Official site of Tribune News serving Tomball, Magnolia and Waller

I was sitting at the kitchen table having my supper one night several years ago and happened to have the TV on channel 8. I enjoyed a documentary about a musical group named The Band. That show went off and a tribute to Muddy Waters was playing. Now in case you may not be from these parts, Muddy Waters was not muddy water, but a man simply named Muddy Waters and he played good old fashioned blues soul music.
My mind was brought back many years to the late sixties. During these days Tomball Independent School District was the largest district in the area. The only one that might have been bigger was Cy-Fair. Now I know a lot of you have a hard time believing me, but Magnolia, Spring, and Klein were dots on a page in comparison to Tomball. I don't mean to be offensive to anyone, but I can remember the days when some of those schools would show up at football games with holes in their band uniforms.
During the late sixties, I belonged to a band named Decembers Children. We were a group of hippie wannabe’s. We wanted long hair, but it couldn't be too long because it wasn't allowed in school, nor in my home. I wanted to play the guitar like Jimmy Hendrix, but my Dad wouldn't let me play loud enough to cause the needed feed-back on my Fender Jaguar. I wanted to dance like Date Thomas, but my feet wouldn't go in the right direction. All in all, as I said before, we were hippie wannabe’s. (Date Thomas was a man out there living in his own world and will make good stories in the future.)
The leader of our band was a guy named Danny Maddox. He was our lead singer. Jimmy Conn was our drummer and Donald Foley was our lead guitarist. If I'm not mistaken Art Cummings was our bass player and yours truly played rhythm guitar.
Danny doubled as our manager and it was his duty to book our group with different gigs. During these days somebody would reserve the old Humble Camp building and we would have high school dances out there. Humble Camp was a large gas plant on the west side of Tomball and they had a community building for use by the public. If I'm not mistaken we played one gig out there but the highlight of my musical career was the year we were booked for the Magnolia High School homecoming dance. I'm a little fuzzy on the year but I think it was 1969. We were on cloud nine when we got this booking, as we knew the "out of town" exposure would surely launch our musical career. Groups like The Beatles, Hendrix, ZZ Top and many others were real hot then and we were about to give them a run for their money.
The night of the dance I took my woman with me (now my wife, but unknown to me at the time) and we were ready to blow the walls out at Magnolia High! A whole twenty people showed up….. but we had fun anyway. One young lady in particular who sticks in my mind danced the night away to the music of Decembers Children.
That's the last gig I can remember. The band broke up and we all remained friends. I tried my solo career for a few months. I recorded some reel to reel tapes on Mrs. Bog's tape player and I even went to a guy in Houston and auditioned. I never told my parents I had went into town, but looking back I have a hunch this guy wasn't above board anyhow. I played and sang my songs in his living quarters, he thanked me and I left. He told me he was looking for a different style of music. God watches over little boys and foolish teenagers.
My band years are over. The songs I wrote are in my piano bench. The tape has been long gone and my Fender Jaguar was sold many years ago as it was simply gathering dust under my bed. Bo Diddly started performing on TV. I went and got my guitar out and started dreaming once again about my youth…
- Clifford

Harris County Sheriff's Office investigators are seeking the public's help in identifying and locating a person of interest. The man is wanted for questioning in the Nov. 12, 2012 shooting death of

Coty Beavers, 28, at his northwest Harris County apartment.

Working from information provided by an eyewitness, an artist has sketched a likeness of the subject – a man with dark hair and thick dark eyebrows, wearing eyeglasses.

The man was seen asking about Beavers at the Legacy Park Apartments, 10801 Legacy Park Drive, a few days before Beavers was shot multiple times at the complex.

Beavers was the twin brother of Cory Beavers, who had been the boyfriend of Gelareh Bagherzadeh, 30. She was shot to death while driving to her townhouse in the Galleria area of Houston, reportedly after visiting Cory Beavers. Bagherzadeh was an outspoken critic of the government of Iran, where she was born.

Her killing is being investigated by the Houston Police Department. Investi-gators with HPD and HCSO have disclosed no evidence linking the killings of Coty Beavers and Bagherzadeh.

Anyone with information about the subject should call the Sheriff's Office Homicide Division at 713-967-5810 or Crime Stoppers of Houston at 713-222-TIPS.

