A Nearly Accurate History of Sunrise Beach
By Dick Hart (deceased)
Written for the 25th Anniversary Celebration of the City in November of 1998
recovered and updated in 2005 and continued by others (I hope, hjs)
Page 11 of 19
We had to appoint an Airport Commission right away as this now, a
city owned airport, had to meet FAA requirements and also came
under our city insurance. We got Russell Stokes, a retired airline pilot,
Bill Lanier, former mayor and retired FAA official
and Al Sargent, a
retired aircraft mechanic and husband to Bill's former secretary. They
put in a bunch of work but made sure we complied with all the FAA
rules, and they got us in the pilots directory of airstrips and airports as
the Sunrise Beach Private Airport.
Similar situations presented themselves many times, but as a city,
Sunrise Beach has the power of the law and the state of Texas behind
it. Without that authority, Sunrise Beach would have had a bad time of
it. I've heard many say "I can't do nothin' I want to 'cause there's a
rule against it". Well, think of750 homes this crowded together with no
rules! All I can say is that all the people in Sunrise Beach should thank
those hard working people back the 1973 and 74 who did so much
work to get this community up and running. It’s a shame that they
aren't around now to see just what they managed to accomplish.
Surely, somewhere they are looking down on us and snapping their
suspenders with considerable pride. We salute them for their
marvelous foresight.
No history of Sunrise Beach would be complete without saying
something about the 3 Churches that we have here. There's the
Catholic Church, The Baptist and the non-denominational Federated
Church. It seems these houses of worship preceded everything. The
developers had donated a parcel of land for the building of a Catholic
Sanctuary; so a group of families approached them for land to build a
Baptist Church. The developer dismissed their request until a formal
congregation was organized. Under the leadership of Mrs. Jewell
McCarley and with the encouragement and assistance of the minister
of the First Baptist Church in Llano, the Reverend Bill Kenney, a
congregation was organized with 6 charter members. Brother Kenny
served for a time as minister to both churches and was never late for
either services in Sunrise Beach or Llano. This was all done in 1963.
The church was actually built on the present site which was acquired in
exchange for the developer's donated land (more than one way to
accomplish a mission)! A new sanctuary was built in 1995 and as is
the case in Sunrise Beach, it was done on a pay as you go basis.
Volunteer labor and donations took care of the vast majority of the
building. Donations even came from non-members who were so
impressed by the undertaking. People from other churches as far as
Marble Falls, not necessarily Baptists, pitched in on this impressive
effort with labor, donations and meals for the workers.
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