By Tracy Gupton
Columbia Historical Museum Board Member
From playing Hercules in a high school play to achieving Herculean accomplishments as a community leader, Sands “Sandy” Smith Weems III takes pride in achieving the many improvements at the local American Legion Hall. He would be the first to say it has been a group effort.Having served as commander of West Columbia American Legion Post 503 for the bulk of the 21st century, the retired Army officer and former West Columbia city manager checked off a few items on his list while scoping out plans for the Legion grounds and building.
“I became post commander around 2000,” Weems said, “and I’ve been a member for a little over 40 years. I joined when I moved back to West Columbia in 1981.”
Weems said he and his cousin, Mickey Weems, share many of the post leadership duties while working closely with the other military veterans of West Columbia who are post members.
Born in Mobile, Alabama, in 1933, the son of an East Columbia native, Sandy was 10-years old when his parents moved back to the West Columbia area so his father, Sands Weems Jr., could assist Sandy’s grandfather with the family mercantile business. Sandy attended fourth and fifth grades at the East Columbia school and finished his education in West Columbia.
The 1951 graduate of West Columbia High School was Hercules in the senior play “Just Ducky!” He played football, basketball and ran track for the Roughnecks.
Sandy was in the Corps of Cadets at Texas A&M University where he was a distinguished graduate in 1955. He retired as a lieutenant colonel in 1981 after devoting 24 years to the U.S. Army, a stint of military service that featured two tours of duty in Vietnam where he flew helicopters in often dangerous expeditions under enemy fire.
His background in the Army Corps of Engineers led him to the job of West Columbia city manager in 1981. His Army aviation career enabled him to become the Brazoria County Airport manager following his resignation as West Columbia’s city manager in December 1983. Weems served as airport manager until 1994 when he began working for a series of Brazoria County judges in Angleton.
Sandy traces the history of West Columbia’s American Legion Post to 1946 when World War II veterans returned home from battle on both the European and Pacific fronts and local business leaders applied for their very own Legion charter. Organization of Post 503 occurred in 1947 under the leadership of the post’s first commander, Sandy’s uncle, Marcus Weems.
He said the American Legion Hall was built around 1950, funded by numerous donations from the community and even an automobile raffle. The public swimming pool was built on property adjoining the American Legion Hall in the 1950s and was operated for many years by the local American Legion post, according to Sandy. The swimming pool is gone now, covered over by the RV park the post runs.
West Columbia’s members of “The Greatest Generation”—as those who fought with honor during the second world war were labeled by former NBC newscaster Tom Brokaw—were responsible for the formation and continued success of the town’s American Legion Hall.
The hall is named for West Columbia soldiers Johnnie Ralph Mattson, U.S. Navy, and Charles Frank “Chicky” Ringgold, US Marine, who were killed in action during World War II. Mattson, was buried at sea. Ringgold was awarded a Purple Heart and is buried at the historic Columbia Cemetery.
The covered pavilion located behind the hall was constructed in 1975 and dedicated to the memory of Sandy’s father who was brutally murdered in his West Columbia hardware store in January of that year. Sands served as secretary of the West Columbia Rotary Club for 26 years.
Sandy said the American Legion post’s membership began to decline in the 1990s when many of the old military veterans, who had been vital to the local post’s success, reached the end of their lives. He credited men such as Edgar McGaughey, Dean Laughlin and Ted Kay for keeping the post going until an influx of younger veterans could come along to carry the torch into the 21st century.
Major renovation of the American Legion Hall began in 2017 with new ceilings and flooring, new kitchen appliances, renovations of the bathrooms and the addition of recessed, dimmable lighting. A Home Depot grant, fundraisers and revenue from rental of the facilities and the adjoining RV park, helped finance the ongoing improvements.
Sandy credits Mickey and the post’s operations manager, Steve Mann, for keeping everything running smoothly. The post is presently tackling three projects: installation of new parking lot lighting, construction of an extended, gabled entrance roof to the front of the building and the planned pouring of concrete sidewalks from the back of the West Columbia Civic Center and Chamber of Commerce offices to the nearby covered pavilion.
A grant from the Kittie Nash Groce Hospital Trust will assist in funding the proposed improvements, Sandy Weems said.
“It’s going to be a really nice facility,” he bragged. “We have the lowest rates in the county for these kinds of facilities,” adding that the American Legion Hall rents for $500 a day and the pavilion that bears his father’s name rents for $250 a day.
