What Do You Mean, Isolated?

Second of Four
By Bill Guerra ([email protected])

The author is a Benson native and was a member of BUHS class of ’63. He resides in suburban Atlanta.

By the 1940’s and 50’s, we were no longer one of the many small towns that dotted the West during the last years of the 19th century and early years of the 20th century; we were not a “community island” – bounded by land, not by sea – that made us a world unto ourselves. Thanks in large part to New Deal programs like the REA, RFD, and the WPA, Benson was the beneficiary affordable electricity, regular mail delivery, even to semi-remote areas, and worker programs that sustained us through hard times and helped open our eyes to the world.

In the 1950’s, when crooners like Pat Boone and Elvis Presley (actually, Carl Perkins) made white bucks and blue suede shoes popular, young boys in Benson were quick to adopt and acquire the fashion fad of the day! This included – at one time or another – skinny belts, skinny ties, pink pants, madras shirts, white Levis, etc. For the girls, the same could be said for Mary Jane shoes with white socks, poodle skirts, short shorts – and even that most horrible of girls dress outerwear, the Sack! (As the lyrics to a popular song of the day went: “No chemise, please! You can take back the sack, leave it hanging on the rack, and bring the sweater back!”) Of course, our school dress code imposed limits on what was or wasn’t acceptable, a concept that seems nearly improbable in today’s (almost) ‘anything goes’ world! Oddly enough, at least for a boy, was the tolerance, even acceptability, of our ‘traditional uniform’: blue jeans (Levis, of course) and a white, T-style undershirt!

Actually, we were very tuned in – and susceptible – to fads like the hula hoop, Davey Crockett coonskin hats, and Marlon Brando inspired black motorcycle jackets. We drank cherry cokes in conical paper cups at Hamilton’s Drug store or at Joe’s Confectionary and we danced in the auditorium (the school’s basketball court for an older generation) at post-game record hops to the music of Patti Page, Fats Domino, Patsy Cline, The Platters, Bill Haley, Richie Valens, The Everly Brothers, Buddy Holly, Chubby Checker, and The Lettermen. We were also entertained by catchy (but not necessarily dance music) recordings like the Purple People Eater, Witch Doctor, Running Bear, and Wolverton Mountain, to name a few. We boogied away to the jitterbug, cha-cha-cha, the swing, the twist, the stroll, the jerk and, of course, slow dancing! In short, we felt we were ‘in tune’ with mainstream America.

Center of the Universe!

First of Four
By Bill Guerra ([email protected])

The author is a Benson native and was a member of BUHS class of ’63. He resides in suburban Atlanta.

During visits home, I’m always amused and inevitably let out a chuckle when I hear my niece Suzy playfully refer to our hometown as ‘Benson, Center of the Universe’! Her description contains a bit of tongue-in-cheek sarcasm, but for those of us brought up in an earlier time that phrase may have an eerie resonance because, for us, Benson was the center our youthful universe.

An outsider might easily scoff ‘Why, of course! You were so remote and insular that all worldly matters were contained within the City Limit signs at the East and West ends of town!’ But this is really an overly simplistic conclusion and, in fact, I would argue the opposite. Benson WAS our universe, but it wasn’t because of our isolation or ignorance (not as in stupidity, but as in unknowing) but, rather, because we like any number of communities in Small Town, America, were reliant on our own resources for entertainment, information, and social/civic cooperation.

4th in a series

by Jimmy Jans

After a slow start and with the completion of the Benson underpass in 1941, east Benson’s growth took off in the 1950s. Gone were the turn of the century Smelter, the railroad round house and the cattle shipping pens. Now, with the paving of highway 86, which cut 80 miles off the trip east to Lordsburg New Mexico the building of east Benson began.

