Dr. Bill Engvall Sr. (left) was a popular anesthesiologist at Scott & White Hospital in Temple. Bill Engvall Jr. is a popular comedian known as part of the Blue Collar Comedy Tour.

By DAVID STONE, Our Town Temple

In the summer of 2002, Bill Engvall, Jeff Foxworthy, Ron White and Larry the Cable Guy stormed the country with their unique brand of working-class humor. Foxworthy was already a comedy sensation, and the tour lifted Bill, Ron and Larry to similar heights.

Engvall was an immediate fan favorite, and he has been called the funniest man in America. Some folks in Temple, however, say he isn’t even the funniest “Bill Engvall.”

Born on May 4, 1934, in Temple, William Ray Engvall Sr. — the comedian’s dad — was a talented Scott & White anesthesiologist who always had a joke to tell.

He began his medical career with the U.S. Public Health Service in Keams Canyon, Arizona, where he worked at an Indian hospital. He moved his family to Richardson in 1972 to pursue further education as an anesthesiologist. After the younger Bill graduated high school, the family moved to Temple where Bill Sr. worked at Scott & White Hospital and taught Texas A&M medical students.

Dr. Mark Richardson did his anesthesia residency at S&W and knew Engvall well.

“Dr. Bill Engvall Sr. was the funniest man I’ve ever known,” Richardson said. “I think he was much funnier than his son, Bill Engvall Jr., who is also a funny man.”

Richardson said he once asked Dr. Engvall how he came up with his funny jokes.

“He said, 'It’s not the jokes but rather the telling of the jokes.'”

“We were walking down a hallway headed toward the crowded anesthesia lounge,” Richardson recalled.  “He said, ‘I want you to listen. When we enter the lounge, I am going to tell a joke, but listen carefully to my story.’”

The doctors entered the lounge and Engvall began a very animated telling of his story. Richardson listened carefully.

“The story was convoluted and made no sense at all, but that didn’t stop everyone in the lounge from laughing hysterically. He turned and looked at me with an all-knowing look.”

“The story made no sense,” Richardson said. “There was nothing funny about it at all, but he told the joke with such enthusiasm that everyone in the room was laughing so hard they were grabbing their sides. I was the only one in the room who was stone faced, not laughing, and I realized what he had meant. The telling of a joke was much more important than the joke itself.”

Richardson said Dr. Engvall had hundreds, maybe thousands, of the funniest jokes ever told in his head, but more importantly he knew the art of telling a joke. He was a master storyteller.”

Joy Lynn (Villines) Smith held several positions during her career at S&W, and she was a medical secretary when she knew Dr. Engvall.

“He was very funny,” she said. “The secretaries loved it when he came through to make us laugh.”

Those who worked at S&W with Dr. Engvall said he was kind, compassionate, creative, intelligent and very, very humorous. He was a man who truly loved life.

An entry in the guestbook after Dr. Engvall’s death in 2018 is testimony to the good doctor’s compassion:

“I have the sweetest memory of Dr. Engvall explaining anesthesia to my 7-year-old (son) as he was preparing for eye surgery in 1979. As he explained the procedure, he was drawing this cartoon of Donald Duck blowing up a balloon. Dr. Engvall was a one-of-a-kind treasure.”

Temple’s airport today is much different than the original facility built by the US Army Air Forces in July 1942 — 80 years ago this summer. Courtesy photo

Airport named in honor of Army pilots

By DAVID STONE, Our Town Temple

Bell County had a huge military presence during World War II.

Camp Hood, later to be renamed Fort Hood, became a massive military base in the western portion of the county, and three major military projects were located in Temple.

The U.S. Army’s McCloskey General Hospital, a German prisoner of war camp and an Army airfield were all located in and around Temple.

In July 1942, the U.S. Army Air Forces acquired land and built Temple Army Air Field west of the city. The airfield included three concrete runways, taxiways, a parking apron and a control tower. Housing for those stationed at the base was also quickly assembled.

Hangars consisting of little more than plywood and tar paper were built. Most military bases built during the war were not meant for long-term use. Over the years, the temporary hangars were replaced with steel, concrete and brick structures.

Temple Army Air Field was built as a sub-base of the Waco Army Airfield and was used as a flying school. Pilots learned on North American BT-9s and Stearman PT-17s. In 1944, the mission changed and the Temple facility became training grounds for B-25 bomber crews.

Flight training continued at the Temple site until the base was closed on Halloween 1945. The Army decided it no longer needed the base and deeded the facility to the city of Temple.

