Ennis NOW


A Man Can Dream

ENNIS, TX — Henry Odlozil has always loved airplanes. Born and reared in Ennis, he remembers spending lots of his spare time building model airplanes and dreaming of the day when he would be the pilot of his own aircraft. In a young man’s mind it may have seemed like forever, when in reality it was […]


Living in the Moment

ENNIS, TX — Last year around this same time, Sam and Kathy Harrell and Steve and Suzie Betik had just returned from from their first trip to Hospital Punta Pacifica, a John Hopkins’ affiliate, in Panama City, Panama. While there, Sam and Steve underwent their first round of stem cell treatments to help slow […]


Memories with Meaning

ENNIS, TX — Kathleen Prachyl took her first trip to the Czech Republic in 1996 with a tour group that originated in Ennis. “That first trip included three generations,” she remembered, “my mom, Elaine Gallagher, my two daughters, Stephanie and Jessica, and me.” Her second trip with the same tour group also included three […]


Iron Sharpening Iron

ENNIS, TX — Ravi Dubose and Curtis Tekell, Ennis High School seniors, have been friends since attending Austin Elementary School. They have run track and played football together, and hope it will not all end next year when they attend college. “We would really like to go to the same school, but we’re keeping […]


Coincidences and Contentment

ENNIS, TX — Her mother said it best, “I took my daughter to the first grade at Austin Elementary School, and she’s still there!” Indeed, Ennis teacher, Donna Monreal, attended the elementary school as a little girl and now has been teaching at that same school for 30 years. It even gets better. Donna […]


From Generation to Generation

ENNIS, TX — Cindy Gerich has a passion for quilting that has lasted a lifetime. In fact, she likes quilting so much that she and her friend, Jackie Muehlstein, started a group called Bluebonnet Patches Quilting Guild of Ennis in 1985. As she and charter members, Helen Ritchey and Bettye Moore, who joined the […]


Recovering Hope

ENNIS, TX — Reading is the foundation for all the learning we do in school. Have you ever wondered what happens to children who have trouble learning to read? Do they fall hopelessly behind? Do they ever catch up? Are they doomed? If they are in the Ennis Independent School District (EISD), they go […]


Sew Much Fun

Deana Betik loves to sew. She does things her own way and does the kind of sewing she likes. “I don’t use patterns; they drive me crazy. And I’m not a seamstress; I don’t enjoy hemming pants.” Deana started sewing back in high school when she took a sewing class. “It was the only […]