Published: June 20, 2008 10:30 am      

Crown passed from Howell to Howell

For the first time in Duncan’s Founder’s Day history, Queen Howell will be succeeded by Queen Howell.

Ella Mae Best Howell, last year’s queen, has not been re-elected for another term, and this year’s queen, Loretta Lewis Howell, is not related to her, but the Founder’s Day coronation looks to be “howell-ing” good fun as one Howell passes the crown on to another.

Loretta Howell, who turns 91 on June 27, was nominated by her family for her tenacity, energy and vitality, and love for her family, friends and community throughout her lifetime.

Her son, Kent Howell, said the family tried to keep their nomination of her a secret, but at the very end, had to ask her for some information.

“We couldn’t remember it all, but she did,” he said. “When the museum called and told us she had been chosen and we told her, she was real excited about it. Just tickled to death. She had to call all her friends and tell them about it.”

At the coronation ceremony at 10 a.m. Saturday in the Antique Marketplace Tea Room, there will be a large contingent of the new queen’s family and friends on hand.

Born in 1917 in Decatur, Texas, Loretta was the fourth of Boon Butler Lewis’ and Emma Ivie Shaw Lewis’ nine children. In 1922, the Lewis family traveled by covered wagon to the Duncan area, settling in the Rock Creek Community, where they farmed.

The next year, a tornado destroyed their home, but family members survived by taking shelter in an old dirt cellar. They relocated to the Woodlawn Community, and the children attended Claud School. In 1924, they moved to 320 S. Eighth in Duncan, where they lived for many years, the nomination related.

Loretta married Leo Howell on Sept. 16, 1933. They had been married 61 years at the time of his death in 1994. In the early years of their marriage, they lived on the corner of Second and Cedar, then later built a home at Cedar and B, where they raised their four boys: Jerry, Wayne, Kent and Larry. Leo Howell developed the Howell Housing Additions on the east side of Duncan between Second and D streets. The family also raised milk cows and chickens, selling and delivering milk in quart glass bottles and fresh eggs to customers each week.

In 1951, the family built a new home on West Beech Avenue.

Loretta Howell led a busy life, raising her children, taking care of the house and serving as a Boy Scout den mother. She and her husband were also members of a square dance club during those years. She loved to square dance and she and Leo and their friends gathered in each others’ garages at night to dance to “do-si-do and promenade to their hearts’ content,” Kent Howell’s nomination said. Howell also was a member of a Bunko club for several years, enjoying the camaraderie of her friends, but playing to win.

Life was not always easy for the family, however. In 1955, Leo Howell sustained a broken back in a car accident that left him unable to work for several years. Always feeling the duty to work when work needed doing, Loretta Howell stepped up and worked to help support her family. She worked as a housekeeping supervisor at the old Physicians and Surgeons Hospital, then located on Beech, until 1975.

In 1975, she contracted with First Bank & Trust Co. of Duncan to handle its janitorial services, a position she still holds at the age of 91. In addition, Howell cleans several other offices in her “spare time.”

“She’s always working,” Kent Howell said Tuesday morning. “In fact, she’s working right now. There’s not many people who can keep up with her. I know I can’t. She’s worked all her life. She mowed her own lawn until fairly recently. She still doesn’t want anyone to do much for her.

“She’s got five black Angus momma cows and six baby calves. We sold some recently. I can go buy the feed, but she insists on feeding them. Every morning, when she gets up, she feeds them before she eats. She has a coffee can she fills with cake (a commercial cattle feed) and gives each of them a can or two of cake. She says she enjoys spoiling them.”

Besides loving to work, Loretta Howell enjoys bowling and is in a bowling league. She also likes to bake cakes and pies to share with others. She is a member of Ray of Hope Church.

Two of her sons, Jerry and Larry, are now deceased. The family grew to include 10 grandchildren, one of whom is also deceased, and 11 great-grandchildren, to whom she is lovingly devoted. She has a sister, Ruby Ballard, and a brother, M.J. “Mutt” Lewis.

In nominating his mother for Founder’s Day queen, Kent Howell wrote, “Loretta loves to work, loves her family, and is always finding someone to care for or help in some way. For all these reasons, we feel she is the epitome of all the characteristics that exemplify someone who deserves to be named Founder’s Day queen for 2008, for this lady is a ‘queen’ in her own right.”