Former Beloved DISD Music Teacher to be Toasted and Roasted Monday, January 25, 2016 at HITT Auditorium

A former popular music teacher of multiple DISD schools, Steve Bayless, will be toasted and roasted on Monday, January 25, at Hitt Auditorium on the Methodist Campus, at a dinner event hosted by the Oak Cliff Lions Club. Bayless was the president of the service club last year.

Steve began his career as a teacher at four elementary schools where he taught beginning band. He was a newlywed, and paid per student back when he first began working at DISD.

“We made posters and recruited, and advertised his music classes at those four different schools,” his wife of fifty-five years, Marna, explained.  “He became so popular, that he was making a lot of money, so the district re-structured how they pay their part-time teachers.”

Steve also worked at Kimball High school and eventually Dallas Baptist University, where he held multiple jobs in the music department.

His career led him into banking, including Town North National Bank, where bank president Fred Ferguson was known to love show business.

“It was a joke at the bank that he would hire tellers at the bank that could sing or dance,” Marna says. “But they hit the jackpot with Steve, cause he could play a number of instruments and direct the band.”

Steve’s official title was VP of Marketing, and he was introduced to the Oak Cliff Lions Club by the bank president. Steve was asked to join the club and for years he would help produce the annual Oak Cliff Lions Club Extravaganza at the Bronco Bowl, a night full of music, dancing, entertainment and skits that raised money for local charities.

Steve, a graduate of Adamson High, met wife Marna, a graduate of Thomas Jefferson High School (and a member of the school’s first graduating class in 1958) when they were both music students at North Texas. A North Texas band trip to tiny Alice, Texas, gave them time to get to know one-another and that’s where they met Jack Rumbley, the band director of the only high school in town.  

The rest is history: Steve and Marna went steady, then married in July of 1961, when she was a junior and he was a senior at the University. Jack married Rose-Mary, who taught at Dallas Baptist at the same time Steve was there.

Rose-Mary Rumbley, a former PE teacher at Bishop Dunne Catholic School in Oak Cliff, says she feels honored to be the Master of Ceremonies for the Oak Cliff Lions Club roast because Steve is such a good friend. Hilarious stories from their days growing up in Oak Cliff and teaching throughout the area will be a highlight Monday night.

Steve attended high schools in Sherman and Denison and graduated from Adamson, while there the band director decided that it would be good training for Steve to take the class while he, the teacher, took a break in the teacher’s lounge.

The parents of four grown boys, Steve and Marna attend First Presbyterian in Duncanville, and have been Oak Cliff residents for over 50 years. Their boys attended Skyline and Carter—where Jack Rumbley was the high school band director.

Rose-Mary Rumbley used to go read books at local public libraries and take along one of the Bayless boys to assist her. She is like part of the family, Marna says.

The Oak Cliff Lions Club boasts over 150 members including many elected officials: Dallas County Treasurer Pauline Medrano, Dallas County Commissioner Dr. Elba Garcia and Justice of the Peace Judge Juan Jasso are all active members of the service club.

Tickets for the “Toast and Roast of Steve Bayless” are available. Dinner tickets for the Roast are $25 each. Contact any Oak Cliff Lion to buy one or call 214-943-9725 for more information or President Lion Carol Donovan: 214-213-4575.

 Checks can be mailed to:

Oak Cliff Lions Club 
P.O. Box 4445
Dallas, Texas 75208
lion@oakclifflions.org

All profits from the event go to the Oak Cliff Lions Club’s College Scholarship Fund.

The Oak Cliff Lions meet every Wednesday at noon at Weiss Auditorium. Future speakers include:

January 27 – Dallas Parks Department, Hike and Bike Trails Update

On Saturday, February 6, the Oak Cliff Lions are hosting a Farmer's Market. Booth space is still available. Contact John McCall Junior at john@attorneymccall.com for more information. The Lions plan to make this a monthly event, to help bring healthy, fresh food to the neighborhood and provide a fun place for local vendors to sell their wares.

Other non-profit charitable organizations supported by the Oak Cliff Lions Club including:

Oak Cliff Lions Club Past President Steve Bayless to be Honored, Roasted, by Club Members Monday, January 25, 2016

The Oak Cliff Lions Club President for 2014-2015, Steve Bayless, will be honored –and roasted—Monday, January 25, 2015 in the Methodist Hospital's Hitt Auditorium. The fun begins at 6:30 p.m.

