|
Kurth Memorial Library celebrates 75
years.
In
1924, a group of ladies began to collect books to establish
a library in Lufkin. The Ladies Auxiliary of the Chamber of
Commerce purchased a former kindergarten school building on
Ellis Avenue and opened Lufkin’s first public library in
that one room frame building. Mrs. J. W. Hawkins was the
librarian and the library was home to approximately 1,000
books.
In the 1920s, a Lufkin citizen, Joseph H.
Kurth bequeathed $10,000 to the city to be used for
“Lufkin’s greatest civic need”. His sons, J.H., E.L, R.W.,
and Melvin, decided that a library should be erected in
memory of their parents, and a lovely brick building was
erected on Cotton Square. Kurth Memorial Library opened on
January 1, 1933, with Mrs. Ora McMullen as the first
employed librarian, and a book collection numbering
approximately 2,500.
By 1940, the library’s collection had reached
10,250 volumes. As the community grew and library needs
were expanded, the building was added to in 1948 and again
in the 1960s. In 1970, when the original building was in
need of repairs and remodeling which were not feasible, a
fund-raising campaign was started and ground was broken in
1971 for a new building, twice as large as the original
building, in the same location. Major renovations were done
to the building in the mid-1980s.
In the late 1990s, with the library once
again in need of help due to growth and a building in dire
need of repairs, the community once again stepped in to
help. An anonymous donor provided funding to build a new
library at the current location on South Raguet. Ribbon
cutting for this new building was on April 26, 2001.
In 1965, the Lufkin Genealogical and
Historical Society started the genealogy, local and state
history collection known as the “Ora McMullen Room.” Today,
the Ora McMullen Genealogy Room houses the John Wilkins
Collection and attracts people throughout East Texas who
enjoy researching their family heritage. The genealogy
collection includes United States census information in book
form and microfilm from 1850 through 1930 for most counties
in Texas and several southern states, the
Lufkin Daily News
on microfilm from 1913 through 2007, access to online
genealogy research tools such as Ancestry.com and Heritage
Quest, as well as an extensive collection of print resources
that contain data for most states.
On October 1, 2000, the library became a
department of the City of Lufkin, housed within the Parks
and Recreation department. The City is responsible for
staff salaries, utilities and day-to-day operational costs.
The Library Board, consisting of eleven members and two
ex-officio members, is responsible for all books, audio
materials, video materials, computer programs, magazines,
etc. that are purchased for patron use, as well as all
equipment, furniture and educational programming.
Throughout its history, Kurth Memorial
Library has had capable leadership in its librarians and
library directors. Those individuals who have helped the
library become such a success are Mrs. J. W. Hawkins, Mrs.
Ora McMullen, Johnie McCall, Lillian Rutherford, Jimmie
Fisher, Elizabeth Hartmen, Helen Mills, Ryan Alsworth,
Joycelyn Clare, Terri Boomer and the current director, Sue
Randleman. Dedicated staff members have made these people’s
jobs much easier through the years.
Through the years, Kurth Memorial Library has
had tremendous support from the Lufkin community, starting
with the Ladies Auxiliary and including the Kurth family,
and the Lufkin Service League, who kicked off the
fund-raising effort in the 1970s with a generous donation.
Other supporters include the various members who have served
on the Library Board of Directors, the Friends of the
Library and the Angelina County Genealogical Society
throughout the years, the many civic groups and individuals
who have donated time, talents and resources to the library,
and all of the patrons who have enjoyed the library’s
services.
 The
library currently has nearly 32,000 patron accounts and
78,300 items in the collection. The library’s collection
includes separate sections for children’s books, young adult
books, reference and adult books. Special collections
include westerns, science-fiction, mysteries, short stories,
romance and Spanish language materials. There are nice
selections of large-print books, audio books on both
cassette and CD and video materials on both VHS tape and
DVD.
Stop by and help us make this our most
successful year yet. |
|
Charlie Wilson’s War
available at the Library
 The
library now has several copies of George Crile’s Charlie
Wilson’s War, recently released as a motion picture starring
Julia Roberts and Tom Hanks. Charlie Wilson’s War is the
true story of how a Texas Congressman and a rogue CIA agent
conspired to launch the biggest, meanest, and most
successful CIA campaign ever — the operation to fund the
mujahideen in their fight against the Soviet army that had
invaded Afghanistan. This book is now available to check out
in hardcover, paperback and CD versions.
Congressman Wilson also plays a key role in Steve Coll’s
1995 Pulitzer Prize winning book, Ghost wars: the secret
history of the CIA, Afghanistan, and bin Laden, from the
Soviet invasion to September 10, 2001, which provides an
overview of CIA and other covert operations in Afghanistan,
from the Soviet invasion in 1979 through the summer of 2001,
detailing efforts to capture or kill bin Laden and the
failure to stop the events of September 11th. The library
has one hardcover copy of this book available to check out.
Congressman Wilson was born June 1, 1933 in Trinity, Texas,
and currently lives in Lufkin, Texas. He served in the Navy
from 1956 to 1960, and began his political career at the age
of 27 when he was elected to the Texas House of
Representatives in 1961. He served as Texas State Senator
from District 3 (Lufkin) from 1967 to 1973, and was the
Democratic United States Congressman from the Second
Congressional District in Texas from 1973-1996. |
