Mother Nature took center stage at this year’s Meet Your Ancestors program at Columbia Cemetery. The annual event, co-sponsored by the Columbia Historical Museum and Columbia Cemetery Association, was held November 1, 2025. Ominous dark clouds hovered off in the distance as things got kicked off a little before 5 p.m. The threat of rain limited the number of visitors and created the earlier than normal start. Meet Your Ancestors was scheduled to take place November 1st from 5 to 7 p.m.
The co-sponsors of the event extend their sincere apologies to everyone involved in this year’s Meet Your Ancestors. We started with groups of 10 visitors being escorted to the first couple posts when thunder and lightning sent up the red flag that our program most likely was in danger. This year’s theme for Meet Your Ancestors was former outstanding athletes buried at historic Columbia Cemetery. We had re-enactors stationed at the five burial sites of Buddy Tinsley, Mattie Sue Ringgold, Doug Balkum, Ed Cole and Hershel Orr in preparation to educate and entertain visitors on the many outstanding accomplishments of the five who had been selected.
Unfortunately, the weather failed to cooperate, and the event had to be canceled shortly after we had gotten started. The first 10 visitors were listening to Korey Langford’s presentation at the gravesite of former Columbia Roughnecks head baseball coach Doug Balkum when the heavy rainfall sent everyone heading for cover. Ben Tumlinson, acting as Canadian Football League Hall of Famer Buddy Tinsley, had just begun telling the third group of visitors about the Damon, Texas, native’s impressive high school, college and pro football career when Meet Your Ancestors 2025 had to be shut down.
Linda Miska only got to finish her presentation to the first group of visitors when the rain and threat of lightning interrupted her speech to the second group. Linda, a retired West Columbia Junior High School teacher, was portraying her former high school basketball coach, Mattie Sue Ringgold. Linda played college basketball at Sam Houston State University after being a standout player for Coach Ringgold at Bay City High School.
Korey Langford, a current West Columbia Elementary School teacher and Columbia Historical Museum board member, was portraying Coach Balkum, whose widow Darlene Barrow Balkum is a retired former WCE teacher. Doug Balkum and Mattie Sue Ringgold were classmates, both graduating from West Columbia High School in 1952. Both were outstanding athletes in multiple sports in high school who became teachers and coaches after college. Balkum was an All-Southwest Conference pitcher for the Texas Christian University Horned Frogs who came back to his hometown of West Columbia to coach football and baseball in the late 1950s and most of the 1960s.
Ben Tumlinson is a former Columbia Historical Museum board member who is a financial analyst with Edward Jones in West Columbia. The man he was portraying, Buddy Tinsley, won a state championship in football with Barbers Hill High School in Mont Belvieu, Texas, and is in the Baylor Bears Hall of Fame, the Winnipeg Blue Bombers Hall of Fame and the Canadian Football League Hall of Fame.
Extreme apologies extended to the family members of Ed Cole and Hershel Orr who did not get the opportunity to speak to the Meet Your Ancestors visitors due to the weather situation. Words cannot express how sorry the Columbia Historical Museum’s directors are for the way the bad weather put an unexpected stop to our planned program. We know the children of Hershel Orr had a long drive to West Columbia to talk to Meet Your Ancestors visitors about your father and mother. So sorry it didn’t work out.
Hershel Mack Orr was the quarterback for the county champion West Columbia Roughnecks in the early 1930s. He excelled in multiple sports in high school and was an outstanding football player and track participant in college. Everyone was looking forward to hearing Hershel Orr Jr., Dawn Orr Free and Mary Orr Yarbrough speak at Meet Your Ancestors about the many accomplishments of their Daddy.
Also, the museum’s board of directors apologize to John Cole, Dennis Moody and Linda Cole Moody for the weather-caused cancellation of our November 1st program. Linda’s Dad, Ed Cole, was an all-around rodeo performer throughout most of the 1950s and 1960s who won many bull riding, saddle bronc riding and steer dogging events at rodeos across Texas, Louisiana and Oklahoma in his prime. His grandchildren, Dennis and John, had brought buckles Ed had won and an assortment of rodeo photographs of their Granddad to exhibit while speaking to visitors about Ed Cole’s exploits as an all around cowboy! So very sorry to Ed and Helen Cole’s daughter, Linda, and their grandsons, John and Dennis, who were present November 1st but never had the opportunity to speak at Meet Your Ancestors due to the lightning and heavy rainfall.
Those who helped with putting on the event were greatly appreciated. Each of you know who you are. Thanks so much!
