I have been acquainted with several generations of the Starr family during my lifetime. I recall the Gene Starr family – I went to school with the twin girls, Mary Faye and Martha Ray. The twins had two brothers, one named Brady and the other Jimmy, and two other sisters named Mozelle and Johnl. They were the children of Gene and Buelah Starr.

The twins and I went to school back during the 1930's. I have a photo of our third grade class at Aubrey School. I have printed this photo in past issues of The Town Charter.

One of Gene’s brothers was Leon Starr. His wife was Mary Hylson Sikes Starr. Gene and Brady were in the business of hauling lumber from East Texas. Many of the homes in this area were built with the lumber that was transported by the Starr Trucking Firm during the 1950's, 1960's and 1970's.

I didn’t know Leon and his wife Mary Hylson or either of their children, Charlene and Hoyt Starr. But I have recently become acquainted with Hoyt. He has been coming into the hardware store and has been telling me stories of his youth. His stories are very interesting and if you know Hoyt, they fit him.

Hoyt has traced his family lineage into the Cherokee tribe that occupied this area for several generations. He has a large collection of information that he is adding to and editing as he goes along. Hoyt has a keen interest in the ancestry of the Starr family and others as he is working on compiling his research into a family tree as well as documenting interesting experiences during his lifetime.

Hoyt told me that he entered Liberty School in the first grade in 1931. He still has fond memories of this school.

Since his grandfather was a preacher, he always found himself comfortable going to the services that his grandfather pastored. Hoyt told me an amusing story about one of his experiences when he was in his youth. He says that most all of the older boys congregated around the outside of the church, during the service and at the appropriate time they would go in to receive their portion of the sermon. On one particular hot summer day when the church windows were up to their full height, he and his teenage friends had gathered outside to do their talking amongst themselves. He says that as they were getting ready to quietly enter the back of the church and slip in without any disturbance, he looks into the window and sees a pretty girl sitting next to the window. He says that he couldn’t resist the urge to reach in and pat the pretty girl on the arm, and as he did she jumped with a sudden movement that caught the preacher’s eye.

The preacher (his grandfather) continued with his "hellfire and damnation" sermon preaching on the sins that were being committed each day, when suddenly he stopped his sermon and stood motionless for a good bit. Hoyt knew he was going to have to drag his arm back outside without the preacher seeing, but every effort failed. It was at this time when the preacher said, "boy," out loud and paused again looking back toward the window. He then continued, "Boy, get your hands off that girl."

Hoyt was certain that he was not identified, and in a few minutes he decided to do the same thing again, so when the preacher got going with the "hellfire and damnation" part of his sermon again, he felt tempted to pat the girl on the shoulder. This time the preacher stopped the sermon completely. Hoyt knew he was going to hell now, so he slowly withdrew his hand and in a few minutes as the sermon was approaching the midway section, he decided to go in with the rest of the boys, and perhaps his identity would not be revealed. Hoyt summed it by saying that this sermon meant a lot to him because he successfully interrupted the entire service two times, with the preaching pausing a few minutes each time to get the entire congregation’s attention. He said he was reluctant to do anything to interrupt a service later, because it was nearing time for him to enter the service as World War II was about to begin.

Hoyt said he would share more stories from his youth in later issues.

Now for the old newspaper clippings along with the dates:

On Saturday, October 20, 1888:

The Aubrey Post Office receipts were $250 this year. (Remember it had only been operating for 7 years at this time)

W.A. Kelly had a boy Wednesday night and he woke the town shouting.

On Saturday, October 18, 1890:

Grocery owned by Pola Caddell and W. Tatum opened.

About 2006 bales of cotton have been weighed on the Aubrey Scales.

A Sunday school class was organized at the Methodist Church. (This was apparently not the first time a Sunday school class was organized in the Methodist church)

On Saturday, November 1, 1980:

W.P. Wilks of Little Elm bought some Aubrey city lots from L.N. Edwards.

On Saturday, December 20, 1890:

J.L. Parker is building a blacksmith shop on his lot in Aubrey.