Patricia Benoit

Texas

Reporter at Temple Daily Telegram

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Articles

And so it goes: Benoit ends 12-year trek writing Telegram column

Jun 23, 2024 | tdtnews.com | Patricia Benoit

And so it goes. Some things end; others merely morph into something else. And so it goes that this is my last Backroads column after more than 12 years of hunting-and-pecking a weekly column about Bell County history. I was hired in 2007 as a part-time reporter for the Telegram. I formerly worked for the TDT for eight years, from 1976 to 1984. For more than two decades following, I enjoyed a peripatetic journalism writing and editing career here, there and then back to Bell County. It was a good ride.
Harris School alumni gather for annual reunion

Jun 21, 2024 | tdtnews.com | Patricia Benoit |Patricia Benoit Telegram

Christopher Smith, chief government affairs officer at the Ford Motor Co., will keynote the annual reunion of the West Belton-T.B. Harris School Alumni Association at 6 p.m. Saturday, June 29, in the Lord Conference Center, 900 College St., on the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor campus. Smith grew up in Fort Worth, but his parents and grandparents have deep Bell County roots and are Harris alumni.
‘Bedrock of our success’: ‘Cooperative wealth’ of black fraternal groups helped fund liberation

Jun 16, 2024 | tdtnews.com | Patricia Benoit

A nondescript vacant lot at 214 S. 10th St. in Temple holds a key to black liberation in Bell County. Since Juneteenth is Wednesday, it’s a good opportunity to explore the many black fraternal and charitable organizations that helped sustain and energize freed peoples after the Civil War.
Plentiful food: Juneteenth traditionally celebrated with tables laden with tasty dishes

Jun 9, 2024 | tdtnews.com | Patricia Benoit

Freedom Day. Emancipation Day. Juneteenth. No matter what June 19 was called or where the celebrations occurred, festive tables overflowed with plentiful food. “In addition to a fine lot of barbecued meats, they will have plenty of baskets loaded with substantials and delicacies,” noted the Belton Journal in 1891. Food became an important linchpin in slave narratives that carried through to Juneteenth observances.
WWII tribute book honors Bell’s bravest

May 26, 2024 | tdtnews.com | Patricia Benoit

William Mills Hieronymus Jr. sports a gleaming smile under his aviator’s cap; he remains forever 24 years old. Santos A. Mojica was married and father of two young children at age 21 when he stormed the beaches of Normandy on D-Day. Eugene A. Harrison’s impassive stares remain frozen on the pages. No one could guess he was only 19. Their photos and hundreds of others are included in “The Men and Women in World War II from Bell County,” a slim testament to sacrifice and service on Memorial Day.
Salado landmark: Historic hotel plans return to original name, upgrades

May 22, 2024 | tdtnews.com | Patricia Benoit

SALADO — Salado’s Stagecoach and Restaurant has always been a state landmark. It will soon enter the realm of a monument – the Monument Café, that is. This Friday, the Austin-based management and development company Alexa MGMT will begin what the company calls “breathing new life” and “preserving its pasts historic charm” into the historic eatery that dates back to the mid-19th century. Alexa MGMT assumed management duties last October.
Mosquitoes, booming after recent rains, spurred Bell County railroad growth

May 19, 2024 | tdtnews.com | Patricia Benoit

Who knew that a tiny blood-sucking critter could change the course of history? Mosquitoes throughout history have brought all manner of plagues. In fact, we can thank mosquitoes for the Santa Fe Railway and the creation of Temple, Killeen and other nearby railroad towns. Galvestonians experienced at least nine yellow fever epidemics between 1839 and 1867, thanks to mosquitoes.
Planned interstate expansion echoes past improvement efforts

May 12, 2024 | tdtnews.com | Patricia Benoit

So, here we go again: Interstate 35 is targeted for more construction in the years to come. The Fixing America’s Surface Transportation Act of 2015 authorized a number of roadways to be upgraded nationally to interstate standards and ultimately designated as part of the Interstate 14 system nationally across Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia. Will the madness for asphalt across the countryside ever stop?
Nourishing minds and souls: Black educators excelled amid substandard conditions, funding

May 5, 2024 | tdtnews.com | Patricia Benoit

Tonsetta Green Bouldin’s epitaph in a Lee County cemetery bears mute testimony to her life: “Your legacy of Christian education lives on.”She is among hundreds of black schoolteachers who labored diligently to teach children amid restrictions, scarcity and segregation. Bouldin (1895-1992) recalled her 20 years of teaching at Heidenheimer’s all-black school “a challenge, but I enjoyed every bit of it.
Power shift: Temple exhibit focuses on women in the U.S. Senate

Apr 28, 2024 | tdtnews.com | Patricia Benoit

Women’s place is in the House — and the Senate. Currently on display until May 22 at the Temple Railroad and Heritage Museum, 315 W. Ave. B, is a traveling photo exhibit, “The Changing Face of Power: Women in the U.S. Senate.”The exhibit is timely as Bell County’s League of Women Voters currently is recruiting volunteers for the countywide National Voter Registration Day on Sept. 17, held in conjunction with the Bell County Elections Office.