Appian Way Trivia

Following is a collection of newspaper articles, published primarily in the Dallas Morning News over the past 60 years, relating to events, features and stories on Appian Way. If you have any additional stories or photographs of the time, please drop us a note and we will be happy to include your material.

Burglar Receives Meal as Police Come After Him (1933)

“Couple Nab Youth Rifling Home but Give Him Farewell Dinner - An 18-year old youth locked behind bars in the city jail early Monday morning confided to arresting officers that he had at last found two persons in the world with kind hearts and forgiving natures. He had been caught late Sunday night in the act of robbing the residence of R.A. McDaniels, 106 Appian Way, Oak Cliff. When Mr. and Mrs. McDaniels returned to their home after having been away all evening they noticed a light burning in a rear room and a side door, which should have been locked, standing open. Proceeding cautiously Mr. McDaniels surprised the boy in the act of rifling a bureau drawer. He grabbed him and told his wife to call police. The youth made no resistance but pled that he be given some food. He said that he was weak and almost to collapse from starvation. When police arrived they found their prisoner seated at the McDaniels kitchen table eating a hearty meal. He had consumed four fried eggs, a quantity of bacon and a quart of milk, all prepared for him by Mrs. McDaniels. The officers awaited until the boy had eaten his fill then brought him to jail for safe keeping. He told the officers that he lived in Beaumont”. (© Dallas Morning News, June 26, 1933, Sec. II, p. 6)

Burglars Pay Fifth Visit to Home in Month (1936)

"Southern hospitality at H.W. Stanley's home at 119 Appian Way was wearing a bit thin Wednesday night when he came home to find his place had been entered by burglars for the fifth time in the last month. His home was entered April 23, 26, May 7, 8, and then again Wednesday when someone broke a pane in the front door and stole three tins of tobacco, a carton of cigarettes and a pint of whisky. (© Dallas Morning News, May 21, 1936, Sec. II, Page 1)

Madame Margarita Barry-Orlova (1939)

Madame Rita (or Gita) Barry-Orlova was guest of Mrs. E.R. Schoen, 321 Appian Way where she resided during the production of "As You Like It" at the Dallas Little Theater in 1939. A Californian by birth, Madame Barry-Orlova, lyric tragedienne, dramatic recitalist, lecturer and author was educated at the London University and the Sorbonne. She played with Paul Cazeneuve in France in such tragic roles as Monna Vanna and Francesca da Rimini. In London she appeared with Sir Herbert Tree and Sir George Alexander in the works of Shakespeare, including "As You Like It", in which she played Rosalind. She was presented at many of the courts of Europe. Before the war, she formed her own company and toured Europe. In Russia she met and married a Russian nobleman, and stayed there for the duration of the war.

During the revolution, she was a surgical nurse in the grand ballroom of the Tzar, which at that time had been converted into a hospital. Returning to America, she played with William A. Brady in New York and appeared for four years in John Colton's Shanghai Gesture. She followed this with several motion pictures under the direction of J. Stuart Blackton, and has had her own little theater group for out-door productions in California and New Jersey, specializing in Shakespearean works. Among her published works, a book dealing with the visit of John Paul Jones at the Court of Catherine the Great; The Unbarred Highway, a morality play dramatizing The Seven Valley of Bahaullah and first produced in London in 1937, and The Sun Arises, a story of Persia.

A Distinguished Service Cross for Mom (1945)

