Betty Caudle

 February 28, 2002 

What a walk down memory lane! For anyone who grew up in River Oaks, the North Side, Sansom Park or many adjoining areas, Caudle’s Drive-In was the ultimate hang-out for teens, a place where parents knew their kids were safe. (Don’t think for a minute that adults didn’t eat there also.) As River Oaks Area Historical Society President Mary Earwood said, it was the place to be on the Boulevard. That’s why it was such a treat to hear Betty Caudle, one of the original owners, speak for the February meeting of the society. To further bring back those days, ROAHS Vice President/Program Chairman Linda Claridge decided to enhance our memories by serving root, beer in glass mugs like the Caudles did. She and Sherri Dast and Shirley Bloomfield kept our glasses full during the meeting. 

Betty had told Linda Claridge that she was not a public speaker and preferred that River Oaks resident, good friend and fellow church member, Ken Parnell, tell some of her history, which he did in a very interest­ing way. 

We learned that Betty Caudle moved to River Oaks in 1945 with her parents, Staton and Freda Vaught McCrory and purchased a home on Lawrence Street. The McCrorys were very active, in the River Oaks area and Mr. McCrory was the first city secretary in River Oaks. The family also owned and operated the first air conditioned restaurant on River Oaks Boulevard, the San Mar Restaurant, which many of us remember. 

In 1946, Betty and her parents began worshipping with other Presbyterians in the area who wanted to build a church in River Oaks. The Interstate Theater Company graciously in­vited the congregation to use the River Oaks Theater for their 11 a.m. Sunday service. They did this for about two years until John Knox Presbyterian Church was completed. Laborers were scarce because of World War II, so Betty volunteered her services while the church was being built. She enjoyed working with woods and saws and could hammer nails as well as her male co-workers. 

It was not long till Betty met Homer Caudle and they became engaged and were married on Oct. 19, 1947. They had a wonderful, loving relationship broken only by Homer’s death on Christmas Eve of 1988. They worked tirelessly in the church. Homer was an elder and also sang in the choir faithfully for 40 years. Betty was involved in all areas of the church and taught Sunday School for several years. As Betty had reminisced with Ken about those years, she told of her upstairs classroom and the windows having to be open on hot Sunday mornings. Her class of boys would tease her and pretend they were going to climb out the window. She remembered that one of those boys was Bobby Schieffer, son of River Oaks residents Gladys and John Schieffer. Bobby is now quite well known as a national newscaster for CBS and of course, his younger brother, Tom, was the president of the Texas Rangers Baseball Team. Several of us in the room including myself, remem­bered Bobby because we went to school with him at North Side High School in the ‘5Os. 

For many years, Homer and his brother, Claude, were in the grocery business. During their partner­ship, they had three stores. The first one was on River Oaks Boulevard and it was called Caudle Brothers Food Market. They sold all kinds of gro­ceries, vegetables and meats. The brothers were known for carrying the highest quality of meat and people came great distances to purchase it. After sev­eral years, Homer decided to retire from the grocery business. Betty’s devotion and unwavering commit­ment were challenged when two weeks into his re­tirement, he announced that he had just purchased a drive-in restaurant (located where Church’s Chicken is today.) This was in 1956. It became Caudle’s Drive-In, a place that was known throughout the State of Texas for its great hamburgers and its root beer in frosted mugs. Ken said that Caudles not only served good food in the area, they also offered warmth, wisdom and generosity of spirit. They were like mother and dad to many customers and employees who needed a listening ear. Many teenagers in River Oaks got their first job at Caudle’s Drive-In. Homer had a warm, infectious smile, but was known to teach strict business ethics to those who worked for him. 

During seven of those years, Betty worked for Dr. George Jewell at the Jewell Clinic right across the street, and during the lunch rush at the Drive-In, she would run across the street to make hamburgers. She became fast friends with Mrs. George (Lavonia) Jewell and they have remained friends for all these years. Mrs. Jewell came to the meeting and sat at the head table with Betty. (An interesting sidelight to Betty’s story is that Lavonia served as nurse in her husband’s clinic till he passed away about 20 years ago and she has been working since that time, 10 hours a day at John Peter-Smith Hospital for a group of doctors. She is 84 years young.) 

As Ken ended his talk and members of ROAHS began to ask Betty questions, she decided she could feel comfortable talking to such a friendly group and began to share some more stories. She told us about the restaurant that she and her parents owned before she married. A lunch was 65 cents and included all the rolls you could eat, a dessert and a drink. She said they ordered all their seafood from Broad Street in New Orleans and fried the best shrimp you ever put in your mouth. Moving on to the days of the Drive-In, she agreed that she and Homer had “raised” a lot of kids in River Oaks and told us that many times, a parent would call and ask if one of their kids was there. Homer would go outside and walk down the row of cars to find the teen and tell him that his mother wanted him to come home. They particularly parented their car-hops and wouldn’t let them wear heavy make-up or shorts. They always had to dress in what Betty and Homer called appropriate attire. 

Betty told us about the almost unbelievable amounts of root beer they would make each day, especially in the summertime. She said they would mix four gallons of concentrate and 110 pounds of sugar in a huge vat and sometimes would mix as many as four vats a day. She said nearby businessman and long­time River Oaks resident Corky Makarwich, would come in each morning and buy three gallons of rootbeer to take over to his office. She also told of Merle and Paul Bradley being frequent customers. One day Betty and Homer were painting the inside of the store and the Bradleys came in and Merle insisted she was hungry even if they were painting. She fixed herself something to eat and they all sat on top of the ice-cream freezers while they ate. These were the freez­ers where they stored the root beer mugs to keep them frosted. 

Betty said the crowds loved their chili dogs as well as their hamburgers and after being in the gro­cery business, Homer only bought the highest quality of hot dogs and chili. Betty would mix 10 pounds of the chili at a time in their kitchen at home and then take it to the Drive-In. They did everything the old fashioned way including chopping all their own onions and lettuce and peeling and cutting potatoes for french fries. The time finally came when it was harder to get car-hops and times were not as safe as they once had been. It was in 1980 when they de­cided to really retire. The Star Telegram and other newspapers had covered their Drive-In and praised its food through the years. Another life-long River Oaks resident, Frank Schramm, bought the business and ran it for several years. The building was later bull­dozed. It was truly the end of an era for the people who had been not only customers, but a special kind of family. 

The audience interacted, asked questions and told stories. River Oaks Police Lieutenant Avin Carter told of working as a teen in the Caudle’s Grocery Store and that they were like second parents to him. He also collected coke bottles as a child and sold them at the grocery store. Dub Ray told of the time in the mid ‘50s when he and his dad owned a grocery store in the area and his dad had a heart attack and Dub had to shut down the store for a few days. The Caudles came and got all their fresh meat and vegetables and sold them for the Rays, to avoid a huge loss. This was just one example of the caring hearts of the Caudle Family. 

It was obvious as Betty talked, just how much she misses her husband. They had one daughter, Sandra Kays, who lives in Hurst, three grandchildren, one of whom is a Presbyterian minister, and one great-grandchild. 

Betty still lives in River Oaks, is still active at church and in the community. She has recently spent many hours, along with other women of the church, using her artistic talents to make beautiful banners for the sanctuary of John Knox Presbyterian Church. As Ken said and we all agree, River Oaks can take pride in the legacy of commitment and compassion of the Caudles and the McCrorys. 

Around the Town by JoAnn Dennis