy loves is the outdoors. Roy was an avid gardener before his back started giving him trouble and he still loves it. He likes to grow flowers and vegetables: tomatoes, squash, and bougainvilleas. Also, he spent many a happy hour hunting with his sons and grandkids. They would take his hunting dog, a Brittainy Spaniel, out to hunt deer, dove, and quail.
And his hidden talent is that he can yodel – well at least, sing. He once sang “Lovesick Blues” for the 4H Club competition and won third place! He loves music and singing. Get Roy to demonstrate his yodeling, er, singing skills for you! Don’t let that quiet exterior fool you! He has friendship and many talents to share.