By Kenneth Foree Jr. - Out at 321 Appian Way in a big stone house on a wooded knoll, three women are fighting a home-front battle that should beacon the way for thousands of others. On a weekend they have entertained thirty-five servicemen with twenty-one spending the night. From Christmas, when a guest book was started, through Sunday they had furnished beds for 197 of Uncle Sam's men. They haven't eaten meat in moons, saving their red points for boys far from home, and on Saturday nights two of them welcome and feed fighting men the whole night through while the third retires to get an early start on the huge Sunday breakfast and dinner. And not a thin dime has it cost any soldier or sailor! "Journey's End," the place was named by one tired boy, who added wistfully: "I've been lookin' for this all my life." Captain at Journey's End is Mrs. E.R. Schoen (pronounced Shayn) who has turned her beautiful home into a private branch of the USO. Dignified and gray, she has the presence of a motherly diva of 53. Indeed she was a protégé of Schumann-Heink and a concert singer until illness halted her career. Her aides are tallish, gray Miss Eva Haynes, Trinity Heights schoolteacher, and a little Miss Lois Johnston, government employee, and sister of Capt. Clark E. Johnston, famed early-day Burma flier. To feeding and caring for boys far from home like her son, First Lt. Ernest A. Schoen, bomber pilot in England, she devotes her entire income, and her two aides tithe and add to the pot. Boys eat, Uncle Sam's particularly, but few of them before have had such meals that at Journey's End equal the surroundings. "My God," ejaculated a startled Mexican boy at seeing a platter of biscuits as large as a warrior's shield. And a homesick farm boy, viewing the first of five huge loaves of home-made bread Mrs. Schoen bakes each week end, said with nostalgic awe, "I haven't seen home-made bread since, since..." Then there are things such as home-made ice cream, cake, jams and jellies, home-canned black-eyed peas, six dozen home-made rolls, and roast chicken. "And butter," significantly added a soldier with a flock of battle stars on his ribbons. "And butter," affirmed his buddie. "Honest-to-God butter," whose richness is increased by cream whipped into it. Before each meal starts the rich, musical voice of Mrs. Schoen begins, "Our Father who art in Heaven..." Misses Johnston and Haynes join in and by the time they reach "Thy Kingdom come" most of the dough foots are in unison. Boys, who never ate breakfast before, at Journey's End down three to four eggs, sheaves of bacon, pots of coffee. The beautiful secluded home to which come few noises but the breezes murmuring in the oaks is part of it. The remainder is, as Sgt. Mario di Silvestro of Cleveland, Ohio, wrote, "The Home Away From Home." "There is no place in the world like it," said two weary RAF boys after spending eleven days. And the jitters that keep a man from sleeping were leaving little, black-eyed Sailor Frank Marquette of Brooklyn, who simply sat around for a week and let peace, quiet and home soften the scars of eleven battles. While the home cure goes on all week, Saturday midnight starts a rush that usually ends around 4 a.m. By the time all are fed, bedded and the kitchen cleaned up by two of the hostesses it is 6 a.m. The third hostess rises at 8, starts preparing for breakfast at 11 and wakes the other two at 10, who help complete and serve the meal. Then begins the cooking for dinner at 5.30 p.m. After the soldiers leave three tired, happy women clean up and go to bed. "But we don't get as tired as we did at first," said Mrs. Schoen, who has been told twice during illnesses she could not live. Many are the sentiments from the heart written by departing GIs. "Belle mere de le soldat," wrote Pfc. Sheppard R. Insel, Long Beach, Calif., while Cpl. Nicholas P. Commarant, Long Island, N.Y., scrawled, "You wonderful women, you." Perhaps the best was spoken by a man who held the DSC and Purple Heart. He said at Journey's End he had become a Christian. "I'm just a boy who had lost his way. I hadn't seen many people recently acting like Christians." Probably the most touching was from the boy who asked, "Can I call you Mom?" Certainly, he was told. When leaving he lingered and wistfully inquired, "Mom, would it be asking too much to ask you to - to kiss me good-by?" It wasn't. And as he wended his way downhill back on the long road overseas, the hillside oaks shimmered through his tears. Had he known of it, certainly he would have agreed with Sgt. Bill Howard of Salt Lake City, who seriously declared, "Mom, I'm going to recommend you for the DSC." (© Dallas Morning News, April 10, 1945, Sec. II, Page 2)

O.H. Vickrey Sr. Will Be Named Commissioner (1952)

“Appointment Only Good Until November Election - O.H. Vickrey Sr., South Oak Cliff realtor and insurance man, will be named Saturday as interim successor to the late County Commissioner John Rowland. The district over which Vickrey will be Commissioner comprises the south-southeast quarter of Dallas County. Besides South Dallas and much of South Oak Cliff, it includes Pleasant Grove, Seagoville, Lancaster, Wilmer, and Hutchins. Vickrey has lived in Dallas County all his life. He was born on Worth Street, attended schools in Dallas and Grand Prairie, and was a dirt contractor before going into the real estate business. He has been doing business in South Oak Cliff for about a quarter century. With his two sons, Harold and Thornton, he operates the O.H. Vickrey & Sons firm. He lives at 130 Appian Way. He served three terms on the City of Dallas zoning board of adjustment under Mayors Woodall Rodgers and Jimmie Temple, and was on the rationing board for Oak Cliff during World War II.” (© Dallas Morning News, June 21, 1952, Sec. I, Page 1).

Constable T.A. Vines Selected as Oak Cliff's Man of the Month (1956)

“T.A. Vines, Constable of Precinct 7, has been names Oak Cliff's Man of the Month for April. Selection was made by the editors of the Magazine Oak Cliff, official publication of the Oak Cliff Chamber of Commerce.

Born on a farm in Ellis County, Vines as a boy picked 400 pounds of cotton a day. His grandfather, the Rev. F.M. Vines, was a Baptist Minister. His father, Alonzo L. Vines, taught religious music in Ellis County all his life. Vines moved to Ennis at the age of five. He grew up and attended public school in Ennis. Vines came to Dallas when a young man and first worked for the Oriental Cleaning Company, later entering business for himself. At first he located in downtown Dallas; later he established the Beckley Cleaners. Throughout his adult life Vines has taken an active part in civic and religious work.

