Correction, Sept. 19, 2025, 11:43 a.m. Central: An earlier version of this story misstated the background of Willie F. Williams. He is a Waco ISD educator and cousin of former La Vega ISD Coach Willie Williams.
East Waco’s rich history includes proud educational institutions, a deadly tornado and musical excellence.
East Waco community members and Historic Waco highlighted those stories this week during a panel at Lee Lockwood Library and Museum.
“We wanted to make sure that the stories that were being told were being told by the people who actually lived through a lot of this history (and) saw a lot of the change happen,” said Historic Waco Executive Director Erik Swanson.
Vivian Rutherford, Ron Carter, Debra Bishop, Gigi Green, Willie F. Williams Jr. and Horace J. Maxile Jr. gave presentations about the history of East Waco. They highlighted churches, schools and entertainment places such as Walker Auditorium, a mid-century Clifton Street hotspot for touring rhythm and blues acts.
“Walker Auditorium gave folks in Waco, Texas, especially Black folks, a place to dance, to love, to laugh, a sense of hope while we gain a consciousness of justice and to remember that even in the shadow of segregation,” Carter said during the presentation. “We could shine while celebrating the culture, our own culture, on our own terms.”
A brush with death
Debra Bishop recalled how she was cleaning her grandmother’s belonging when she came across a letter she wrote in the aftermath of the 1953 tornado.
Bishop’s grandmother was working at the R. T. Dennis Company on May 11, 1953. Her shift was from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.. However, she did not leave work until 4:39 p.m.. When she opened the back door to leave, she could not see out the corner of Fifth Street or Austin Avenue. By the time she left work, it was raining hard.
Without an umbrella, she headed outside and caught the Paul Quinn bus. The tornado struck as the bus crossed the river bridge, and people were screaming as poles, lumber, tarpaper flew around them. The bus driver continued on, and Bishop’s grandmother was able to make it to safety at the H-E-B on Elm Street, now the East Waco Library.
“If I had stayed 12 minutes longer in R. T. Dennis Co. I would have been like the rest of my friends there,” Bishop read from the letter. Twenty-two people died when the five-story building collapsed that day.
Educational legacy
Willie Williams Jr., a G. W. Carver Middle School physical education teacher, grew up in East Waco. As the son of Paul Quinn College alumni, Williams learned the importance of education from his parents.
Carver Middle School stands on the site of the former Carver High School, which opened in 1956 as La Vega ISD’s segregated Black school for all ages. Carver was closed in 1970 as part of court-ordered desegregation efforts, and that part of East Waco was incorporated into Waco ISD. Waco ISD later acquired Carver and the building was used for various purposes.
“East Waco has some of the greatest educators of all time,” Williams said. “I’m not just talking about my parents, but these educators would take us into their homes … and we learn from all these men who took the time to see about young people and to see about us, and that’s why I’m back in Waco. I have a zeal for being back home.”
A mighty voice
Waco native Jules Bledsoe, a baritone who debuted in the original Broadway production of “Show Boat”, was also a composer. While looking through archives, Maxile , an associate music theory professor at Baylor University, was able to find music programs from Bledsoe’s early performances, in which he is identified as Julius Lorenzo Cobb Bledsoe.
Bledsoe was a piano major at Bishop College, a Black institution then based in Marshall. In the earliest program from Bledsoe, he is listed as a pianist playing at an auditorium on Bridge Street. Maxile believes he likely played on a grand piano.
“All the access that he had prior to 1925 in Central Texas to halls and instruments, speaks to his musicianship,” Maxile said. “And it also speaks to his standing in the community, with regards to the amount of trust and respect that he had with regard to his abilities as a pianist, and we just don’t know that side.”
Bledsoe was likely influenced by the tradition of Harry Burleigh – an American composer and singer – to conclude programs with spiritual arrangements he made.
“That tradition kind of boiled over and spilled over into the work with Jules Bledsoe and other Black singers,” Maxile said. “I think Jules Bledsoe as a composer is a really interesting story. And Jules Bledsoe as a pianist is a really interesting story. Jules Bledsoe as an entrepreneur is a very interesting story.”