Master of Ceremonies for the event is none other than Rose-Mary Rumbley, who began her career in Oak Cliff as a PE teacher at Bishop Dunne Catholic School. She recently joined the Dunne class of ’65 at their 50^th Reunion at the school last fall. This month she’ll focus her humor on the Lions of Oak Cliff and in particular, it’s Past President, Lion Bayless, whom she has known for over six decades.

Not just a leader in the Oak Cliff Lions Club, Steve also leads the Steve Bayless Orchestra, which performed as the second act in the club’s annual Extravaganza last year on Thursday, May 21, 2015.

The Dallas Oak Cliff Lions Club was Organized and Chartered in April 1929.  For over 80 years, Oak Cliff Lions have supported a variety of local, state, national and international charities involving youth, vision, and other worthy causes and charities. It is estimated that the Club has contributed over $1.5 million to charitable causes through the dedicated efforts of Club members.    

Steve will be accompanied by his wife and Oak Cliff Lion Marna, whom he met in college in 1958 when she was a freshman and he a sophomore at The University of North Texas. They married in 1961.

Marna’s memory of their first meeting might be fodder for the roast: he asked her out for New Year’s Eve, but then never followed up.

“I didn’t know his name, didn’t have his phone number, so made a date with another guy,” she admits decades later. Steve called her an hour before he planned to pick her up and she had to tell him she’d made other plans.

Undaunted, eventually Steve asked her out again and they had a “Coke date” at Pender’s Drug Store across the street from the campus, and with music in common, began to see a lot of each other. They travelled together across the state with the college performing, and began to go steady after a trip to tiny Alice, Texas. That happened to be where Jack Rumbley was the high school band director and now, six decades later, his wife Rose-Mary will be the Emcee of Steve’s Roast. Rose-Mary and Steve both taught at Dallas Baptist University and became friends there.

An employee of many local DISD schools in their music programs, Steve also worked at Kimball High School, DBU, and at several banks including Town North National Bank, where bank president Fred Ferguson was known to love show business.

“It was a joke at the bank that he would hire tellers at the bank that could sing or dance,” Marna says. Steve’s official title was VP of Marketing, but he was also involved in the “Enter-trainment” of employees at annual training conventions.

President Ferguson introduced Steve to “The Voice of the Cowboys,” Bill Melton and entertainer Tom Young who were active in the Oak Cliff Lions Club. Steve was asked to join the Lions and for years the four men would produce the annual Oak Cliff Lions Club Variety Show at the Bronco Bowl, a night full of music, dancing, entertainment and skits that raised money for local charities.

Past President Steve Bayless says, “Since the late 40's, the Lions annual variety show - which is now called the Extravaganza - has been the primary source of fundraising to support the club’s charities. We've added to that with successful golf tournaments and a host of projects that a few of our members have taken on as personal endeavors, projects in which our club has become involved by supporting those efforts. And we want all of that to continue and flourish.”

Funds raised have made a huge difference in Dallas, from local Projects such as funding the Oak Cliff Eye Clinic facility in the 1950’s in cooperation with the City of Dallas, to a major contribution to the Dallas Zoo for the Bird and Reptile House in the 1960’s.  A gift of $20,000 funded the main hall of the new Oak Cliff YMCA Building on South Hampton Road in the 1970’s, a $10,000 contribution in the 1990's to help launch the tactile exhibit for the visually impaired at the Dallas Zoo - in cooperation with the Metroplex Mitsubishi Dealers - and in 2006, the Club contributed $20,000 to the Lions Sight and Tissue Foundation's Mobile Eyeglass Bus Project. 

Steve and Marna have lived in south Oak Cliff for over fifty years, raised four boys and after retiring from teaching music in local schools helped set up Presbyterian Children’s Home in Duncanville.

Dinner tickets for the Roast are $25 each. Contact any Oak Cliff Lion to buy one or call 214-943-9725 for more information or President Lion Carol Donovan: 214-213-4575.

 Checks can be mailed to:

Oak Cliff Lions Club
P.O. Box 4445
Dallas, Texas 75208
lion@oakclifflions.org

All profits from the event go to the Oak Cliff Lions Club’s College Scholarship Fund.