He is a member of Grace Temple Baptist Church, is a 32nd Mason, a member of Helfa Temple Shrine and of the South Oak Cliff Kiwanis Club. The latter he helped to organize. He is a past president of the club. Vines has been active in dads work in Oak Cliff. In 1949 he was named by the Central Dads Club of Texas as Outstanding Dad of the year. He also was organizer of the South Oak Cliff Boosters Club, which fought for many years for a high school in that area - and saw the dream come true. Vines was elected constable in 1952 and re-elected in 1954. He and his wife live at 213 Appian Way.” (© Dallas Morning News, April 1, 1956, Sec. I, Page 16)

This Garden is Result of Therapy (1958)

By Nancy Richey Ranson, Garden Editor of The News - Therapy is the background of Mrs. J.L. Clayton's delightful little garden at 106 Appian Way. A person who always loved flowers, she never had really gardened until she was laid low by a back injury six years ago. The doctor prescribed swimming and other outdoor exercise. “I had always wanted an attractive garden,” she confessed, “so the verdict was no hardship to me. I gave up office work after my injury. Then I started what has been pure fun ever since.”

Her gardening did not stop at planting seeds and trees and shrubs and then sitting back and watching them grow. She studied the Johnson grass-covered, rocky hill that slanted upward from the back of the house, then set to work with pencil and paper, planning drastic changes. The hillside garden was chiefly of shale. When rain came - and there was almost none at that time -, it ran off the rocky terrain swiftly. Three Terraced Levels - Mrs. Clayton knew her first step must be terracing. She started with the level outside the back door, and then built two higher ones leading to the back of the lot. She used marble flagstones for a patio on the first level and for a winding walk to the one above and to the greenhouse door.

"I turned the marble upside down so no one would slip on the slick surface," she explained. On the first patio, she placed chairs and tables, where meals can be served easily from the kitchen door. A few steps upward, another terrace also is an outdoor dining room. On the left is a large built-in barbecue pit. Another few steps upward, the third terrace is bordered with flowering shrubs and smaller plants that afford seasonal color to the garden from sprint until winter. It was on the third level that Mrs. Clayton, with the help of a workman, built the greenhouse. She takes potted plants into this house in winter, but she uses it as a sort of den in summer. Her typewriter, magazines, and books make it a comfortable, livable place. Flowers Grouped for Easy Care - A high stockade fence of white Michigan cedar gives privacy to this charming garden on the right. White lattice encloses it at the back. Raised beds hold a wide variety of colorful flowers and tropical plants throughout the garden. Prominent is the red-flowered ixcra, a charming asset to the garden. This gardener has planted her flowers carefully, in collections of a kind, for easy care. They can be classified as sun loving, acid loving, shade tolerant, and those that require different kinds of soil. A Plexiglas bomber nose forms a goldfish pool in which lotus, water lilies, and water hyacinths thrive. Banana and palm trees soften the edges of the pool, and ferns add their feathery beauty to beds and borders. Spanish moss hangs from the many native trees, which fairly bristle with birdhouses. A winding path of odd-shaped pieces of marbles leads from the J.L. Clayton house to the upper level at the back of the garden. Ajuga, oxalis and miniature ivy border it, and potted foliage plants lend a tropical air. (© Dallas Morning News, August 2, 1958, Sec. III, Page 1)

Zany Bird Battles Reflection (1960)

By Larry Grove - “Mrs. J.L. Clayton's back yard at 106 Appian WAY is a veritable forest where squirrels and opossums pad about and birds fly blissfully ignorant of most of the things that worry people. Yet not all is well adjusted among our little feathery friends. A zany cardinal beats his brains out flying headlong into his reflection on a window panel; his girl friend whistles approvingly from a fence nearby. “This happens every afternoon,” said Mrs. Clayton.

“Early in the afternoon, he fights his reflection at the top of the window. By late afternoon, he is pooped but he fights his reflection at the lower part of the window. The important thing here,” said Mrs. Clayton “is that the male impresses the female.” There is also about the premises, a pigeon named Sadie. Sadie, says Mrs. Clayton, does not know she is a pigeon. Currently Sadie is sitting on a nest of onions that one day may hatch.

For they, in turn, may be blissfully unaware they are onions. “We have had Sadie for about a year,” said Mrs. Clayton. “She stays outside the cage and doesn't occupy the large bird house because the pet coon that has sort of adopted our place stays there. And we try to discourage her from staying in the garage because the opossums might be frightened away. When Sadie sees someone she likes especially well, she alights on their head and simply will not leave after she gets perched there.” Sadie, it turned out, liked photographer Clint Grant. And except for Grant's high forehead, which extends to a point above his ears and offers no traction for a perch, Sadie might have remained there. But she didn’t. It was only then that she fell in love with me.” (© Dallas Morning News, March 27, 1960, Sec. I, Page 1)