The city already had Temple Municipal Airport, built about 2 miles northwest of downtown in 1937 by the Works Progress Administration, a New Deal program designed to put Americans to work during the Great Depression. The city had no need for two airports, so Temple Municipal was closed.

Temple Army Air Field was renamed  Draughon-Miller Airport in honor of two Temple pilots shot down and killed during World War II.

The city converted Temple Municipal to a landfill and later used the land as part of Industrial Park.

Soon, the renamed Temple airport was a bustling place.

The first commercial flights were operated by Pioneer Airlines in 1947. Continental purchased Pioneer in 1955. Draughon-Miller offered multi-route flights to Midland/Odessa, Big Spring, Snyder, Abilene, Breckenridge, Fort Worth, Love Field in Dallas, College Station and Hobby Airport in Houston.

Trans-Texas Airways served Temple from 1956 to 1959, and resumed flights when Continental pulled out.

In 1968, Trans-Texas was operating flights to nine cities every day, including two non-stop flights a day to San Antonio, five to Love Field, three to Hobby, and daily service to College Station, Waco, Corpus Christi, Harlingen, McAllen and Victoria.

Trans-Texas changed its name to Texas International in 1970 and continued to serve Temple. Services began to dwindle, and by 1979 Rio Airways was providing services to Dallas and Waco. Rio became a Delta connection carrier in 1985 and continued to offer flights to a hub at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport.

By 1987, Rio went out of business and commercial flights out of Temple ended.

New program helps local entrepreneurs plant seeds and grow their business

By DAVID STONE, Our Town Temple

A new program designed to help start and grow new small businesses begins next month, and the deadline for applying for assistance is June 2.

The Cultivate Micro-Enterprise Alliance, funded through a Community Development Block Grant administered by the city of Temple, will name five businesses accepted for the new program on June 15, and classes will begin later this month.

“We want to help people realize and manifest their dreams,” said Doree Collins, director of Cultivate. “Participants will be mentored through the process of planning, opening and maintaining a business.”

Cultivate will use the grant money to pay for fees associated with forming a legal business entity such as an LLC. Businesses selected for the program also will have access to the Cultivate facility and will have office and meeting space for six months.

“The work space is friendly to those who have children,” Collins said. “But the evenings and weekends will be kid free during the summer.”

The six-month program also will give businesses access to a computer, printer and office supplies. Participants also will receive help building a website and designing a logo.

According to Collins, to be eligible for Cultivate Micro-Enterprise Alliance a business owner must have low to moderate income or employ a person who meets this criteria.

Classes begin June 30 and will be held every other Thursday and will feature local business leaders and financial experts.

To apply for the program, CLICK HERE.

UPBEAT NEWS PRODUCED BY A SMALL LOCAL BUSINESS. SPEND HERE, IT STAYS HERE.

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While the Arcadia Theatre is the best known, there were two other movie houses in Downtown Temple — the Temple and the Texas. Where was the Texas? ANSWER IS AT END OF TODAY’S ISSUE

On this day in 1898, Gen. Nelson A. Miles ordered the First United States Volunteer Cavalry Regiment, better known as the "Rough Riders," to Tampa, Florida, to take part in the forthcoming invasion of Cuba as part of the Spanish-American War. The regiment, nominally commanded by Col. Leonard Wood but in fact led by Lt. Col. Theodore Roosevelt, was one of three volunteer cavalry regiments raised in the western states and territories to augment the regular defense establishment, and the only one of the three to serve in combat. After assembling in San Antonio, the men of the First--many of whom were Texas Rangers--encamped in what is now Roosevelt Park and learned drill and discipline. As no transports could be found to move the division's horses to Cuba, however, they fought as infantry. The Rough Riders were the first United States troops to land in Cuba, and on July 1, with elements of the Ninth and Tenth United States Cavalry regiments, made the famed charge on San Juan (actually Kettle) Hill, seizing the Spanish fortifications and pushing the defenders back into Santiago de Cuba. The fame of the Rough Riders catapulted Roosevelt into the vice presidency and later the presidency of the United States. In San Antonio, in addition to Roosevelt Park, Roosevelt Street and the Roosevelt Bar of the Menger Hotel, a favorite watering place of the regiment, are named in memory of their sojourn in Texas.

TODAY’S TEMPLE TRIVIA ANSWER: The Texas Theater was located at 4 S. 1st Street next to Hancock Fabrics.