A former Port Arthur teacher, Alvin J. Walters, 72, returned to Southeast Texas on Saturday as an author working on her fifth book.
The new book will incorporate the life, language, and landscape of Walters’ old Southeast Texas home along with drama and mystery stemming from her family’s history.
Walters was born in Marshall, and graduated from H.B. Pemberton High School and Wiley College. She also obtained a master’s degree from Prairie View A&M University — which she still considers one of the best times of her life.
Growing up, Walters said she loved elementary school. However, as she got older — high school became more difficult as she became more aware of her family’s financial circumstances. Her parents — a homemaker and automobile mechanic — had 14 children.
“We did not have a lot of material things, but we definitely had love,” Walters said.
A few memories stand out for Walters, who remembers competing for homecoming queen, her high school boyfriend and the friendships she built during those formative years.
But one of her fondest memories is of watching her parents, who did not have their high school diplomas or a formal education, using their intelligence and working together to decipher a manual on automobile mechanics in order to get a job done.
“They were active learners and they taught us to love to read,” Walters said.
Even as a small child, Walters also wanted to teach. She would teach her siblings how to read a clock and write. She also felt that she would write.
“I just never could figure out how to make a living writing, so I had to pursue other ways to make a living,” Walters said.
So, she pursued teaching.
Life would take her to Southeast Texas, where she became a teacher at Port Arthur’s Thomas Jefferson High School and Stephen F. Austin High School. She would also meet a man from Beaumont, who she has been married to for 40 years.
“That’s why it is like home to me,” Walters said.
Walters looked forward to seeing old and new faces during a book signing event at Sertinos Café in Beaumont on Saturday, where she said a reader told her that she was hooked by the first page of one of her books. And as her readers turn the last page, her wish is that they walk away gaining something from the experience.
“I hope that they get some enjoyment from it,” Walters said. “That they’ve learned something about themselves and the people that they interact with daily.”
Walters now lives in the Dallas-Forth Worth area, where she retired from the Fort Worth Independent School District in 2011 after 30 years in education.
It wasn’t until her retirement that the time finally became right for her to begin to write.
It all began with Facebook, which connected her to former classmates and friends.
“We would tell each other stories about what was happening in our lives,” Walters said. “My classmate said, ‘you really should write a book.’”
“Then, I wrote a book,” she added with a laugh.
The first book, Secrets of the Groves, was set in the 1930s. The book was originally going to be based on a true story about her grandparents and their nine children. But as she started writing, she found it difficult to write and talk about. She also felt like it was not her story to tell with consideration to relatives who are still living.
She instead published the nonfiction story based on her family in 2015.
“The quiet, sleepy bedroom community of Clover Grove has existed for decades as a haven for family life and traditions,” the book’s back cover reads. “The Dust Bowl, The Great Depression, the ending of World War I and the world on the brink of a new war brings changes to this somber community.”
Walters thought she was done. Her readers had other plans.
“They read the book and said, ‘you can’t leave us here,’” Walters said.
It became the first in a series “loosely based on family history.”
Whispers Among the Willows became the second book, followed by Runnels Creek: Where is Home, and Old Men and Sycamore Trees.
The fourth book, which is based on her grandfather, has been the most difficult book for her to write so far because of challenges outside of the household. Walters said two of her siblings were diagnosed with cancer and came to stay with her. She postponed her book to focus on family.
She recalled the advice of a late friend and classmate whose motto was “if you want to write—you will.”
“He would tell me, ‘get off Facebook and write,’” Walters said. “‘Bad writing is better than no writing. You can always go back and edit it.’”
Now that the fourth one is finished, Walters has shifted her attention to working on her fifth book, which is expected to be set in the 1970s through 1980s.
The book will tribute parts of her life that she cherishes, like the Southeast Texas cuisine and culture from her time here, but will also incorporate the tragic loss of her sister Myrtle Hudson and her daughter Willette.
The two were murdered in their Port Arthur home on Sept. 11, 1986. The cold case went unsolved for over 20 years.
Finally, in 2000, detectives assigned to the case were able to use DNA evidence to tie Tommy Lee Stewart, who confessed to the double slaying. He was sentenced to life in prison.
“It took so long to find out who did it,” Walters said. “That will be part of that book.
“Tragedy, delightful people. People who live on the swamps. All of that is going to be included in it.”
meagan.ellsworth@beaumontenterprise.com
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2021-08-29 00:18:01Z
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