Donna “DR” Stiller
Born a military brat at Moody AFB in Valdosta, Georgia, I spent the next 18 years moving from town to town and state to state (GA, AL, AK, DE, CO, NC, FL, TX), and school to school….12 schools in 12 years! It was in the last year of high school that I landed in San Antonio, Texas. I have loved Texas ever since!
I attending Southwest Texas State University in San Marcos, and graduated with my much anticipated degree in Education and History. My first teaching job (at age 21!) was 4th grade at Kieberger Elementary in Aransas Pass, Texas. Surviving two years there, I traveled to Van Horn in 1979~~to get away from it all!! I taught 4th grade and had a wonderful time! I loved West Texas, loved teaching the kids of the community, and made some life-long friends in the process!! It would be three years later that I left teaching to work for a real estate developer in Rockport, Texas.
F ive years of private business and business travel went by quickly, but the call of teaching was strong (and the real estate market in the 90’s not so much!)…I returned to the classroom after a five year hiatus to take a job teaching 5th grade at Live Oak Elementary in Rockport. Again, making life-long friends and teaching some really great kids! But, being a military brat, the itch to move remained strong….so another move was in the cards!
In 1991, I moved to San Antonio to begin teaching other military brats at Lackland AFB! Seems I found my place, because I have been here ever since (just finishing my 25th year!!), teaching every subject in grades 4-6 as well as teaching math and now history to 7th and 8th graders!
Today, I am the department chair for the Social Studies department of Stacey Jr/Sr High School here at Lackland, but I am counting the days! After starting my teaching career the day Elvis died in August of 1977, I will be retiring next June 2017!! All that will rule me then is a tee time!
Ronee Rowe Bickle
I left Van Horn in 1991 to move to Odessa Texas. Driving out of Van Horn, leaving the wonderful friends and family I had known most of my life, was one of the most difficult days of my life. I worked at several large salons in Odessa for 20 years and made many new, life long friends there, but living in a much larger city made me appreciate the small town atmosphere of Van Horn, where my sons Jason and Scott Bickle, as well as my daughter, Kimberlie Arlene Cardona grew up. My daughter completed high school in Odessa and attended college in there before joining the Air Force. Kim is currently serving on active duty in Japan.
I retired 5 years ago and live in a small town near Fort Worth , called Springtown. I love my three grandchildren and all my extended family. Lakeside Church of God is our church family and I am enjoying life to the fullest. Right now, we are in Salem, Oregon, where the beauty is beyond words, so I call it God’s coloring book. I am so grateful for everthing the good Lord has provided in my life and for all my family and friends, including the lifelong ones from Van Horn.