In 1941 all that existed in east Benson were two motels, the El Cochise motel, the Monterey motel, the Riverside Texaco, the White Kitchen café, the Benson Furniture store, and the Sierra Vista (Dixie) gas station. With the completion of the underpass and the paving of highway 86 east Benson growth took off. White Kitchen Café became Benson Café, Riverside Inn was built and run by two women Katy and Jean. A trailer park was built east of the Monterey and El Cochise Motels and later Garnet Barker built a roller skating rink. Sometime in the 1940s the Benson Furniture store became a grocery store and it burned. It would be rebuilt in the 1960s and become Richardson’s Mortuary. Between the Riverside Inn and the Riverside Texaco a new café, the Riverside café (later Ruiz’s Café) would be built. Dick Lopshire would move the B. F. Goodrich store from up town between the San Pedro Motel and Louie Dyer’s Texaco to next to the Riverside Inn and his brother Dale would build Lopshire’s Ford next to that which would require Kimbrough Trucking to move across the street. What was the location of a long closed Union gas station became Lopshire’s Ford’s new car lot. Also a Chevron gas station was where the present day lower Circle K is located.

Vern Arnold would start development of east Benson starting with the construction of Wilson’s Cash Market and Gila Auto Parts. Next Vern created a lake out of an expanded water tank which served a chicken farm which hea acquired and converted into a housing development, a trailer park and a beauty and barber shop.

On the north Comstock housing development would replace Dayton Graham’s slaughter house with several new homes. On the south along with Scott’s Machine shop, Benson Lumber (which became Wilharm’s Lumber Company), were the Sierra Vista Motel and gas station, Plymouth sales, Bill’s Trading Post, the Holsum Bread depot and the newly relocated Kimbrough Trucking.

On the hill to the west the Scott brothers, Bill and George started a gravel and sand operation and to the north a concrete batch plant owned by Pete Wilharm was opened.

East Benson was limited in growth by the large hill on the west, the railroad on the south, the San Pedro river on the east and ultimately I-10, in the 1960s, on the north. I-10 also was also the demise of east Benson since it replaced highway 86 and bypassed Benson altogether. In fact Benson, as a thriving tourist town, quit growing and became a bedroom community for Fort Huachuca and Tucson after I-10 was opened.

by  Fred Becchetti

 The world and Benson, Arizona, were still recovering from war when I arrived in Benson Union High School to teach in 1950.  Our school superintendent himself was a returning veteran who was able to recruit me to teach English and Spanish and other returning veterans to teach the sciences, civics and social science, American history, wood shop, agriculture, bookkeeping, typing and several grades in the elementary school.

We were all quite young and inexperienced as teachers.  Most of us still sported our military buzz haircut and all of us were in awe of Coach Jack Wilson.

Grizzled by the Arizona sun and his eyes crinkled from looking at distant horizons, Coach Wilson was in his gymnasium office when we arrived on the BUHS campus.   It seemed that he had always been there and that he would still be there even after we were gone.

Yes, he was one of the teachers, but, above all, he was the coach. He watched in quiet amusement as the new teachers fumbled around getting a handle on the 200 excited sons and daughters of the San Pedro Valley community who made up the BUHS student body.  With a professional eye he looked over the boys as they signed up for another year of school.

He was pleased to see that some of his six-man football players had beefed up during the summer so that he could count on a heavier front line to protect his backfield runners in the fall and winter season.  He even saw a strong looking freshman, just in with his “snow bird” family from Indiana, who might be an asset in the campaign of the Bobcats against the anticipated powerhouse Cowboys from nearby Willcox.

He was noticeably thrilled to see that most of his taller boys, gangly and uncertain during last year’s basketball season, had mastered their bodies and would make significant contributions toward Bobcat victories in the coming season. From his office, he could  hear the dribbling of his players already practicing their shots and their moves in the empty gym even though basketball was still a season away.

As for springtime baseball, he was pretty much counting on his seniors from last season, but he knew from experience that baseball always
produces surprises, so he would simply wait and see how his players developed and hope for good hitting and fielding during the entire season.

In true western fashion, Coach Wilson, didn’t say much.  He was always the quiet person in the room.  He coached the same way.  No great histrionics from him during the game.  In football he left it up to his assistant coach Lou Bulzomi to express any frustration with the way a play had been called, but even that was tempered by the calm that Jack projected.  His teams were always well-mannered and in control of their emotions, which was perhaps the secret to Bobcat success under his coaching.

Since I voluntarily did the public-address duty and even the sports reporting for San Pedro Valley News, I attended every game that Jack coached during the eleven years that I taught at BUHS, 1950-1961.  I even accompanied his teams in their games away.  In all that time and at all those games I never saw Jack lose his calm, no matter how crucial the game or the play was. Above all, I never saw him treat a player with anything but respect, and his players reciprocated with their own respect and and their admiration and confidence in his generalship.

