Features

To say that Wimberley is a destination would be an understatement. Part of that charm comes from the large number and variety of specialty accommodations in this area — inns, B&Bs, cabins, cottages. Bill and Pat Appleman are owners and innkeepers at Creekhaven Inn. 

For more than a decade, they have been greeting guests and enhancing their visits to the Hill Country. That’s been a dream of the Applemans for a long time.

Bill was born and started school in San Antonio. When his father retired from Randolph Air Force Base, the family moved to Washington, DC. Bill returned to attend the University of Texas at Austin. That’s when he developed his love for the Hill Country. 

Downton Abbey has a local connection to Wimberley. Patti Jones Morgan, local author and community supporter spent her formative years jut eight miles from Highclere Castle, the castle in Hampshire, England, whose exterior is the home of the mythical Crawley family of Downton Abbey. 

Morgan’s father was a bookstore manager in the neighboring village of Newbury, where her family lived. Growing up, she passed the castle many times on a bus, or on a bicycle ride and really didn’t give the castle a second thought. “The castle “didn’t mean anything to me, (located in) a little quiet country area, all hilly and dale, with a canal and river, very beautiful.”

Wimberley is blessed to have several locally-owned eateries. Things are different when your customers are your neighbors. Peggy Honaker, her husband Terry and their daughter Monica Coggin own Sugar Shack Bakery. Their goal is to offer great tasting baked goods, provide beautiful cakes for weddings and other occasions and, most of all, focus on freshness. 

Peggy Honaker credits her mother with inspiring her to bake. “I come from a military family. I was born in France. My mother was a German national. And, a lot of my baking background comes from her and that European influence. That’s how I was raised, with that palate. And, that’s how I raised Monica.”

There is something about making people smile that is special, and in that aspect, one of Wimberley’s most special people needs the community’s help. 

Lee Epstein, better known as Eppy the Clown, has fallen ill, and now there will be a fundraiser for the man who has made Wimberley smile for decades.

Butch Hancock, Jimmy Dale Gilmore, Hal Ketchum, Rory Hancock and Bruce Salmon will perform a benefit concert for Wimberley’s Eppy the Clown from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. on Sunday, Dec. 14, at the VFW Hall on Jacob’s Well Road.

On Friday December 5, the Barnabas connection had an Open House for volunteers and the media to showcase their Christmas Store, located in the Curves location by Brookshire Bros. The Christmas Store is the first time that an event has been held on such a small scale, with gifts that can be purchased by low income families in the Wimberley area at very reduced prices. 

All sorts of goodies were donated and purchased with sponsors’ donations and the gifts are marked down to 25 percent of what they are in a regular store. Low income families can then spend up to $35. to purchase gifts of their choosing – what they want to buy and for who they want to buy. Shopping in this way will hopefully build self confidence and the families can retain their dignity.

WHS theatre students are putting the finishing touches on their fall show which will take place Dec. 8-13. Instead of just doing one production, this year, they are performing three.

As a tribute to former director Gary Wyatt, the department chose a play co-written by one of Wyatt’s first students, Jessie Jones. Although she lives in New York and can’t make a trip to see the play, she told director Calen Cabler she was impressed to hear about high school students taking on such a huge production. 

In fact, WHS is the first high school and non-professional company to perform all three plays.

To say that Wimberley is a destination would be an understatement. Part of that charm comes from the large number and variety of specialty accommodations in this area — inns, B&Bs, cabins, cottages. Bill and Pat Appleman are owners and innkeepers at Creekhaven Inn. 

For more than a decade, they have been greeting guests and enhancing their visits to the Hill Country. That’s been a dream of the Applemans for a long time.

Bill was born and started school in San Antonio. When his father retired from Randolph Air Force Base, the family moved to Washington, DC. Bill returned to attend the University of Texas at Austin. That’s when he developed his love for the Hill Country. 

The host of the online radio show “Texas Hill Country Music” (THCM), Suzanna Eckchum is an artist, songwriter, mentor and creator of the Wimberley Valley Radio music show. A unique program, it showcases mostly new artists who are looking for an audience to hear their music. Suzanna has been there herself, traveling all over the world solo and with other bands in order for people to enjoy her songs.

Although she has had some established artists featured on the program, Ray Wylie Hubbard and Clayton McClinton to name two, the majority are artists that are on the radio for the first time. “I believe my show is open to many people who don’t get a chance” otherwise.

The Wimberley Community Chorus has a special guest director who has brought a new twist to this year’s Christmas concert. Thomas Coker has over 50 years experience as a music minister throughout the country and as been traveling from Houston to Wimberley for 13 weeks to prepare the community chorus for a unique series.

“I proposed to them that we do something that’s a little different,” Coker said. “It’s called Christmas and All That Jazz. I found some of Christmas pieces that are in the jazz style so they bought into it. It’s a little tough, but it’s fun, and we are having a good time with it.”

Coker has been a music minister throughout much of the country over the last 50 years, but the last 25 were at South Main Baptist Church in Houston leading large choirs.