The 23rd Annual Sabine Hall of Fame will be hosted on Tuesday night, April 26 at St. Joseph’s Hall in Zwolle. Tickets for the gala, which will honor Inductee Edith Jones Palmer, are still available by contacting or dropping by the following locations: Pete Abington’s Office, 1030 San Antonio Ave., Many; Nichols, located at 252 Elizabeth Street, Many; and Robert Gentry’s Office at 605 San Antonio Ave, Many. Tickets are $50 each.
Sponsors of this year’s banquet include Curtis Family Pharmacy, Interstate Building Materials, Nichols, Walsh Timber Co., and Sabine Retirement and Rehabilitation. La. State Senator Louie Bernard of Natchitoches also made a donation for the purchase of a Sabine Hall of Fame banner. Ticket holders and guests are encouraged to arrive at 6 p.m. and immediately be seated. Dinner will be served at the tables beginning at 6:30 p.m. The program will begin promptly at 7 p.m.
Mrs. Palmer will be the sixth woman inducted into the prestigious Sabine Hall of Fame. She follows Catherine Vines Davis, Iva Lea Meshell, Dollie Knippers, Jan Crews Varnado and Linda Curtis-Sparks.
A likeness of Mrs. Palmer and personal information about her achievements will be hung in the foyer of the Sabine Parish Courthouse.
Also being honored Tuesday night will be the following award winners:
--Achievement Award: Otto O. Meyers III, a native of Zwolle, who has built an incredible career with Shell Oil Co. His work has impacted the oil and gas industry. He was born at Fort Polk, Louisiana to Otto O. Meyes Jr. and Yvonne D. Sutton Meyers on Sept. 13, 1958.He was one of three children born to the couple.
He graduated from Zwolle High and earned an athletic scholarship to Grambling State University. He played basketball for the Grambling Tigers from 1981-1983.
Meyers graduated from Grambling State University with a B.A. degree in Chemistry. He also obtained a law degree from Temple University in Philadelphia before being employed as a Research Chemist for Dow Chemical in Midland, Michigan. He also holds several other degrees, using all of his degrees throughout his career.
In all, Meyers was employed by Shell Oil Co. in Houston, Texas from 1991-2013.
In 2014 Meyers was named Executive Dean in the College of Business at Grambling. In 2016 Meyers joined Trilogy Ventures Group, LLC in Houston, where he is currently employed.
Meyers enjoys traveling and has lived in over 50 countries. he is the father of one son, Otto O. Meyers IV. He enjoys working with youth, gardening, working out and reading. He is a Methodist.
--Accomplishment Award: Sisters Siarah and Savannah Hall, who worked fervently to have legislation for judges to follow involving juvenile cases. Legislation was passed and the bill was voted into law, bearing their brother’s name, Solan, who was 13 when he took his life at Ware Detention Center. The girls are the adopted daughters of Shannon and Marion Hall of Many.
--Good Citizen Award: Frances Faust Hopkins, longtime employee of Sabine Medical Center, and widow of the late Rodney Hopkins, (who won this same award several years ago), helped establish Ark-La-Tex Music Show, hosted monthly at the Sabine Theatre. Active in the community, she holds membership in the Many Rotary Club, 911 Board, and the Sabine Council on Aging. She also worked with the Easter Seal Campaign for a number of years. She is a member of Friendship Nazarene Church and is a talented pianist.
--Posthumous Awards: Plaques are being presented to the families of Dr. Warren L. Founds Jr. and Coach Malvin Ogden. Both men made significant contributions to the community.
Dr. Founds, a native of Pennsylvania, earned his medical degree from Tulane University in New Orleans at the age of 40. He was invited to the rural Sabine Parish town of Many by Dr. Swepson Fraser, who needed more help with the building of Toledo Bend Lake and more people moving to the area. Dr. Founds built a healthy practice and even welcomed his son, Greg into the practice. He and his wife, Mary, were the parents of seven. Both were very involved with their children. He was instrumental in building the Many Motocross and enjoyed taking his children to the lake for water sports. He was a pilot and avid woodworker, who along with his sons, restored the Old Many Market in downtown Many. He died at his lake home in July 2017 at the age of 97 years.
Also involved with the youth was the second Posthumous Award winner Malvin Ogden, better known as “Coach”,
A native of Oak Grove, he moved to Many in 1969 as the new Head Football Coach of Many High. He earned his B.S. degree in education from La. Tech and a Master’s Degree in Administration from Northwestern State University. He retired from teaching in 1986 and began a 16-year career at West Sabine High in Pineland, Texas. He retired from teaching after a 40-year career and worked fulltime at Ogden’s Pool Service, installing swimming pools, building in-ground pools, replacing liners, serving pumps and motors and working with anything electrical and plumbing-related. He always employed former football players. During his summers, he enjoyed working with the youth and served as Recreational Director for the town.
He was the father of four daughters from his first marriage and gained three sons when he married Jennie Nichols Malley in 1983.
A member of Calvary Baptist Church, he was active in the Gideons, the La. Baptist Disaster Relief Crew, Operation Christmas Child and taught a men’s Sunday School Class.
He died in the summer of 2018 at the age of 80 years.
--Special Recognition: Two outstanding Sabine Parish natives, Dale Skinner and Mary Bozeman, are being honored for their impact on the youth and citizens of the area.
Skinner is known throughout Louisiana as an outstanding basketball coach, educator, principal and superintendent during his years in education.
A graduate of Belmont High in 1957, he received his B.S. degree in Physical Education and Social Studies in 1963 and his Master’s degree in 1970 from Northwestern State University. He also earned a +30 with studies in Physical Education Administration and Driver’s Education.
He first retired in as principal at Pleasant Hill in 1997 and joined the Sabine Parish Sheriff’s Dept. as a Juvenile Officer. Three years later he returned to coaching and was named principal at Holy Savior Menard Central High in Alexandria.
He was principal at Natchitoches Central High from 2010-2014 when he was named Superintendent of Natchitoches Parish Schools. Health issues in 2020 forced him to retire.
In 2015 he was inducted into the La. High School Basketball Coaches Association Hall of Fame.
The second Special Recognition honoree is a talented actress, who was born in Huntington, Texas in 1932 to a Methodist minister, the Rev. Robert Armstrong Bozeman and Maxie Herrington Bozeman. Her father was killed in an automobile-train collision in Clarence in March, 1940. Following the accident, her mother moved Mary and her three siblings to Belmont.
She graduated from Belmont High School and earned a B.A. degree in Speech and English from Centenary College and a Master’s degree in Theatre from Baylor University in Dallas. She was a member of the Actor’s Equity Association.
A talented actress, she is best known for her one-woman presentation of “Sim, One Night With a Lady Undertaker From Texas”, which the New York Times described as “entertaining, funny, touching Americana.” The comedy was penned by her husband, William Osborn.
Her work includes numerous appearances in New York City theatres, The Nutmeg in Connecticut, The Shreveport Summer Theatre, The Alley in Houston, the Dallas Theatre Center Repertory Company and the Centenary Playhouse in Shreveport.
Following a successful acting career, she and her husband, Bill returned to her roots in Belmont and organized the Sabine Parish Players and Shakespeare in Sabine and for 27 years gave back to the community she loves. Their original production of “A Christmas Carol” ran for 20 years. With her husband by her side, they presented over 30 plays on stage in the Sabine Theatre, Hodges Gardens and the Fisher Opera House over the years.
Mary is the mother of a son, Robert Charles Bozeman Rains, who was a professor at Centenary College. He held a Doctor’s degree in Music. Rains and his wife, Kathline, are the parents of four sons. He is retired from AOL.