The Oak Cliff Lions meet every Wednesday at noon at Weiss Auditorium. Future speakers include:

January 20 – U.S. Congressman Marc Veasey, News from Hill

January 27 – Dallas Parks Department, Hike and Bike Trails Update

Other non-profit charitable organizations supported by the Oak Cliff Lions Club including:

The Altrusa Club of Downtown Dallas got off to a great start in the New Year at its January 5, 2016 meeting with a visit from the club's District Governor, Sylvia Zamora, and a guest who’s been attending meetings since before she was born.

Altrusa International is a service club made up of business women and men who work together to make their community a better place to live. The downtown club was established in 1982 with a dozen members, and now boasts over 75 members.

The downtown club is part of an international service organization similar to the Kiwani's Clubs. The Downtown Dallas club is a member of District Nine, which encompasses all of Texas. There are 15 Altrusa Districts, including one in New Zealand and one in Puerto Rico. Once a year the District Governor pays a visit to each club to see how the club operates, meet the members and share helpful information.  Zamora was so impressed with the downtown club she suggested it consider taking on a “sister” club that is struggling, to help mentor it to bring in more members and strengthen its outreach to the community.

In attendance at the Meeting, held at the City Club near the top of the Bank of America Building, was guest Jenny Porter, daughter of veteran member Judy Porter, who joined Altrusa in 1990. Jenny, a December 2015 graduate of West Virginia University with a Marketing degree, began attending meetings as an infant when her mother was a new Altrusa member and the Director of Religious Education at St. Bernard's of Clairvaux Catholic Church. Jenny and her three brothers would often tag along on service projects with the Altrusa Club, and many members greeted her warmly upon her return to Dallas from WVU. Altrusa is known as "A Builder of Women," but also accepts men. Last year two men joined the Downtown Dallas club. 

In addition to community service, the club raises funds to disperse to local non-profits. Typically the club makes one larger donation and funds a numbers of smaller grant requests from $500 to $5,000. The club’s focus is on promoting literacy and helping women and children in crisis. An annual Poinsettia sale was the club’s major fund raiser until it began sponsoring “Dessert First,” a chocolate and champagne event with a live and silent auction. This year’s event is scheduled for October 6, 2016 at 3015 at Trinity Grove, 3015 Gulden Lane, Dallas, TX 75212.

In 2009 the Altrusa downtown’s Club Foundation began the practice of donating the majority of funds raised from “Dessert First,” to one agency.  The first major beneficiary was Friends of Wednesday’s Child, which received $40,000.

Nearly $100,000 was raised during the club’s “Dessert First” fund raiser in 2014, with the bulk of the funds going to the after school program, Kids U, which operates tutoring and education programs in apartment complexes throughout the Dallas area. Altrusa has also recently supported local agencies to help women and children with hundreds of volunteer hours or grants including: Attitudes and Attire, CASA, Head Start, Dallas Bar Association’s Bar None Scholarship, Human Rights Initiative, Trinity River Mission, Vogel Alcove, Shared Housing and dozens of college scholarships to Irma Rangel Young Women’s Leadership School graduates.

Many members join the club to volunteer, but remain for decades due to the friendships made. Dr. Kay Eggleston, President of Richland College, was a founding member and is still active in the club. Attorney and former SMU Law Librarian Dorothy Nowlin is also a founding member who attends meetings and spends many hours keeping track of the club’s history, although she retired and moved out of the downtown area years ago and now lives in Allen.

The club has a fun social gathering, an “event of the month,” throughout the year, and a book club that meets about every six weeks in the evening at a member’s home. This month the club’s annual holiday party—held after the typical holiday season so family reunions and office parties don’t conflict—will be held at a club member’s newly renovated home on Strait Lane.

The club has an annual “get away from it all” rustic retreat weekend at the Ferndale Club which includes two nights lodging and six meals, fireside chats, nature trails, spa opportunities and a wine tasting.

Also in February, the club will sponsor five weekly Monday Networking Happy Hours at Savor Gastropub in downtown Dallas, located on the corner of Klyde Warren Park. Club members and guests are encouraged to attend. A portion of proceeds from food and drink purchased at Savor will go to the Altrusa Club’s Foundation to disburse as grants later in the year. Anyone interested in meeting the club members or learning more about its activities can attend the Savor Mondays in February, beginning at 5:00 p.m.

