Historic Laredo

❖
Mabel Cogley Wall, far right, at the
wedding of protege Cordelia Casso
Flores to Ricardo Flores. Also pictured
is Mabel’s daughter, Margaret B. Tish.
COURTESY OF CORDELIA C. FLORES
at these yearly occasions was desirable and much
sought after. They were an important event in
Laredo at that time,” he said.
Corrigan also recalled that the Casso sisters—
Hortencia, Cordelia, and Mapy—all worked with Mrs.
Wall after they attended Incarnate Word College.
“When one of us left to get married, another
one of us came to work with Mrs. Wall,” Cordelia
Casso Flores began.
“Era una dama, una perfecta dama . (She was a
real lady, a perfect lady) I was very fond of her, and
I learned a great deal about journalism from her.
She was organized about keeping dates and events
and her notes about weddings, showers, club
meetings, recipe stories, and special social events.
When I see stories in the paper today that appear
long after the fact, I remember how hard she
worked to have stories ready ahead of time so that
once the event transpired, the story was mostly
ready except for a few details,” Flores said, adding,
“She would have the Colonial Ball story ready way
in advance. She wanted her news fresh. She was
very organized and very particular about names
and spelling,” she continued. “It was the policy of
the newspaper to be as correct as possible and as
timely as possible,” she said.
“Mrs. Wall said you didn’t have to go to the parties,
that you could use the telephone. She said people
loved to talk about their parties. Every young
lady who got married or had a shower was welcome
to place news of her marriage in the paper. Mrs. Wall
was very inclusive,” Flores said.
“I learned about discretion from her, how important
it is what you write and when you write it.
There were many stories that didn’t get in the paper.
Only the ones that fit her sense of propriety went in.
She went by the book, the etiquette book, on social
issues. She was very maternal with me, very kind,
very protective,” she continued.
“Mrs. Wall practiced the Golden Rule. She
always took the high road, and so did the newspaper.
You never saw any advertisements for any -
thing risqué or immoral. The newspaper was very
conscious of good relations with Mexico and made
every effort to cover both sides of the border and
to be a good neighbor,” Flores said.
“I loved that she was always dressed for tea and
wore the appropriate accompanying beautiful jewelry.
She was a wonderful conversationalist, very
witty,” she said. “She was also the diplomat of the
office, the mediator if someone needed her inter -
cession with Mr. Tish,” Flores said.
“Editors came and went, but Mrs. Wall was always
there. When I worked there in 1967, there was a core
of individuals who had been and continued to be the
backbone of the newspaper. There was Tom Green, Jim
Parish, Alicia Mendoza, Guy Skipper, Clara Moreno,
Joe Barrera, Mr. Zardenetta, Mr. Watts in the press
room. Those were great days,” Flores remembered.
“She was a dear friend to many. The relation -
ship she had with her housekeeper, Chelo, was a
very special one. She considered her a very trusted
and much loved companion, and it was clear to
everyone that the current of the friendship ran
both ways, that Chelo was a dear and esteemed
friend,” Flores recalled.
JIM PARISH: A MAN FOR WHOM RIVERS
& LANGUAGE KNEW NO BORDERS
When Jim Parish first came to The Laredo Times
in 1961, the publication’s office and physical plant
were at the corner of Juarez and Matamoros, next
to the Bender Hotel, west of the post office and the
federal building. These were the days of manual
typewriters, stories pecked out on newsprint and
typeset once more in hot lead, linotype, line of
type. Proofs were read on long galley sheets.
These were the days in which the Times was
under the stewardship of Allan K. Tish, a serious,
red-haired, flush-faced man known affectionately
in the press room as “ El Huachinango,” the red
snapper. The Times’ advertising staff included H.
A. Dwyer, Guy Skipper, and Abe Palacios.
20 ✦ HISTORIC LAREDO