Hawkins family’s Groesbeck influence going on 100 years

Because the Hawkins family ran The Groesbeck Journal for so long – 84 years – Groesbeck’s history became their history and vice versa. The Hawkinses, especially the late Jack and Euleta Hawkins and their son Tom, have been a significant influence in Groesbeck’s history and continue to be so to this day, since Tom Hawkins, editor emeritus, still writes a weekly column for the paper and often covers community events– extending the Hawkins influence to 87 years and counting.

On this, the 125th anniversary of the founding of The Groesbeck Journal, Tom Hawkins shares some of his memories of his parents and the newspaper that became so much a part of his and their lives. 

Their family story started in Stephenville, where young Jack R. Hawkins grew up and worked at the town newspaper, The Stephenville Empire. Jack’s father, Wade Hampton Hawkins, was editor and publisher of the newspaper; and when Wade decided to retire, he sold the business. Apparently, the newspaper business bug had bitten Jack, because he moved to Groesbeck and bought The Journal in 1930, becoming its editor and publisher.

Meanwhile, pretty Euleta Sharp, who grew up in the community of Honest Ridge in the western area of Limestone County, graduated from Mexia High School in 1923 and went on to study at The University of Texas. Although she may not have gotten a degree, she earned the credentials required at that time to become a teacher. Returning to live in Limestone County, she began teaching, first at the Delia community, then at Shiloh.

At that time, there was only one superintendent for the whole county; and when Jim Barfield took that position, he offered the assistant spot to Euleta. She accepted and moved to Groesbeck to be near her work.

Jack and Euleta were probably destined to meet, but as it happened, someone who noticed young, handsome and available Jack and young, pretty and available Euleta stepped in to help matters along.

At that time, Tom Hawkins said, the two cemetery associations in town, Faulkenberry and what was at that time Glenwood – now Fort Parker Memorial Park – would produce hometown plays as fundraisers. Euleta was often a natural as the leading lady in the productions.

“There was an older lady in town,” Tom said, “who took pride in trying to take care of a new young man, you know.”

“Mr. Hawkins, you need to go to the practice, and volunteer to be in it,” the matchmaker told Jack.

“It will be good for your business,” she added, to entice him into going.

“Well, I appreciate that,” Jack Hawkins told her.

That very evening, Jack showed up at the practice, and Euleta was performing in her role.

“Who is that very pretty lady acting right now?” he asked.

“That’s Miss Euleta Sharp,” someone told him. “She’s the assistant county school superintendent.”

Likewise, Euleta asked a friend, “Who is that nice-looking, handsome man?”

“That’s Jack Hawkins,” her friend told her. “He’s the new owner of The Groesbeck Journal – but he’s already married.”

Hawkins was not married, however, and that misunderstanding was quickly cleared away.

Jack and Euleta went to Lynn’s Coffeepot Shop and had coffee that night, Tom Hawkins said. A little over a year later the two were married.

Euleta changed her career from education to journalism, filling the bookkeeper, society editor and other positions at the paper.

They married in 1931, and had their first child, Jack Warren, in 1934. A daughter, Martha, followed in 1937; then Tom in 1940.

The Great Depression of the 1930s gripped Limestone County, along with the rest of the nation, and Tom said his father told him money was so scarce that he often allowed people to pay for their subscriptions and advertising bills in farm produce.

Then in 1943, the Thornton and Kosse newspapers had to sell to keep from losing everything. World War II was on, and they could hardly find anyone to work there, Tom said. The publishers of both papers approached Jack, requesting he buy them, so they might continue.

“Well, I can’t afford to pay much,” Jack told them.

“You don’t have to pay me anything; I’ll just give it to you,” the Kosse publisher told Jack.

“I can’t do that,” Jack said. “I will pay you something.”

In addition, while Jack Hawkins could not print separate papers for the two towns, he made sure to have a page for Thornton and a page for Kosse in The Journal.

“When that started, my mother would go down every Tuesday and get the news in Thornton and Kosse,” Tom said. “She would spend the morning in Thornton, and the afternoon in Kosse and get all these personals and any kind of little story they had.”

Apart from their work at the paper, Jack and Euleta were very involved in the community, beginning with their churches. He was a Baptist, and she was a Methodist, Tom said, and neither wanted to change to the other’s denomination. Both were very active in their respective churches, he as a deacon, she in her church’s women’s group.

While her children were young, Euleta spent a lot of time at home, but once the youngsters were of school age, she became more active in the paper again.

Some of Tom’s earliest memories were of going to multi-family picnics at Fort Parker State Park, which had just opened in 1941.

“It was a big deal then to go out, four or five families together, and that was a lot of fun,” he said. “We had church picnics out there, too.”

Tom’s memories of his parents are positive, with their setting an example of active citizenship in the community that has left an indelible mark on him and his siblings.

“They were good parents,” Tom said. “My dad was more – the newspaper was kind of a hobby and full time business, too. He thought newspaper all the time.”

One Saturday, Jack had been working at the office alone, answering the phone all morning, “The Groesbeck Journal.”

When he went home for lunch, Tom said, he sat down, and was going to give the blessing over the food. The family burst out laughing, however, when he bowed his head and without thinking, said, ‘The Groesbeck Journal.’