Page 22 - Senior Link Magazine Winter 2019- Online Magazine

Fuston Billie Ruth McCarty

Aggie Falls for Red Raider

(and Vice Versa)

by Jamie Thomason

I t all began with a blind date 68

years ago …

Billie Ruth Little lived in Littlefield,
TX, and her girlfriend LaJean was
dating a boy named Porky who
lived in Muleshoe, TX. LaJean had a
date and invited Billie Ruth to come
along and meet a boy named James
“Fuston” McCarty in Muleshoe.
She accepted the date because her
boyfriend of three years had gone
to Houston without her, and she
was not too happy with him! The
girls drove to Muleshoe to meet the
boys. Billie Ruth was in the back
seat, and the first thing Fuston did
once he climbed into the car was
to grab her hand. They think they
went to a movie …. The next day
Billie Ruth decided to drive back
(in her new turquoise convertible)
to Muleshoe to see Fuston. She
stopped at his house, and his mother
Ruth McCarty told her that he was
working in the alfalfa fields. Billie
Ruth went out and found him, and during the school year. She would On Christmas Day 1950, Fuston
they got to know each other a little leave Lubbock at 7:00 p.m. on a proposed to Billie Ruth with an
better. Friday night and arrive in Caldwell, engagement ring. The following
TX the next morning at 5:00 a.m. January, he went to New Orleans to
Fuston said they did not really She made that trip about six times. the Sugar Bowl football game and
date since he was going to the On one trip, they missed the train to run track in the finals for AMC
Agricultural & Mechanical College back to Lubbock by five minutes, so (American Mideast Conference
of Texas (as Texas A&M University Fuston borrowed a friend’s car and or NAIA), in which they placed
was known back then), and she raced to Temple to get Billie Ruth on second. They married June 8, 1951
was attending Texas Technological the next train! She had an exam on and honeymooned in Colorado.
College (Texas Tech University Monday that she could not miss. It That summer, they lived in a little
today). Billie Ruth would ride the was during the next summer months house down the road from his
train to College Station to see Fuston that they really “dated”. parents, and that is when Billie Ruth

22 Lubbock Senior Link