Keeping up with the Thorndale Exes

Another good week among our exes. But, we lost another one of our classmates this week and a dear friend. If you attend Homecoming and if these obituaries have pictures with them, we display them for you interest and love of our exes. Our condolences to the family of Howard Louis Biar, Class of 1960 of Pflugerville, who passed away Dec. 31, 2018. There was a nice picture of him with his obituary and we know he will be lovingly missed by many. We received a surprise e-mail from Johannes Christian Luther, Class of 1986, of Stuttgart, Germany. He wrote that he was on the football team with Wayne Leschber, Class of 1989, and on the basketball and tennis teams, too. He was an exchange student and didn’t have the opportunity to get a graduation ring before he returned home. He would like to order one and was asking how to go about it. He is now Dr. Johannes Luther and we congratulate him on that. I forwarded his e-mail on to the high school and hope they can help him. I also replied to him. If you would like to contact him, give me a call or e-mail and I’ll pass on his e-mail address. Our condolences go out to the family of exes mom Clara Schwab Roepke who passed away Jan. 3, 2019. We know she will be missed by her family and friends. Thanks to exes mom and Clara’s sister, Ruby Schwab Unnasch, for calling to let us know this sad news although Clara had been sick for a while. And to Jennifer Patschke Fisher, Class of 1970, for an e-mail heads up. Couldn’t do without these exes to keep us informed. There was a nice picture of the four Justices of the Peace of Milam County being sworn in on New Year’s Day morning. And among the four was our Gary Northcott, Class of 1973. Our congratulations to all of them. Had my New Year’s call from dear friend Bette Lee Graham Youngblood, Class of 1954 of Cameron. She still works every day in the library at Cameron schools. I think she is about ready to slow down a bit, but she’s still a whirlwind. She never fails to take cake or cookies and have coffee with her little rest home family every Saturday evening. Busy lady. We had a really cute e-mail from Tregg and Lou Towery, Class of 1955 of Waco, to wish us a “New Year “”B”” 100 percent better than the past one. Then he attached the following funny: People say that drinking milk makes you stronger. Drink five glasses of milk and try to move a wall. Can’t? Now drink five glasses of wine. The wall moves all by itself. Many thanks, Tregg, for the wish and funny. Love those exes. 100 Years Ago: Pvt. Jamie Clark, in a letter home noted: “A French soldier will always offer you a drink of wine from his canteen, which he carries in his canteen instead of water, but he will expect a sack of Bull Durham in return.”

(Do you remember Jamie? He was our neighbor when I was in high school.) Many thanks to the Rockdale paper for this interesting tidbit. Remember: Send your news to the Thorndale Champion. Their e-mail address is tdchamp@cameronherald.com or you can call them at

(254) 697-6671. This history/genealogy of the Moerbe family was loaned to us with thanks to Vernetha Brandt Moerbe, Class of 1950. It was researched and written by the late Bill Biar, Class of 1937. He did a lot of his research while in service in the Army when he was stationed in Germany from 1945-47. He had the advantage of the knowledge of the German language. Bill was born in 1919 in Thorndale and his maternal grandfather Carl August Moerbe was 59 years old and his grandmother Ernestine Moerbe, nee Michalk was 56. They lived south of Thorndale and Bill’s family lived about two miles north of town. It was the end of the horse and buggy days and Bill’s father, Otto Biar bought a Model T Ford during the 1920s and his grandfather drove a huge touring Studebaker. Bill’s mother was Lydia Moerbe Biar and her father was C. August Moerbe. Bill married his wife, Stefana Todt, in Germany in 1947. They lived in Denver from 1968 until his passing. Bill was the eighth child in his family and his Moerbe grandparents had 27 grandchildren. He never heard his grandmother Ernestine Michalk Moerbe, speak English. She was born in 1862 in the tiny village of Sandfoerstgen, Silesia, which at that time was Prussia but since 1990 is in Saxony, Germany, and later they moved to Baruth, Saxony. In 1879 at the age of 17, she accompanied her brother, Ernest and wife who were immigrating to Texas. She came to visit her brother Johann Carl Michalk who came in 1859 at age 17 whom she had never met as he emigrated before her birth. She never returned to Germany because of severe seasickness on the voyage to Texas. In 1883 she married Carl August Moerbe. This will be continued for several more weeks. Hope you enjoy the start of the Wendish who came to Texas, weathering the storms, seasickness and death on the voyages over. We can be found on the web at www.thorndale.txed.net or you can e-mail locojo@austin.rr.com. You can call 512-898-2072 or you can write to Thorndale Ex-Students Association, P. O Box 393, Thorndale, TX 76577. We love to hear from our exes.