In the summer of 1969, Jadean Bolton (Roberts) was asked by Kilgore College band director, Wally Read, to lead one of the largest Ranger bands at the time. As the drum major, she started with a jam-packed house at R.E. St. John Memorial Stadium for each of the home football games. November found her on the streets of New York City for the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. New Year’s Day 1970 was celebrated on a route through downtown Dallas that culminated with a performance at the Cotton Bowl — on the same field as the Texas Longhorn and Notre Dame Fighting Irish bands.
Roberts recalled how she was teaching for her mother’s company, “Tops in Twirling,” when Read saw her in Old Main. “He asked if I would be interested in taking over if our drum major, Dana Dowell, made Miss Texas, and had to leave to pursue that,” she said. “I said yes, and Dana made it, so I had to come up with a routine that summer.” Roberts remembers mostly being grateful she didn’t have to march with her saxophone after that.
Roberts enjoyed her band days. “Mr. Read was hard during practices, but when we got to the games, he always wanted us to have fun in the stands and enjoy the experience,” she said. “He would sit up there and play his trumpet along with us.”
She said games were “the event” in Kilgore at the time. Whether it was football or basketball, “If you didn’t come early, you wouldn’t get a seat,” she said. “It was exciting to be on campus. Something was going on constantly.”
Pep rallies were a campus-wide celebration that she recalled started with science instructor Jerry Pybas going from classroom to classroom, scooping up the band members for an impromptu parade to Masters Gymnasium.
Both of Roberts’ parents worked at KC at the time she was on campus. Her dad, J.W. Bolton, had been the Rangers’ football coach from 1957-60, then ran the KC Bookstore from 1968 to 1973. He was in the Financial Aid office from 1974, until his death in 1976. Roberts’ mom, Arnodean (Deana) Bolton, taught P.E., golf and dance at KC. She became Gussie Nell Davis’ assistant with the Rangerettes in 1972, then later the team’s second director in 1979 until she retired in 1993.
Roberts was involved in class leadership off the field as well. She was the class secretary/treasurer of the sophomore class; treasurer of the Chi Sigma Delta sorority; a homecoming duchess, and a leader on the Student Affairs Committee according to a search through the 1970 Ranger Yearbook. Her boyfriend at the time, Jerry Ted, was active in the Pre-Medical Club. They would get married following the 1970 Spring semester and move to Nacogdoches to attend Stephen F. Austin State University “after being together since middle school in Henderson,” Roberts said, laughing.
After she finished college, she worked as a first-grade teacher at Deer Park ISD, outside of Houston, while Jerry Ted finished Optometry school. They returned home when Irene and Floyd Childress decided to retire from owning the eye clinic in Kilgore – a contact that Roberts credits her father with finding. Back in Kilgore, they raised their children — daughter, Jaleesa, and son, Jadie. Here is where she plugged into being a PTA member, soccer mom, KHS Hi-Stepper booster club mom, bookkeeper for the family business and Coterie Club member. The family was also active in the United Methodist Church in downtown Kilgore.
Life hasn’t slowed down a lot since her days at KC. She is still actively involved in the family’s businesses; but now her son and daughter-in-law, Shiloh, help run the optometry office in Kilgore, while her daughter and son-in-law, Brian Hatchett, take care of more than 20 Zippy J’s convenience stores around the state. She and J.T. are “semi-retired” to Lake Cherokee, where she stays fit with Super Slow strength training, a bit of chair yoga with friends, and line dancing. She is also a member of Gamma Delta and Xi Pi Mu sororities. Her four grandchildren are active in sports, from a state cross-country running granddaughter who is also on her varsity soccer and track teams in high school; to a trio of grandsons who are involved in soccer, golf and tennis.
And Roberts finds herself reliving her college days every once and a while, thanks to Facebook posts from her fellow Rangers.
“I made some good, lifelong friends here,” she said.