Where there's smoke, there's fire and the trail of smoke in Magnolia March 22 and 23, will lead to more than 50 barbecue teams at Unity Park. The Greater Magnolia Chamber of Commerce will host its 19th annual barbecue cook-off, called the Magnolia Showdown.

Along with watching cookers at their best, tasting a few samples and seeing outstanding showmanship exhibits; there will be free live music by the Philip Griffin Band beginning at 8 p.m., March 22. 

For the third consecutive year, the cook-off will be at the 30-acre Unity Park off Nichols-Sawmill Road. Ven-dors offering specialty items return to the cook-off this year.

"This is a really big event," GMCC Magnolia Showdown Chair Gari Lynn Hessong said. "We never have a shortage of good food or fun."

Special accomodations for competitors and visitors are being offered at both the Executive Inn & Suites of Magnolia, or at Magnolia Inn & Suites. For more information visit www.executiveinnmagnolia.com, or magnoliainnandsuites.com.

The Greater Magnolia Chamber of Commerce Showdown, co-hosted by the City of Magnolia, is an International Barbecue Cook-ers Association sanctioned event. For details, email  This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or call 281-356-1488.

Lovers of fiddles and steel guitars will be flocking to Tomball Mar. 16, as the city will be holding its second annual Tomball Honky Tonk Music Festival that afternoon.

"It's going to be an afternoon of old style honky tonk music," said Tomball marketing director Mike Baxter. "It's reminiscent of the days of Hank Williams and Patsy Cline – when country was country."

Nearly 1,500 people showed up to the inaugural event last year and Baxter expects more this go around.

Headlining the event is Austin musician Dale Watson, who describes his two decade career as one of a maverick country traditionalist.

Performing first, around noon, will be Miss Leslie & Her Juke Jointers, a group that has appeared at several of the city's events. They will be followed by Country Jim & His Country All-Stars, which features musicians that have shared the stage with legends like Doug Supernaw and Hank Williams Jr.

"(Country Jim) has been performing for more than 40 years," Baxter said.

Rounding out the music festivities will be Amber Digby & Midnight Flyer. Digby and Watson are both new to the event this year.

The concrete patio at the Tomball Depot Plaza will be transformed into a large dance floor, built for two-stepping.

Baxter also said that local favorite's Mel's Country Café and Snookie's Fish Camp will be serving food at the event, while they have lined up nearly 20 merchandise vendors as well. There will also be beer and wine for sale at the event.

Baxter said these events are a good way for the city to show off its unique businesses and it's local flavor to visitors who come in to hear the show.

"The events help bring people to the city, who in turn visit our shops, restaurants and things downtown," he said.

The Tomball Honky Tonk Music Festival will be held Mar. 16, from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., at the Depot Plaza. For more information visit www.tomballtx.gov,
or facebook.com/TomballTexanForFun

A train plowed into a trailer carrying specialized oilfield equipment to Mexico, the afternoon of Mar. 4, backing up traffic in all directions around Magnolia.

According to the Magnolia Police Department, the trailer was waiting on the tracks for workers to help it clear the overhead railroad signal on FM 1488, when the train came down the tracks.

No one was injured.

Magnolia Police Executive Officer J.K. Seangal said the tracks were blocked at FM 1488 and FM 1774 until around 9 p.m. He said they were dispatched to the scene just before 3 p.m.

"Union Pacific called a company that brought out a crane type piece of equipment that was able to remove the container holding the equipment being transported," he said. "We then called in some heavy tow trucks to remove the trailer."

The trailer was cut in half by the force of the impact.

Witnesses to the event say that they heard workers yelling for the truck driver to move, but the driver apparently did not speak much English and did not understand. That's when one of the workers grabbed the driver and pulled him from the truck at the last minute.

The force of the crash even tore the side of the train's engine off.

With so much heavy equipment involved, police had to look for creative ways to get traffic flowing again.

"We were able to keep traffic moving through the area through detour routes," Seangal said.

The entire scene was cleaned up and the equipment was all moved out of the area late the next morning.

A video of the crash, taken by Magnolia resident Kandi Edwards made the rounds nationally and can be seen on our website, www.tribunenews.com.