• Ross Cunningham •
• Originally published January 2, 2009 at 11:56 a.m., updated January 2, 2009 at 11:56 a.m.

January- New McDonalds Restaurant opens The new improved McDonald’s Restaurant opened for business and on Saturday, Jan. 12; the restaurant celebrated its grand opening with a visit from Ronald McDonald. The original Bay City McDonald’s opened in Aug. 1981 and had Ronald McDonald at their grand opening. Hank Leiblein and his son Fred H. Leiblein owned the first restaurant. Fred Leiblein is the present owner of the new Mc Donald’s and the Wal-Mart Super Center McDonald’s Restaurant. The night manager at the first McDonald’s Restaurant in Bay City in 1981 was the writer of this story, Ross Cunningham. The old restaurant stood for 27 years until it was demolished in 2007 to make way for the new store. The old McDonald’s had 2,500 square feet while the new restaurant has 5,300 square feet. The new eatery will employ 70 employees while the old store had 30 employees. Leiblein said he feels that McDonald’s is a great stepping-stone for training high school kids for moving on in life. The store hires high school students and teaches them responsibility. March- Movie Madness hits county The movie craze hit the county after residents of Bay City received a call Monday night, March 24, that the movie “Tree of Life” needed extras. The call was made by Bay City Chamber of Commerce president Mitch Thames on the city’s one-call system, and within an hour about 400 people showed up at the Bay City Civic Center. The movie production team interviewed the people that showed up and selected 100 extras for Tuesday and Wednesday’s set at Matagorda Beach. The movie will star Brad Pitt, who will replace the late Heath Ledger, who was originally cast to star with Sean Penn in the Malick-directed drama. River Road Entertainment produces the film. The screenwriter and director for the movie is Terrence Malick who also directed “The Thin Red Line.” Summer Lee of Bay City had an encounter with the movie star Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie in front of the Matagorda Harbor House in Matagorda on Tuesday morning. Lee said that she was parked in front of the store with her daughter Pieslei and her friend Tammy Estes when a black suburban with black tinted windows pulled in and parked behind them. “Pitt and Jolie got out of their vehicle and went up to the front of the store but it was closed so they went back to their car and got back in,” said Lee. “Before getting back in he said hi and I waved back to him.” Tammy Estes said that the reason they were down at Matagorda was because her daughter Danielle Estes, 18 and her boy friend Dustin Nemec, 17, were extras in the movie April- Where in the world is the country Lambona? The country of Lambona can’t be found on any map but for students in Jeanette Batchelor’s sixth-grade class at Eastside Elementary School her student’s can solve that problem. The country of Lambona is located in Batchelor’s fourth period class. In fact, her other class periods are also countries that the students made up. First period is the country Luzuyno, second period is called Karangool, fifth period country is called Kikatu, eighth period is Kuweeki and the last period of the day is Kuzarty. Each class has a president, representatives and senators. The president of the country Lambona that I visited is Lacey Ramirez. Each country also has a flag that the students designed and they hang in the hallway of the school. Students in the classrooms don’t just sit in a desk; the desk where they sit is their rental property. Students can live in a hotel, duplex, big house, and apartment or in the government housing. The president of the country lives in a condo, which is a bathtub that is located in the back corner of the class. Every Friday the students get paid with play money called Kuwees. Every student in class has some kind of a job, which pays the student in Kuwees bucks. The money is used to pay rent for each student’s housing, for taxes that goes to help the government to run and utilities. May- Bay City ISD Superintendent Richard Walton retires after 35 years service Bay City Independent School District superintendent Richard Walton retired on Friday, April 25, after 35 years of service to the school district. On hand for the retirement party at the administration building were his wife Betty, family members, friends and members of the school district. Bay City band members played the school fight song followed by a proclamation from Mayor Richard Knapik proclaiming April 25, as Richard Walton Day. Walton said Bay City has become God’s little green acre. Long time friend and assistant superintendent Hal Roberts said that as a boss and friend I couldn’t have anyone better. “No one can come to Bay City and love us more than you,” said Roberts. Walton said with tears running down his face “retiring is hard for me because I love you so much and it’s very humbling to have people come by and tell me how