The Club’s first service project of 2016 is Monday, January 18, from 9:00 a.m.to 12:00 Noon, as members prep classrooms for the Spring Semester for the Vickery Meadow Learning Centers at its two different locations, including the Main Campus located at 6329 Ridgecrest Road and the West campus at 1018 Gallagher Street.

To learn more about the downtown club see: www.altrusadtd.com

For information on the Savor Mondays in February, contact Debby Weber at: debby@weberdsn.com

For information on membership or to attend a Tuesday lunch meeting at the City Club contact Monica Urbaniak at: monica@dallasrapecrisis.org

For more information on the organization see: http://www.altrusa.org/Who-We-Are.aspx

The current 2015 – 2016 Altrusa Club Board consists of:

• Niki Payne - President
• Nina Cox - President Elect
• Amy Gavigan -  Recording Secretary
• Nicole LeBoeuf - VP Service
• Marsha Reynolds - VP Communications
• Lori Blair - VP Fundraising
• Monica Urbaniak - VP Membership
• Scottie Kennedy - Treasurer
• Carol Kilman -  Parliamentarian
• Kim Schonwald- Immediate Past President, Club Board Liaison to Foundation Board

 The District Nine 2016 Conference - Key to the West (Fri, Apr 22, 2016 - Sun, Apr 24, 2016)

The 60th Annual Altrusa District Nine Conference, is April 22-24, 2016. The conference will be held at the gorgeous retreat-like setting of the DFW Marriott Convention Center and Golf Resort at Champions Circle in Fort Worth, Texas... where "the West" begins!

Altrusa Club of Downtown Dallas Donates to Families HRI

The Altrusa International Club of Downtown Dallas members traded in their business suits and celebrated the end of the year with an Ugly Sweater Luncheon on Tuesday, December 15, 2015.

The members of the club adopted over 20 families—85 individuals—this holiday season, purchasing gifts for each and wrapping and delivering them to the Human Rights Initiative Office for distribution to the family members. The Human Rights Initiative is a Dallas-based non-profit assisting survivors of violence from all over the world.

Bikes were assembled, out-of-season school backpacks were searched for and household appliances were purchased all in an effort to complete the wish lists of the families who are being helped by the non-profit.

Last year the Altrusa Club of Downtown Dallas built book shelves and donated hundreds of children’s books for the waiting area in the HRI headquarters.

The service club supports women and children in crisis with an emphasis on literacy. Members have been volunteering with HRI for the past three years. In addition to HRI the club provides annual scholarships to graduates of Irma L Rangel Young Women’s Leadership; Meals on Wheels; Dallas CASA and a number of after school programs in the downtown Dallas area.

Service projects are designed to fulfill the club’s mission of “Educating Families for a Better Future.” The club is affiliated with Altrusa International, Inc. an international organization with over 300 clubs worldwide with a strong history of literacy education.

Since the club’s founding in 1982, members have raised more than $1,000,000 for community grants disbursed through our Downtown Dallas Foundation and have contributed over 90,000 hours of service for the benefit of the Dallas community.

Bishop Dunne Catholic School sponsored an HRI panel in November. A typical HRI story was told by one of the panelists, whom HRI has helped.

Human Rights Highlighted at First Geo Tech Speaker Series Panel

Katya was 15 when she finished high school in her country, and her plan to come to the US for college looked good. But then her father died, and with little money, her mother suggested she marry well. An older uncle offered to take her as his third wife. Katya begged her mother to send her to America instead, and once here, the uncle insisted she return to be his youngest wife.

With little money, she moved in with an acquaintance. But soon she learned the woman she was living with made her money by selling her body, and expected her to do so, too. Katya’s mom begged her to come home and marry her old uncle because he was rich and could take care of her, but she said she would find a way to stay in America.

At the grocery store, Katya met another woman from West Africa, who offered her a place to stay, if she would help with her two children and clean her house. Katya agreed, but soon became a full time nanny to the woman, which meant missing her classes or being late to school. Then the woman asked to use her passport to bring a cousin into the country illegally. Katya refused. Soon after, the woman stole her passport. It took Katya six months and a trip to Washington, D.C. to get it replaced. She knew then she needed to get away from her situation and she googled “help for international students.”

