Marsha Wiginton:  

Attended Tuloso-Midway from 5th grade through Feb. of my Jr. year in high school excelling in Mrs. James choir with others like Gary Stone, Roy George. Some of my dearest friends were Karen Sellers, Debbie Johnson, Cindy McCallum, Linda Hennesay, Melissa Hart, Sue Plott, Debbie Henderson, Pat Hull. Later I met Raina Clark and Marcie Ruwaldt. I always thought Debbie Sims could be a model. Lorrie McGuffin was someone who treated everyone so nice, unconditionally. Terri Bright had this bubbly personality like Becky Steinmeyer and Susan Sanderfer. My family attended Arlington Heights Church of Christ. Many Sunday evenings our family hosted the devotional with munchies and worship at our home for the young people. I was fortunate enough to have parents who raised me in the church, were active members in the congregation and supported us children in whatever activities were taking place. The friends we had from church were the Bruces, Polvado's, Wards, Thrailkills, Roy George's family, Larry George's family, the Johnson's, the Ritchey's, Bobby Cheatum's, Jimmy Thisgpen's, Gilleland's, Sprague's, Ward's, the Bill Shrader's family and the list goes on nearly endlessly. How blessed we were to be able to be with such wonderful Christians in the community. Other treasured friends were the Fortners. Deannie, DeAnna and Donna and of course Gary who gave his life for our freedom in the Viet-Nam War. I learned to play guitar by observing the hand movements of my older brother Larry and my cousin Johnny Karstedt. To further my knowledge of the guitar and learn about stage presence I took lessons from Barbara Clawson. I loved going to Clawson's Music Store on Leopard and seeing her band members and Bob Clawson. She had a fantastic steel guitar player, Tommy and later Gary. Connie Myers and I performed at the Naval Festival and different events when we were in Junior High. She has a fantastic voice. Willie Sowersby and I performed among approx 57 other great contestants in the area in the Loretta Lynn's contest when we were 16. I won the 1st runner up position and he was the winner. He went on to Nashville to compete with 20 others for a lifetime recording contract with Decca records. Enjoyed playing guitars with Nancy Manning. Was in hog-heaven when Willie and Don Sowersby, Nancy, Raymond "Mundo" Earwood and I got together at school and played music. Junior year--Proud to be FFA Sweetheart and represent T-M. It was then that I pleaded for assistance from our Home-making teacher Ms. Turpin (the one everyone loved)--to help me in modeling to prep for the next competition. Became 1970 Nueces County Livestock Show Queen and met wonderful people as I represented the County at different events including at the Show Barn,& Joe Cotton's Barbeque, etc. In March the Family transferred to Austin. I attended a very large school Sidney Lanier. Again, I sunk myself into music and was fortunate to walk away with Regional and State honors in solo and ensembles. The music instructor was fantastic at positive approaches, however he was not impressed with the fact that I preferred Country Music. I met musicians from the school Janet who performed week-ends with the "Janet Lynn / Johnny Lyons and the Nu-Notes" band and also "Shirley Hester and the Country Squires" band. It was stiff competition--but fun. Soon I gathered musicians and after practicing, we started performing locally. During my Senior year and several years afterwards we traveled all over Austin, San Antonio, Kileen, and surrounding areas. I went to class 1/2 day and worked as head cashier at Woolco and managed to perform 4 to 7 nights a week. I loved it!! My band had our own TV program that aired during prime time on Saturdays. We taped on Tuesdays and was able to see ourselves perform prior to some of our live performances. I left Austin in 1974 and returned to South Texas. My family started to grow and at the same time I lost 2 of the most important people in my life, my Daddy in 1976 to heart trouble and youngest brother 1979 to a jeep rol...Expand for more