Under Jack’s coaching, Bobcat teams never created any situations on or off the playing field to embarrass the town of Benson or the school.
Jack’s calm and his decency permeated the spirit of all his teams.  Jack didn’t make flowery or fiery speeches to inspire his teams.  They merely knew from his example what conduct he desired from them.

All of us teachers contributed to the development of the good men that Benson Union High School produced from about the thirty new boys who
entered high school each year during my eleven years in Benson.  However, Coach Wilson had a more profound influence on the boys because of their participation in the after-school sports activities of football, basketball or baseball which brought them under the direct influence of Wilson after the academic schedule in the late-afternoon daily practice sessions, in the games themselves and in travel to games away.

There are many BUHS graduates who owe much of their maturity and quality as good men in great part to their association with Coach Wilson. Some of them that come to mind are Jim Blankenburg, Charley Shrode, Jerry Coons, Larry Dempster,  Jim Judd,  Ambrose Hernandez,  Andy Hesser, Ernie Hansen, Jack Hawes, Pete Hesser,  Don Lewis,  Fernando Mendivil,  Jim Hansen,  Robert Mendivil,  Ralph Horyna,  Eddie Estrella,  Jim Teak,  Eddie Meza and Lloyd Vian.

There are many more, and all of them reflect in their lives the decency and quiet wisdom of their coach, Jack Wilson, who drove down Five-Mile Hill every morning from his beloved Triangle-T Ranch in Dragoon to show his boys how to play games, how to win games with grace, how to lose games with the same grace, how to respect oneself,  how to respect one another, how to bring glory to one’s school, how to guard your school’s reputation and, above all, like Coach Wilson himself, how to do good and do the right thing without talking much about it.

Jack would have been the last person to admit to being a teacher, but he was actually one of the best.

Happy New Year to all,

I hope that you all received the information and that many of you were able to attend the ceremony during Benson’s final home football game for the season where the sports complex was named the Jerry P. Lee Stadium. What a wonderful tribute to him, his family and his contributions to our Benson Schools both as an alumni and as a teacher/coach. There are plans in the works for other similar celebrations which we will keep you informed of as they happen.

Now that winter has arrived, our Bobcat football, cross-country and volley ball seasons have come to an end. The football team made it to the semi finals state playoffs & the girls cross-country made it to state but didn’t place. The football team also kept the Seney-Lohan trophy by beating Wilcox 52 to 0.

We have moved on to Basketball and Wrestling. The High School Basketball Holiday tournament was held December 8th through the 10th and the Benson Wrestling Invitational was held on January 6th and 7th.

The middle school Volleyball won the CAC going undefeated the whole season, girls cross country placed 3rd at CAC and the girl’s softball team has won the CAC 6 years in a row, they have a new coach this year, Mike Sherman, but are 6-0 so far (82-0 overall) so off to another good start. The Middle School Benson Invitational was held on January 14th.

A Junior at BHS, Madison Furnas, has made news promoting a message of Don’t Text and Drive. You could find more information on the News-Sun website – an article ran about 2 months ago. She is on a national committee, went to DC last summer for training, and is on the Governor’s Youth Council.

Since this is the first newsletter of 2017, I would like to remind you all that your annual dues of $10 are due and payable in January. This could be your last newsletter without being current on your dues. Also just a reminder that we will once again be awarding Benson Bobcat Alumni Association scholarships depending on your kind donations. Remember we are now a 501c3 non-profit organization and therefore, any and all donations maybe be tax deductible. You should always verify with your tax person for confirmation.

If you would like to see something in the newsletter, please contact Janet Hearn.

Thank you for your support,

Judy Thompson, President, BBAA

Class of 1970

Michelle (Montroy) Freeark, class of 1996In high school, Michelle was active in band and FBLA. She served as a class officer, FBLA officer and was the statistician for the baseball team. For two years she was one of the high school’s drum majorettes. She enjoyed participating in band competitions, recalling the very long, yellow bus ride to Las Cruces, NM to participate in a large marching band competition. Benson Schools are very special to Michelle-she attended Kindergarten through 12^th grade in Benson schools. There were several others in her graduating class who had been to school together since preschool at the Presbyterian Church.

