Rosa Richkie Lamb has seen some changes take place since she wrote "The History of Gregg County and Longview" in May 1928.

"It's really grown up from the horse-and-buggy days, hasn't it? When I wrote that, there were only four- or five-thousand people in Longview," said Mrs. Lamb, 97, who was a high school senior when she wrote the 12-page report 80 years ago.

"Mr. Speight was my history teacher at Longview High School. He asked me to write it because he knew I loved history," remembered Mrs. Lamb, who turned in her thesis on May 14, 1928.

She moved into Longview's Buckner Westminster Place in April and is selling the south Longview home she and her late husband, Guy, built in 1937.

"This (Buckner) is really nice, but it isn't home yet," said Mrs. Lamb, who is surrounded by family pictures and enjoys watching the antics of birds on the feeder just outside her window.

Mrs. Lamb remains sharp as a tack. She drove her car until two years ago when, she said, "I was asked to quit driving by the state. But it was time."

School teacher

Rosa Richkie was born Feb. 10, 1911, in Longview. Her father, Louis, was a tailor, and mother, Nellie, stayed busy raising Rosa, a sister and two half-brothers. After graduating from LHS in 1928, Rosa attended Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill., graduating in 1932 with a degree in English and history.

She returned to East Texas and taught in the Longview school system for three years.

"I taught at First Ward School in the early days of the oil boom," Mrs. Lamb said. "Longview was growing so fast I had 72 pupils in one class. Some of them had to sit on boxes."

Rosa and Guy, an accountant, married in 1936. The Lambs adopted three children. Son Stephen and daughter-in-law wife Betty live in Longview. Mr. Lamb, who served in the U.S. Army during World War II, died in 2004.

Oh yes, the 1928 history thesis. For her assignment, the young Rosa interviewed several county residents, including O.H. Pegues and Judge R.B. Levy.

She wrote that in the 1870s "Longview was building west, and anyone that dared build east was said to need a guardian, because the town was so very rough. It was dangerous to walk to the (railroad) junction at night, as a person could hardly walk there without being robbed."

'Grown rapidly'

She noted that apparently some early residents thought Gregg County had been named for Rev. Alexander Gregg, an Episcopalian bishop of Texas in the 1860s. (The county was named for Civil War Gen. John Gregg.)

"In the Spanish-American War, Gregg County furnished Company A, Third Texas Infantry," Rosa wrote, noting that the area "has grown rapidly in the past few years.

"The Longview Chamber of Commerce and the location (in 1926) of the East Texas Chamber of Commerce here has helped greatly in making Longview one of the best cities in Texas."

When she wasn't writing theses in 1928, Rosa was busy in various LHS organizations. "I was the football sponsor that school year (of 1927-28). I suppose you'd call it the football sweetheart nowadays," she said. "I had about six football sweaters from the boys. They were a remarkable team. They didn't lose a game."

By the way, a copy of Rosa Lamb's 1928 history can be found in the genealogy room of the Longview Public Library.

Van "Chalk Board" Craddock's e-mail address is vancraddock@sbc.global.net