The Graham Rotary Club will be 99 years old on October 22, 2024. Sam McElreath and Bert Tolbert from the Rotary Club in Fort Worth came to Graham on July 8, 1925 to organize a Rotary Club. In the survey, Dr. H.E. Griffin was appointed chair of an organizing committee with members – Graham Stewart and Fred Arnold.
A party of Rotarians came to Graham on October 22, 1925 and gathered in the basement of the Methodist Church where the ladies of the First Baptist Missionary Society catered a turkey dinner to nearly 100 Rotarians and guests. A musical program was presented by Mrs. J.C. Lovelace and her daughter Margaret who played the violin, James Bowron and Miss Calvin played the saxophone, and orchestral music was furnished in the evening by James Bowron, Billie Dowdle, and Donnell Johnson.
Andy Anderson from Burkburnett spoke on “What Rotary Is and What It Means To The Community.” The charter members of the Graham Rotary Club were Dr. Howard Griffin, president; Fred Arnold and Augustus “Gus” Eddleman, vice-presidents; Frank Forbes, secretary; Owen Fauntleroy, sergeant at arms; L.D. Lovett, Graham Stewart, and Irby Rhodes, directors. Other charter members were Bill Akers, Dr. Wade Morris, Adger Morrison, Pace Golden, John Criswell, John McMurtry, Ben Paschall, Robert LeSage, John Gallaher, Roy Collier, Malcolm Graham, Horace Tidwell, and John Ramsey. William Simpson and Claude Bloodworth were associate members.
In 1931, the Rotary Club announced their first pianist for the club, Dot Gruby. Back in the day, the Rotary Club sung in the opening parts of the meeting. She was known all over the world through her association with the club and the Scandal Sheet. If she ever missed a meeting, the Scandal Sheet would clue in the audience with “Where’s Dot?” Mrs. Gruby was a buyer for the John E. Morrison Company. Her parents were Zachary Abbott and Myrtle [Morrison] Hudson.
Then there was “Mr. Rotary”, Martin “Pic” Larmour, who joined the Rotary Club in 1926. Nita Miller said in 1975, “when ‘Pic’ Larmour dies, he’ll go to Rotary instead of heaven.” Pic Larmour had an incredible number of perfect attendance pins, and as editor of the Scandal Sheet, he never missed an issue. In his cubbyhole office above the National Theatre, surrounded by piles of stuff, Pic pounded out the “Scandal Sheet’ and kept in touch with famous VIPs of the Rotary Club. In 1976, the Rotary International Magazine stated that the “Scandal Sheet” of Graham, Texas was the most quoted form of communication for the Rotary Clubs in the world.
The Scandal Sheet had a famous homespun dry humor and philosophy called “Uncle Gus Says” with insights from Augustus “Gus” Eddleman. Those quotes within the Scandal Sheet was quoted in Reader’s Digest, Look, Life and newspapers around the world. Gus says:
- C. Young burned the grass in his pasture, too bad he forgot to drive his truck out of the pasture before he started his fire.
- When a man is bald, it is a sign he has fought life’s battles and come out on top.
- Too bad $2 bills are so scarce now a days. They would come in handy in buying a dollar’s worth of almost anything.
- Some people don’t know what they think until they hear someone else say it.
The first time I spoke for the Graham Rotary Club was in February 1999. It was on a Friday, I listened to the piano music before the meeting began, sang along, and was reminded by the one who invited me that I needed to be finished talking by 12:55 p.m. because people had to go back to work. When I stood at the podium, I looked at the clock over the door for the time, 12:35 p.m. As most preachers know, the clock in the back is for the preacher, not the congregation.
I spoke on the shooting of Tom Cherryhomes on the square in 1915. Since I memorize my talks, I can speak at a rapid pace with all the details, and then in the middle of the talk, I realized, I didn’t have enough time. So, the story was building and right at the crucial point, I looked at the clock, 12:55 p.m., so I slowed down and said, “well, I guess you’ll have to invite me back again, so I can tell you the rest of the story.” At the basketball game that night, and the next few weeks, I met lots of Rotarians all wanting to know the rest of the story.
Oh, one more thing. The Rotarians begin their meetings ringing a bell. A large bell. An ancient bell. Where did that bell come from? Well, that’s another story.