Katherine Classen joined the family when she married Elroy Classen in 1949. Although they had known each other while Katherine Classen was in junior high and Elroy Classen was in high school, their lives took separate ways for a while.
Katherine Classen left high school during her junior year, when her mother fell ill with tuberculosis. Being the oldest in the household, she had to get up early, get everyone else up for the day and send them off.
She had her first job at the S.H. Kress store downtown on Houston Street. After leaving Kress, she worked at Southwestern Bell as a telephone operator. Because she did not own a vehicle, she had to take the bus home after work. She recalls seeing all the young soldiers who shared the bus ride with her during World War II.
“Here they were in their uniforms, and it was hot; they didn’t have air conditioned buses,” Katherine Classen said. “The seats were all full, and they were standing up, where you couldn’t hardly get one more in. I felt so sorry for them.
“They were from all over the country, and how lonely some of them looked. We volunteered with the USO, and they had dances. They would come and get us on a bus, and at least they got to meet someone.”
Katherine Classen had two children, Barbara and Robert, from her previous marriage. She was working at the Post Exchange at Kelly Airfield when a mutual friend asked her to go on a blind date with Elroy Classen. They had been dating for a year when he proposed to her.
“When he asked me to marry him I said, ‘You’re not only asking me to marry you, and you have to love me, but you have to love two children,’” Katherine Classen said. “He took my two children and raised them and put them through high school. His family accepted me and treated them as if they were their own grandchildren.”
Katherine Classen is still close to Elroy Classen’s only sibling, Marjorie Grounds, who was attending Jefferson High School when they first met.
Together, the Classens built a home in 1967 on three acres of property that had belonged to her husband’s grandfather, which was part of the former Red Land Ranch. At a time when there was nothing built around the 281 and Loop 1604 area, they occasionally kept livestock, including a bottle-fed lamb named Sunshine.
They had one child together, Roy Wayne, 12 years after getting married. Katherine Classen’s daughter, Barbara, grew up to be a writer and an artist, and Roy Wayne has spent his career at USAA. Barbara, who now lives in New Braunfels, is currently working on a novel and is vice president of the New Braunfels Art League.
Unfortunately, Katherine Classen’s first son, Robert, died in a motorcycle accident shortly after returning home from Vietnam. Robert had spent his time in the U.S. Army attached to the Air Force as an air traffic controller.
Elroy Classen retired from Mobil Oil after working in transport. When he retired, Katherine Classen reached a different stage of life. At a point when most people retire, she went back to work. She had a friend who asked her to work for her at Natural Selections, and she agreed to help out. Little did Classen know, but she would end up spending nearly 10 years working there.
“It was a very unique gift shop with little nooks and crannies, and everyone loved us,” Katherine Classen said. “Needless to say, I found a family outside my family. We were just a big group of people [who] enjoyed working with each other.”
When the store shut down, Katherine Classen went back to her home. By then, the area had significantly changed, but still they were surrounded by their three acres. When Elroy Classen died in 2003, Katherine Classen realized that maintaining a large yard and house was getting too expensive. She decided it was time to move on and put the property up for sale. When it sold, she had 30 days to move out – a short amount of time, considering she spent 47 years living there.
In 2007, Katherine Classen came to Independence Hill, which is located on the grounds of the former William Classen Ranch, and she has enjoyed it since. She enjoys the sense of security she has there. Even though she wasn’t used to having neighbors, she quickly started to love participating in the activities and making friends. She enjoys the amenities and the opportunities to take part in the activities Independence Hill offers.
“I have had a great life – a healthy life,” Katherine Classen said. “I came from Classen property and I’m living on Classen property. I’m not anything but happy here.”
For more information about Independence Hill, call 210-615-4000 or visit www.independencehill.com.
