Honoring charter members
Twenty-six businesses and three individuals are the Chamber’ s charter members.
According to minutes from the Keene Chamber archives, 26 people met at the Keene Diner on July 1, 1993, to discuss forming a chamber of commerce.
The group decided to extend charter membership in the Chamber to all individuals and businesses who applied through September 1993. Dr. Brady Rusk and Bob Mendenhall, acting on behalf of radio station KJCR, were the first to apply for membership.
Besides Mendenhall and Rusk, others in attendance at that historic meeting included: the late Ivan Allen, Duane Barnes, Peter Bennis, Rebecca Bolinger, Ginger Dickens, the late Eveline Gilley, Janet Goodman, Angie Hadley, Barbara Hainey, Betty Harrell, Gary Heinrich, James Moody, the late Larry Moore, Tony Muse, Ray Nichols, Yddo Ortiz, Martin Read, Jenell Rusk, the late V. O. Schneider, Wes Schram, Cathy Smith, Wanda Smith, and late Dolly Spells- Chastain and Carolyn Jo Wear.
OFFICERS ELECTED
On July 7, 1993, Chamber organizers met again and set membership fees at $ 25( for individual, couple, or business with 1-5 employees), $ 50( businesses with 6-12 employees), and $ 100( businesses with 13 and more employees).
According to Chamber minutes, the membership decided that the first board would serve the remainder of 1993 and all of 1994. Elected to the first Chamber board were: Peter Bennis, Brenda Denison, Bob Mendenhall, Susan Meyer, Brady Rusk, Randy Scoggins, Wanda Smith, Eldon Spady and Carolyn Jo Wear.
That board chose its officers and elected Bennis as president, Rusk as president-elect, and Denison as treasurer.
By Aug. 12, 1993, according to the minutes, the Chamber had 13 paid members. That grew to 19 two weeks later, and on Sept. 9, when the Keene City Council voted to allot $ 1,000 to the Chamber, membership was 27. By the end of September, a total of 26 businesses and three individuals had joined and qualified as charter members.
The 29 Charter members of the Keene Chamber of Commerce are:
• Bennett’ s Printing & Office Supply
• Peter Bennis
• Brandom Manufacturing
• Campus Diner
• Community Living Concepts, Inc.
• DW Services
• Dolly’ s Beauty Salon
• Exodus Productions
• First State Bank( now Pinnacle Bank)
• General Insurance Service
• Glass Expressions
• Hardee Irrigation and Landscape, Inc.
• Huguley Memorial Medical Center( now Texas Health Huguley Hospital)
• JLB Consulting
• Johnson County Electric Co-op( now United Cooperative Services)
• City of Keene
• Keene Pharmacy
• Keene Star
• Keene Travel
• Ladies Body Works
• Milner TV
• Mohr’ s Construction
• Odyssey Harbor
• Brady Rusk, D. D. S.
• Don Smith
• Wanda Smith
• Southwestern Adventist University
• TXU( TU Electric)
• Tomblinson Real Estate( now Zacharias Real Estate)
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