Joe and Martha Bright resident article

Joe and Martha Bright

Joe Herbert Bright was born on Aug. 16th 1933 in Marshall Texas to Audrey and Joe W. Bright. He had two brothers. He grew up  in a north east town called Mineola.

            One of his favorite child hood memories he remembers was when a group of friends had a war with dirt clods from across the street. His friend lived in a duplex across the street from him and one day they decided it would be fun to gang up in two groups and start a war. They used an old baby carriage as a shield.

            When Joe was in eighth grade he came down with Romatic fever and missed the full year of eighth grade. Joe went to high school at Mineola high where he played two years of football.

            He also remembers a time when he worked on a farm picking watermelons. They told him to pick the watermelons and lay them in the aisle so the guy in the truck could come by and pick them up. They told him not to pick ones that would be green inside. So he started to pick a bunch of watermelons and do what he was suppose to but feeling unsure about his choice he asked the guy in the truck to see if he was picking the right ones. The guy cut a few open and found out they were green. So they had to sell them anyway.

            Joe graduated from high school in spring 1950. He furthered his education by attending Tyler Jr. College. He played football for six years, and received his masters in education. He graduated in the summer or 1956. He has two certificates: one in counseling and one for super intendant. He went on to coach for 13 years in Katy Texas. His team won 15 games in 1959 and 9 games in 1958. They were in the playoffs for seven years.

            Martha Jeannine Bright was born on April 14th 1935 in Huston Texas to JD and Martha Cook. She was an only child since her parents divorced when she was only a few weeks old.

            She went to high school at S F Austin which was named after the founder of Texas. She was in the Scottish Brigade, which was a form of drill team. She graduated in 1953 and went to college right after high school. She double majored in Spanish and English and graduated in 1956. Her favorite subjects were Math and English.

            She taught English in a little town west of Huston. One day as she was teaching she went to open her grade book and found a dead rattle snake in the pages. The children had killed it on the playground and decided to play a trick by hiding it for her to find.

            Joe met his Martha at college. She was sitting by some friends when the football players came walking by them. He noticed her right away but found out she was dating someone at the time. They met on a blind date when the man she was dating at the time couldn't make the double date they were going on so they called Joe to fill in. It was at homecoming. They eventually broke up and she started to date Joe. When everyone had to go back to the dorms they would sneak away and he would take her to a hamburger joint called Ben's aka the Blue Room.

            Joe and Martha were married on July 15th 1955 in Huston Texas at the Sam Huston University. They moved into a small apartment while they were still attending college and Joe was helping build the gym. They had three children two boys and a girl. Joe and Martha moved to the Seville on Feb. 10th 2012.