Her internet search led her to the Human Rights Initiative of North Texas, where she met lawyer Marcela Evans who told her that yes, she could help.

The Human Right Initiative office is located in Dallas, and helps immigrants like Katya every day. 48% of the children coming from Central America asking for help are victims of violence or have seen violent crimes happen to a family member. Although Katya was from the Ivory Coast located in West Africa, she was also in danger: her 71 year old Uncle, the man who wanted to make her his third wife, vowed to have his youngest wife buried with him when he died. Katya would have been dead by now, had she returned to her country.

The Human Rights Initiative works with children and adults who seek a safe place to live and work in America. Ms. Evans said she never wanted to be an immigration lawyer, but now loves her job and can’t see doing anything else. The hundreds of children coming from Central America last year were helped by her and her legion of volunteers from the legal community.

Sarah Crow of the law firm of Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld, LLP rounded out the HRI panel and talked about her work as a volunteer with HRI and that her firm supported her for the three months as she worked helping children from Central America get the legal right to stay in the US.

For more information on HRI: www.hrionline.org, or call 214-855-0520.

This panel was the first of Bishop Dunne Catholic School’s 2015-2016 GeoTech Speaker Series. For more information see: www.bdcs.org

To attend a future Altrusa meeting see: www.altrusadtd.org   Members meet in the City Club located on the 69^th floor of the Bank of America building downtown at noon on the first and 3^rd Tuesdays each month to plan service projects.

Altrusa International of Downtown Dallas teamed up teamed up with Trinity River Missions for this year's “Make A Difference Day” service project.

Over 250 Trick or Treaters came to enjoy a safe evening of fun, games, costume comparisons and consuming candy.

Trinity River Mission is a volunteer-based community learning center that promotes literacy, encourages academic success and develops effective life skills among disadvantaged youth in West Dallas, in the belief that education connects us to life’s possibilities.

The National Make a Difference Day was created in 1992 by USA WEEKEND magazine and joined by the Points of Light Foundation.  Together they have sponsored the largest national day of community service for more than twenty years. The national day is held on the fourth Saturday of October. The Altrusa International of Downtown Dallas Club has participated in the day for two decades.

This year the Altrusa members donated money and purchased candy and school supplies to hand out at a special “Trunk or Treat” event on Friday, October 30, 2015, Halloween weekend, at Trinity River Mission. Prior to the event, members gathered to make the hundreds of goodie bags on October 24, 2015 to hand out at the "trunk or treat" event at Trinity on the evening of the 30^th.

Altrusa members Angela Caronia, an accountant, Robin Gillespie and Karen Washington, an attorney in her own practice, organized this year's MADD service day.  Altrusa Club President Niki Payne, a Realtor with David Bush Realtors, was also there, along with Attorney Laura Hornung and her two children Jacob & Sarah; Nina Cox, an executive with Mary Kay; Melissa Reilly, with Parkland Victim Intervention Program; and Kathleen Scott, with her daughter Shannon and her friend Alice Maguire, both high school juniors and whom tutor at TRM through National Charity League - Mockingbird Chapter.

Altrusa is a service organization made up of business women and men with a focus on helping women and children. The Downtown Dallas club is affiliated with Altrusa International, Inc. an international organization with over 300 clubs worldwide with a strong history of literacy education. The Downtown Dallas club was founded in 1982, and has had numerous successful fundraising projects to support many non-profits in the area. The club members have raised more than a million dollars for community grants disbursed through the club’s Downtown Dallas Foundation and the members have contributed over 90,000 hours of service for the benefit of the Dallas community.

In addition to this project, the Altrusa Club members support Attitudes and Attire. Club members volunteer with Attitudes and Attire clients on an ongoing basis, helping to dress women returning to the work place by providing them with interview outfits that will give them confidence and help get them the job they are applying for. The club also works with Meals on Wheels, and many after school programs in the Dallas area, and provides scholarships annually for deserving graduates of Young Women’s Preparatory Network - Irma Rangel Leadership Academy near Fair Park in downtown Dallas.

The club members also enjoy social events including an Art Show this weekend, Saturday, November 14, 2015, by Danah Moore, a member of the club, with a lunch after.

For more information about the club see it’s website: www.altrusadtd.com and for the Art show see: www.dmoorespi.com

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