CAPTURING KID'S HEARTS STUDENT SURVEY
Lloyd
and Dolly Bentsen Elementary opened its doors in the Fall of 2005.
Under the leadership of Ms. Cecilia Boyd, Bentsen Elementary and its
staff are guided by the school's mission of "Dedicated to Excellence".
Named for Lloyd Millard Bentsen, Sr., and his beloved wife, Dolly,
Bentsen Elementary continues the trend of excellence established within
the Sharyland Independent School District.
"Lloyd
Millard Bentsen, Sr., was born on November 24, 1894, in Argo Township,
near White and Brookings, South Dakota, just west of the Minnesota state
line. His father immigrated from Denmark to farm. He survived a cycle
accident on a muddy farm road that left him with a partially severed
foot and severe body lacerations, but sufficiently well enough to enlist
at the beginning of World War I in the United States Signal Corps for
aviator training at Kelly Field, San Antonio.
In
Texas, during training, Lloyd met and married Edna Ruth Colbath, known
thereafter as Dolly. Bentsen and his wife joined his parents and moved
from South Dakota to Sharyland, Tx, an irrigated citrus and vegetable
utopia envisioned by John H. Shary and developed by him near Mission.
The Bentsen family arrived penniless, but within a few years, Lloyd Sr.,
known as "Big Lloyd," and his brother Elmer had become the biggest
colonizers and developers in Hidalgo County. The Valley became a
cotton-and-citrus-growing area, and the Bentsen family's Pride O Texas
citrus operation thrived.
The
family's Arrowhead Ranch was one of the Valley's largest. Bentsen and
his wife had four children, one of whom, Lloyd Bentsen, Jr., was a
congressman, a United States senator, a vice-presidential candidate, and
secretary of the treasury. Lloyd Bentsen, Sr., died at the age of
ninety-five on January 17, 1989, in an automobile accident in Edinburg,
Texas."
Image courtesy of: http://www.bigtex.com/aboutus/heritagehallofhonor/members/