FRANK AND JANE BAIN

The following bio was taken from page 99 of the book entitled "Rusk County History" compiled and edited and used with permission of the Rusk County Historical Commission.

Transcribed by Shirley Koym

Submitted by Gloria Briley Mayfield, Rusk County TX Coordinator

A fifth generation Rusk Countian, Anna Jane Rogers Bain, and her husband, Frank Edward Bain, moved to Henderson in 1957. Mr. Bain became manager of the forty-five-year-old family business, Rusk County Lumber Company. This business was founded by Mrs. Bain’s father, George W. Rogers.

Mr. Bain, born February 11, 1911, son of Edward H. P. Bain of Portsmouth, Virginia and Evelyn Howard of Canton, Mississippi, was a graduate of Baylor University. Long active in the lumber business in Crocket and Waco, he quickly became active in Henderson, working with the Chamber of Commerce and joining the Kiwanis Club. For many years he worked in the Boy Scouts of American Program on both local and area levels.

Frank Bain was a quiet and soft-spoken family man devoted to his children. His untimely death on January 20, 1959, at age forty-seven left Jane with three children to raise.

Mrs. Bain was widely known as an excellent cook and had helped her mother-in-law manage Hamilton House, a woman’s club house in Waco. Using this experience, she immediately started private catering throughout the county until she joined the Henderson Independent School District as an art teacher in both Middle and High School from 1966 to 1973. She received her Bachelor of Arts Degree from Baylor University.

Mrs. Bain then left the school system and became co-owner of Evelyn’s Ladies Fashions with her daughter and son-in-law, Evelyn and Salah Craig.

Elected in 1980 as a bank director for Citizens National Bank, Mrs. Bain is the first woman in Henderson’s history to serve in this position. Then in 1981 she was selected Henderson’s Woman of the Year, an annual honor presented by the Beta Sigma Phi Chapters. She has been active in every phase of community life – First Baptist Church, Pilot Club International, Chamber of Commerce, and the social clubs, Pallas Athene Literary Society and Varied Arts Club. Mrs. Bain’s grandsons say, "Granny is a super, elegant lady."

Jane and Frank Bain had three children. Evelyn Bain, born July 25, 1935, married John Salah Craig. Salah had two sons from a former marriage: Sarah Ann Bain was born March 24, 1942. She married Gerald Leon Roper. They have three children: Gerald Kevin Roper, born July 23, 1966; Joseph Christian Roper, born December 23, 1968; and Kelly Ann Roper, born August 4, 1976.

Frank Edward Bain, Jr., born July 19, 1943, married Lynda Alsop of Greenwood, Mississippi, and their children are: Lacy Rogers Bain, born April 23, 1975; Anna Elizabeth Bain, born July 30, 1976; and Robert Wingate Bain, born February 10, 1978.

Submitted by Evelyn Bain Craig