Norman Noel Livingston

Norman Livingston was born in Hamilton County, where his parents had a farm on the Leon River, on Nov. 16, 1925, and passed away Wednesday, Nov. 14, 2012. Norman was one of seven children, all of whom worked on the farm.

When Buchanan Dam was finished in 1937, the Livingstons would come down and camp along the shore (there were no buildings there yet). The following year, when Norman’s older brother was going to get married, his father decided he wouldn’t have enough help to continue running the farm. He decided to sell it, and the family moved to Lone Grove the day before Norman’s 13th birthday.

Life was quite different in the small but thriving community of Lone Grove, which was then on the main highway (still a gravel road) from Austin and Burnet to Llano. Norman’s father built a small store, one of three in business there in the late 1930s.

Small farms lined the Little Llano River then, and more than 100 children attended the five-room Lone Grove School, which was famous for its excellent tennis and basketball teams.

Norman had a number of jobs at his new home. In addition to attending school and playing on the basketball team, he pumped gas (there were no electric pumps back then; he had to actually pump gas by hand — regular cost 16 cents a gallon), fixed flats, greased cars and waited on customers at the store. And, because his father leased land to run cattle and farmed a little for feed, there were other chores to do, as well.

This was before electricity was generally available in the countryside, and the Livingstons used a 24-volt Kohler “power plant” to light their house and store. Their store was the only one in Lone Grove with an “ice house.” The Livingston’s would buy 300-pound blocks of ice from Llano and re-sell ice to residents as needed. Up until the time the co-op brought electric lines to Lone Grove, the family used a washing machine that was powered by a small gasoline engine.

Local mail carrier Jim Overstreet made the most of his regular trips to Llano; he picked up other items, as needed, for the little stores. One frequent item was bread, which sold in Lone Grove for 9 cents a loaf. Jim’s son, Pete, was one of the Livingstons’ regular customers; he was one of the first people Norman met in Lone Grove, and he would stop almost every morning to visit and buy two Prince Edward cigars (for a nickel) before he started the day’s work at his county job. Pete and Norman became good friends, even though Pete was 16 years older.

Another regular customer was the Robinson Bus Line, which stopped every morning and evening on its run from Austin to Brady and back. Lone Grove residents could buy a ticket and catch the bus at the Livingstons’ store.

It didn’t take long for Norman to get to know everyone in Lone Grove and most everyone from the surrounding towns of Bluffton, Tow and Llano. He and his good friend, Nolan Nobles, would deliver ice during the summer for residents from north Llano (the north side of the river didn’t yet have electricity) to the lake. They would even deliver ice to the Clendennen family on Shaw Island, although that meant rowing halfway across the lake at no extra charge!

As a teenager, Norman often made the eight-mile trip along the gravel highway into Llano. Sometimes, his father would send him into town to pick something up for the store; sometimes he would catch a ride with one of his friends from Bluffton or Tow who always stopped at the store on their way into town.

On a cold day in 1941, Norman gathered with others in his class to listen on the radio to President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who announced the United States was at war with the Empire of Japan. “Don’t worry,” the teachers told him. “That thing will be over before you’re out of school.” The teachers were wrong.

Just over a year later, Norman Livingston, Pete Overstreet and five or six other young men from Llano County boarded a bus for the U.S. Army induction center in San Antonio. Livingston and Overstreet were the youngest and oldest (at 18 and 34) of the approximately 125 men in their company; Overstreet was married and already had a son. They went through basic training together at Camp Swift in Bastrop and then headed for New Jersey to be trained as “communications specialists.” They sailed together to Europe in the fall of 1944 as part of the 260th Engineer Combat Battalion.

Through a miscommunication, the battalion spent six weeks in England, learning a little French and German while they waited for orders; they finally arrived at Cherbourg, France, landing on the beach with landing ship tanks (LSTs) because the ports had been destroyed. It was the day after Christmas in 1944, and the Germans were mounting their last major offensive of the war  — the Battle of the Bulge — about 400 miles to the east.

The 260th crossed the Rhine River in Germany on March 28, 1945, but didn’t reach the front lines until a few days later, when the Germans put up a fight at the small town of Aschaffenburg on the River Main. It took four days of steady shelling to subdue the town; by then almost all the buildings had been destroyed. When the Americans finally entered the ruins of Aschaffenburg, one GI called it “the most beautiful German city we have ever seen.”

For the last few weeks of World War II, Norman spent much of his time doing reconnaissance ahead of the American lines in “No Man’s Land,” while the engineers of the 260th built bridges, repaired roads, swept for land mines and removed explosives from the few remaining bridges, set up water distribution points, and even took a few prisoners.

By then, there was little organized resistance, but there were still a few casualties in the 260th. A Capt. Rodgers was killed on April 23, and the engineers named their biggest project, a 270-foot bridge over the Salzach River in Austria, after him. It was not completed until May 19, after the war was finally over.

In the meantime, there were a few highlights (the capture of a wine factory and of enough Opel cars so the whole battalion could ride) and lowlights (the discovery of the horrifying death camp at Dachau on April 29.) Norman was one of the first Americans to enter the concrete building and told of wearing a gas mask to inspect the chambers.

As the war came to an end, Norman had the opportunity to explore Hitler’s “Eagle’s Nest” retreat at Berchtesgarten, and the V-2 rocket factory inside the mountain on the other side of the Koenig’s See (King’s Lake). He stayed a while in Salzburg, where one of his missions was to check on the condition of the famous Lippizzaner Stallions, which had been evacuated to the Alps to avoid bombing raids.

After the war, Norman married his childhood sweetheart, Maudine Templeton. After a few years in the Air Force, they moved to Austin, where he worked in electronics for eight years. When the opportunity presented itself, the couple moved to Llano, where he worked 31 years for Central Texas Electric Cooperative. They built a new home on Wright Street in 1960. Maudine passed away in 1995 after nearly 50 years of marriage.

Norman was a member of the Masonic Lodge for more than 50 years and also was a member of the Austin Scottish Rite, the Llano Chamber of Commerce since 1947, the Lions Club of Llano, the Eastern Star and was a past Master.

Survivors include son Mike Livingston and wife Frances of Austin; grandchildren Sloan Livingston and Jenna of Denver and Casey Livingston and Brittany of Austin; brother Leo Livingston of Kingsland; and sister Juanita Clendenen of Kingsland.

Visitation was Nov. 17 at the Waldrope Hatfield Hawthorne Funeral Home, 307 E. Sandstone in Llano, (325) 247-4300. A funeral service was Nov. 18 at First Baptist Church of Llano with the Rev. Rick Cundieff officiating. A Masonic graveside followed at Board Branch Cemetery in Lone Grove.

Pallbearers included members of the Masonic Lodge.

In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to the American Cancer Society, P.O. Box 22718 Oklahoma City, OK 73123-1718.

Condolences may be sent to whhfuneral1@verizon.net or made at www.whhfuneralhome.com.