After graduation, Michelle attended Northern Arizona University where she graduated with a Bachelor’s of Science in Environmental Science. Michelle returned to the Benson area where she went to work at Apache Nitrogen Products, Inc.

She spent 6 years at Apache working as an environmental supervisor.

While working at Apache she met her future husband, Justin Freeark. They were married in 2000, welcomed their first child Grant in 2004 and their daughter Jillian in 2011. In 2013, they relocated to northeast Tennessee for Justin’s career.

Michelle began working for Arizona Electric Power Cooperative, Inc. (AEPCO) in 2005. She joined AEPCO as an environmental planner and has been promoted over the years to positions with increasing responsibility. In the fall of 2016 she was promoted to Executive Director of Legal & Corporate Services. In this capacity she supervises the legal, environmental, safety, land services, resource planning and transmission planning departments.

Much of the compliance effort involves monitoring, commenting on and working with agencies on proposed federal and state regulations. She has also worked closely with state legislators, members of Congress, and other public officials and policy makers.

Michelle is actively involved in the National Rural Electric Environmental Association having served as President for two years. She also sits on other advisory committees in the electric utility.

Her greatest accomplishments in her career include being a published author in an industry journal for a patented emission control technology, having served on advisory boards for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), been interviewed in New York City by the Wall Street Journal and Washington Post on issues surrounding environmental regulations facing the electric utility industry, and successfully negotiating with the EPA an alternative to the $200 million emission control technology upgrade imposed on AEPCO.

She gives much of her credit to the outstanding teachers she had while in the Benson School

Judy Worden Lee, class of 1956

How does one fit a lifetime into a couple of paragraphs?

I wanted to be a writer for as long as I could remember.  Over my school years, I wanted to be a lawyer and eventually become a judge working in the area of abused women and children.  I got sidetracked somehow and became a teacher.  Loved all 34 years that I taught.  And I did manage to do some writing along the way.

 I’ve written several books and still have not been able to say it all.  But, here goes, the condensed version of a long life.  .

We moved to Benson in 1948 from Tucson.  My dad started at Apache Powder, my mother started at the Horseshoe and I started at Benson Elementary. I loved every minute of school in Benson.  Great teachers, great friends, dances, chorus, band, drama and my BFF Helen Critchley.

I married an Airman in 1956, moved to Tx, Okinawa, SC, again TX, IN, and the last AFB was in NY.  Stayed in NY for 15 yrs. Along the way I had three children, Pam, Cindy and Rebecca, in NY I adopted three children, John, Jim and Denise.  Got a degree and teacher cert.  Developed a business in Fire Service Education and spent seven years traveling the country teaching a Train the Trainer program to fire departments.  Moved back to Benson in 1985, and taught in SD for 15 years.  Moved to PHX in 2000 and taught at Shadow Mt. HS and Paradise Valley Comm. College.  Moved to the Dallas area after my husband Rudy Casillas passed away.  Taught there until 2014 when I returned to Benson.  I’m home.  Bought a house on the hill, and got involved with the community.  I belong to Benson Rotary, Retired Teachers, S.D. Historical Soc. and I am president of the Benson Museum.  I also lecture on the Cochise Brown Bag Lecture Series.

One of the results of having six kids, they multiply.  As of today’s date there are nine grandkids and eight great grand kids.   Seems as if every time I get a phone call there is another baby on the way.

I can honestly say that I have had a very happy and rewarding life.  And enjoying every minute of my golden years.  I love Benson, its people, its people and every rock, tree and cactus.

Jody Dagget, class of 1970, says:

I just read the article on Joe Hayes.  I watched his stuff on YouTube and was blown away.  He has amazing talent.  

I remember Joe very well.  I’m about 6 or 7 years younger than Joe.  He was in my brother Jan’s class.  I liked him because he was really good to me.  He talked to me like I was a real person; not just a kid.

Joe mentioned Billy and Bobby Guerra, George Potter, and Bobby Caballero.  I still look up to those guys like older brothers.  They probably don’t know it, but they were teaching me.  Thanks guys.

Jody Daggett (1970)