Tommy Dewitt Cole, Sr.
Tommy Dewitt Cole Sr. was born in Linden, Texas on Nov. 1, 1917 and died Sept. 5, 1991. He and his family moved to Greenville during the 1920s. He graduated from Booker T. Washington High School as valedictorian of the class of 1935. After graduation, Cole worked with the St. Paul School District as a PE teacher through the WPA program. He served in the US Army during WWII, achieving the rank of Master Sergeant. In 1945 he married Edith M. Brigham. Cole attended a GI School set up by the government in Greenville and was certified as a tailor. He started his work career as a porter at the old Washington Hotel, then worked as a dye and shoe repairman. He retired after working about 20 years with the Texas Highway Dept. When a summer baseball program was organized in Greenville, he served as the organizer and assistant coach of the Dark Town Tigers Little League Baseball Team. He was a member of the Clark Street Christian Church where he served as a teacher, deacon, elder, preaching elder, board chairman, Treasurer and chorus singer. He also served for a number of years on the Board of Directors of the Cozine Funeral Home Burial Association.
Trig Ward
Trig Ward was born in the Center Point Community of Hunt County on Oct. 3, 1924. He died on July 5, 2009 and was the son of Abe Lorenzo and Elzena Ward. He acquired the name “Trig” as a small child. He attended St. Paul School in Neylandville and later attended Jarvis Christian College. Ward became a member of Center Point Christian Church, where he served as elder and a minister of music.
After leaving college, Ward worked as a rancher on the Burnett Ranch for 30 years. During this time he met and married Clarece Porter. When the ranch closed, he worked for Jackson Furniture Manufacturers for six years. The couple later divorced, and in 1981 he married Kathy Huskey. As the economy started to decline and the furniture plant closed, he was then employed by E-Systems, then Raytheon; and he decided to retire in 1990. While he held down all these jobs, Ward was teaching music in his home and in other locations. At times the student count was more than 110 students at one time. Trig continued to teach music as his health failed. He is remembered for his legacy of playing guitar and teaching music to local residents of all ages throughout his life. Making music on mandolins, fiddles, banjos, organs, saxophones and guitars is a family tradition, which Ward had passed along to thousands of students.
Prior to his death, Ward said it was a persistent mother who convinced him to give lessons to her son. “I started teaching guitar back in the ‘50s,” he said in an interview with the Herald-Banner’s entertainment writer Alice Reese. “One little boy wanted to take lessons and I told his mother that I didn’t have time to teach anybody. I named several guys that I knew who played guitar, but they didn’t want to teach.
“So the mother says, ‘Give him one lesson a week.’ I said that I didn’t have time for that. She said, ‘One lesson a month.’ So I said ‘Okay.’ I was just going to take that little boy, and he was going to be the only one. I started with him on a Monday night. I never will forget; I gave him the one lesson. First thing you know, that little boy had several of his friends playing with him.”
Ward said he began to play music when he was 11 and his father bought him a guitar for Christmas. He was taught by Abe Langston, who worked with his father. After Langston died, Ward put the guitar lessons on hold until he enrolled in Jarvis Christian College in Hawkins, Texas. It was there he met Jacob Bridges, who provided Ward with renewed inspiration.
While he appreciated all kinds of music, Ward said he considered himself to be a country artist. “What I do is country,” he said. “In the time that I came along, that’s what everybody did. I still play a lot of country. I also like to perform the blues. If you’re going to play country, make it sound country. If you’re going to play blues, blues has a little different appeal, so give it a bruised sound.” Ward also formed a country band known as The Rhythm Kings, playing guitar and singing lead. In the early days he was often the only Black person in the building where they were playing. He was also named Musician of the Year in Greenville. Ward’s sons, Donald and James, carried on the family tradition with the local favorite band known as The Blues Doctors.
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