much they appreciated me.” He looks forward during his retirement to spending time with his grandkids, fishing, golfing and even spending some time painting. May-Hero David McCormick comes home The first soldier from Bay City and Matagorda County to be killed in Combat in Iraq returned home on Sunday, May 4. Army Specialist David McCormick arrived by Charter jet in a flag-draped casket at the Bay City Municipal Airport at 9:39 a.m. on Sunday. About 250 to 300 people were at the airport to show their respect to the soldier killed near Baghdad on April 28. McCormick’s arrival was met with full military honors, including Army honor guards from Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio. June McCormick, mother of the soldier, was at the airport, as were his brother Army cadet Will McCormick, sisters Kristy McCormick Davis and Mary Ann McCormick Davis and other family members. Leaving the airport, a procession followed the hearse, which traveled north on Farm to Market Rd 2540 to Van Vleck and then turned west on Highway 35 to the Bay City Funeral Home. Bay City Police, Matagorda Sheriff Office, Bay City Volunteer Fire Department fire trucks and 50 to 75 motorcycles from the Patriot Guard escorted the procession. Along the route, people lined the road, waving flags. Members of several churches in Van Vleck and Bay City stood outside holding flags. June- UM Army invades Bay City The UM Army has invaded Matagorda County this week with 47 young people and adult staff members. The UM Army (the United Methodist Action Reach out Ministry by Youth) from St. Timothy’s United Methodist Church of Houston, La Porte United Methodist Church, Cokesbury United Methodist Church and Lexington United Methodist Church of Houston arrived Sunday afternoon, June 15. The UM Army is spending all week reaching the needy people in Matagorda County by building ramps, repairing rotten wood and painting homes. Most of the referrals for work in Matagorda County are sent through the United Way and local churches. The UM Army started in 1979 with 36 youth and adult leaders from three churches. They held their first camp in Athens and the number of participants is now over 4,000 with over 1,500 work sites to be completed this year. The mission of the team is to provide Christ centered quality youth work camps that serve people in need and promote spiritual growth and leadership development in youth. October-Son of Dan Rather’s cameraman tells story “If you hire me I will make you famous,” that was what Richard Perez said to Dan Rather when they first met at Channel 11 news in Houston in 1961. Perez, whose son is a Bay City native, teamed up with the famous news anchor Rather as his cameraman for CBS. Perez worked for Rather from 1961 to 1988. Daniel Irvin “Dan” Rather Jr., born in Wharton op Oct. 31, 1931, was the former news anchor for the CBS Evening News and is presently the managing editor of the television news magazine called Dan Rather Reports. Rather was the anchor for CBS from 1981 to 2005. “My dad first worked for Rather when we lived in Houston at KHOU TV in 1961 and they first met when my dad forced his way into KHOU to see him,” said Perez’s son, Tommy Perez, the general sales manager at Bay City Ford. “My dad told Rather that he didn’t know him but if you hire me I will make you famous.” At the time Rather was unknown but after years working with Perez he became famous as a news anchor for CBS. Perez was a cameraman for CBS for 27 years — 15 years as a staffer, the rest as a freelancer. . “My father took some famous footage with his camera of when Alabama Governor George Wallace was shot. His most famous footage that he took was when Jack Ruby shot Lee Harvey Oswald in Dallas. He shot the famous footage in the basement of the Dallas Police Department. The rights to the photo are owned by CBS,” said Perez. November- WWII veteran remembers serving on the USS Hornet On Tuesday, Nov. 11, we honored the nation’s veterans and their service to our country in keeping the United States free. One of the veterans honored is longtime Bay City resident and World War II veteran Rev. Joseph E. Ramsey, 91. He served in the U.S. Navy from 1942 to 1945. Ramsey was one of four brothers who joined the military during WWII. Older brother John Melvin Ramsey joined the U.S. Navy on Dec. 15, 1935. Brothers William Newton Ramsey joined the U.S. Navy on July 18, 1942, and Ernest B. Ramsey joined the Army Air Corps on Jan. 14, 1943. Joseph Ramsey was the second brother to join the Navy and he enlisted on Jan. 9, 1942, after the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor and was assigned to the aircraft carrier the USS Hornet and served on the carrier during the famous bombing raid on Tokyo with Lieutenant Colonel Jimmy Doolittle. He also fought during the Battle of Midway in the Pacific Campaign and was on the carrier when it was sunk during the Battle of Santa Cruz during the Solomon Islands campaign.

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