05/18/2026
A MOM'S DREAM JOB, A MUCH-ADMIRED STUDENT,
AND A NEVER-TOO-LATE FRIENDSHIP
From my earliest childhood, I heard the stories . . . how my mother had to give up her dream role as dual secretary to the Garland High School principal and also to the Garland ISD superintendent when I entered this world, since, after all, no fit mother in the late 1940s was allowed employment with a young child at home.
But that didn’t mean she gave up her attachment to all of her “kids“ that she left behind in stepping away from those roles in earlier Garland and GISD. She would sit with her copy of the high-school yearbook open and point out some of her favorites… Sue, May Beth, Trevlin, and a young man that she held in particular high esteem . . .Pascual Valle. She would turn to the favorites section of the yearbook and show me the Most Handsome senior boy who also happened to be Valentine King and football tri-captain. She pronounced his name Pas-kal Vall-YAY, with an emphasis on the YAY, which I knew reflected her sentiments.
When she took this job in 1946. I don’t believe she held out much hope of ever having children herself, so all of these students truly did become like her adopted children. Then in 1948 through the miracle of actual adoption, a child finally came into her home .
She was a natural at being a mom, but those high-school “kids" that she left behind were never far from her memory. She kept up with them after they graduated, through college, marriage, children, the milestones of life. I could always tell you based on her reports what was going on with May Beth and Sue and Trevlin and some others as she continued throughout the years to see them and their families around Garland.
But long-term, she did not seem to cross paths with Pascual and his family; they seemed not to be part of my mother‘s adult constellation. Garland quickly went from a small town to a big city, with populations spread out; people went separate ways and had varying interests. Additionally Hubby and I moved away, following careers to other parts of the U.S., not returning to Garland until the year 2000. Only then did we start to connect with names and faces that had been a part of my growing-up era 40 years beforehand.
After Hubby was invited to participate in the National Trust for Historic Preservation's Diversity Scholars Program first in Chicago in 2016 and again in Houston in 2017, we became keenly interested in helping under-represented groups in Garland tell their stories also as a part of our interest in historic preservation in Garland. At The Atrium one night we asked local Hispanic leader Tony Torres to point out to us who in the Garland Latino leadership would be appropriate to invite to a focus group at our home where citizens could tell us what places or people they believed in their culture needed to be recognized further in some kind of permanent way.
Tony cited a few names and then gestured across the room, saying, "Of course you absolutely must invite Pascual and Sylvia Valle." He pointed to an elegant, older couple attending the meeting. When I heard the name, I recognized instantly that this was the young man that my mother had so adored from his high school days and had noted to me again and again in that GHS yearbook.
The rest of the story is history. The Valles graciously agreed to attend our luncheon and bring along Pascual's nephew Richard and his wife Denise, who were absorbed in family history as it related to Garland. At the meeting held in October 2017 in our home after a meal, Hispanic leaders poured out their hearts about their desires for greater visibility in Garland in terms of historic preservation as well as political representation. The group was particularly vocal that the Valle family, Garland's first Latinos of record, be further recognized in some sort of way.
We discussed the possibility of a Texas historical marker, but as I heard Pascual and Sylvia's stories of biases toward them as they sought to be hired in the area of education locally, I heard something else as well. I heard a musical drama. The idea began bubbling up in my head. I could see telling their amazing, touching love story and also the stories of their struggles to be fully accepted in our community.
The Valles would go on to become partners in every sense of the word in terms of bringing Latino history to life in Garland. They cooperated with our nonprofit's desire to publish a Garland Latino Heritage Cookbook, which is, by the way, dedicated to them and is also the best-selling book at the Garland Visitors Center. Then later we and our board of Friends of Garland's Historic Magic 11th Street (nonprofit) partnered with the Valles in the creation of "The Cactus Chronicles" musical that focused on telling Pascual's life story and the story of their marriage and their challenges and victories, as well as Pascual's family's story of being the first Latinos in early Garland. It was a partnership that was unexcelled in many ways, but beyond that, it was also the beginning of a very meaningful friendship that has blessed me and Hubby tremendously.
Certainly it’s easy to look back and ask what about the intervening years that we could have known each other and fellowshiped and worked together on other projects, yet one cannot ever begrudge the start of a friendship, no matter at what point in life it begins. Pascual's obituary quotes him as saying, “You’re never too old to set records,” pertaining to his later-in-life hole-in-one golfing success. That could be carried further: "You're never too old to make a new friend." We are thankful for the almost one decade of life that Pascual was actively part of our orbit—inspiring, loving, teaching our grandsons some football maneuvers, watching them swim in his backyard pool, and sharing his wisdom with another generation. Like the Valle family, we and our whole family will miss Pascual deeply.
Plus, in the script of "The Cactus Chronicles" was a scene depicting that GHS front office and the students in 1947 interacting with the school secretary Ms W, just as my mom had described. And portraying her grandmother in that scene was her beloved granddaughter, Katie, standing behind that front office desk and singing a duet with the actor that portrayed Pascual.
My mother had gone on to her reward by the time we reconnected with Pascual, but I enjoy thinking about her recent meet-up in heaven with this one of her prized "kid"s, after he passed away May 13.
I can, with certainty, hear her greeting him with the remark, "Well, it's my old friend Pas-kal Vall-YAY." With special emphasis on the YAY. As always.
