Wayne Havens

The following Article appeared in the Childress Index-Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Wayne Havens was recently awarded the 2008 John F. Lott "Distinguished Citizen Award. The annual award is given by the South Plains Council of Boy Scouts of America.

Havens, A Childress native, graduated from Childress High School in 1963 and earned his bachelors and masters degrees from Texas Tech University. In 1974, he joined Thompson Junior High School in Lubbock, Texas as a teacher and coach After more than thirty years in LISD and forty years as an educator, Havens is now the superintendent of the Lubbock I.S.D. He doesn't spend quite as much time in the classroom, but his heart has never gotten far from the students he continually seeks to serve in every part of the school district.

He was an original board member of the North and East Lubbock Community Development Corporation. His volunteer service is expansive and includes advisory boards for Success by Six, Habitat for Humanity, Science Spectrum, the South Plains Workforce Development Project, and Lubbock Chamber of Commerce, among others. He is on the United Way board and is the 2008 campaign chairman.

Respected by his colleagues across the state, Havens has received several educator awards from professional organizations and was named a Distinguished Alumnus of Texas Tech University, Senator Robert Duncan selected him for his public education advisory group.

In May, Havens will receive the community champion award from the North and East Lubbock Community development Corporation.

Over the past decade, Havens has served on over 30 boards, committees, and organizations. Success by 6 Leadership Council, and a team captain for the March of Dimes Walk America. Havens credited the Scouts as "one of the last strongholds that teach young men what's right and what's wrong."

Havens and his wife, Gina, are actively involved at Calvary Baptist Church and have two grown sons, Brad and Kelly, and four grandchildren.

Sharon Molloy Kelley

In 1960, between my freshman and sophomore year, I moved from Spokane, Washington to Childress and became a part of the Childress High School sophomore class. My freshman class in Spokane was bigger than the entire enrollment of CHS. What an adventure! I loved being a part of Childress High School, the teachers, the friends, the clubs and being an office assistant. In my senior year, I met and fell in love with Billy Smothermon, who graduated in 1959.We married late in 1963 and in 1967 our first son, Dean was born. In 1973 our son, Kevin, was born. We were so happy. We thought we had the rest of our lives together and planned as though we did. However, in July of 1980, my sons lost their father and I lost my best friend. The boys were 13 and 6 years old. What a journey lay ahead for us. By God’s grace we made it, mostly fun, some difficult times, but always interesting. I worked as a beautician, in a dress store, managed S & H Green Stamps, was a church secretary and then went to work for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (finally a job with benefits!!)

In 1995, with both boys graduated from Texas Tech, I moved with the prison system to Lubbock. I turned 50 that year, sold my house in Childress, bought a house in Lubbock, started a new job, found a great church and new friends and sadly lost both of my parents.
Whew!! I didn’t have time for a mid life crisis!!. I loved everything about Lubbock except the traffic. And I thought I was settled into life as it would always be!

In 2000, I got a call from my old high school sweetheart, Ray Kelley. We had “gone steady” the last part of my sophomore year until he moved to Midland to become a draftsman for the oil companies. Sadly, Ray’s first wife, Comilla, died of cancer after they had been married 37 years. Ray’s family and I had always been friends and his sister told him I was still single. Ray called me and it was as though we had only talked a couple of weeks before. It was such a natural thing, I new after the first “date” that I wanted to be with him always. I had been single TWENTY YEARS and missed having a mate. Ray and I married in 2001, he is my best friend, our families are combined, we now have Dean, from Nashville, Kevin and his beautiful wife, Jennifer and the joy of our lives, our granddaughter Claire Elise, from Abilene, our beautiful daughters, Monica Kelley and Katrina Kelley McMullen, her fun and talented husband Courtland all from the Dallas area. I no longer think that this is the way life will always be, I just sit back and wait for what God has in store for us. It is always so much better than I could ever imagine!