A summer celebration in Chandler to mark the city’s 50 years of incorporation will raise money to create a museum, the collections of which are housed in the Chandler Public Library (above). Paul Bryant Photo A celebration marking 50 years of Chandler’s incorporation has been scheduled for July 10 at Winchester Park, and money raised during the event will help finance the creation of a city museum, Nancy Bertholf said.

“We have two cases at the (Chandler Public Library) displaying items of interest, including ... items from the Ralph Yarborough collection. This includes correspondence from Jackie Kennedy and items relating to President Kennedy’s assassination. This space is not adequate to display or store other items donated to the library.”

Activities planned for the July celebration at Winchester Park include a street dance, concert, and fireworks exhibition. Food concessions will be available, Bertholf said.

“As part of the fundraising, a Heritage Cookbook is being compiled. Residents are asked to submit a family recipe, picture and short narrative describing their family’s Chandler history. The cookbook will serve as an update for the 1980 centennial publication, “Chandler: Its History and People,” which is no longer in print.”

Though the city was incorporated in 1960, its history dates to 1880 when the Texas and St. Louis Railway established a station on land donated about 31 years earlier by Alphonso Chandler, for which the town was renamed. It was originally called Stillwater.

Bertholf, Chandler’s librarian, said organizers haven’t decided whether to expand the library or move the historical collection.

“This summer’s celebration will serve as the kickoff for donations and fundraising,” she said. “We are pursuing the possibility of obtaining grants as well. Chandler’s history can be traced back to the 1850s and many descendents of these first settlers still reside in the area. There would be an abundance of items that would help preserve and illustrate the history of local residents, their homes, businesses, schools and churches.”

Chandler Public Library is a branch of the Henderson County Clint W. Murchison Memorial Library. Originally housed in a book mobile, the Chandler branch was moved to Broad Street in 1983 and relocated again 13 years later to its current building 900 State Highway 31.

The late Yarborough, a Democratic senator, was born in Chandler in 1903. He taught school in Henderson County, practiced law in El Paso and Austin, was a Texas judge and assistant attorney general, a World War II veteran in the U.S. Army, and an author.

Yarborough was in Kennedy’s motorcade during the president’s assassina- tion in 1963 in Dallas.

The planning committee for Chandler’s 50thanniversary celebration is scheduled to meet at City Hall on March 18, at 6 p.m.

Call 903-849-4122.