Jane and Dick Chislett

How can someone pack up and move after 32 ½ years in one spot? Well, it is not an easy task, either physically or emotionally, as Jane Chislett can attest. The Chisletts made their home at 8th and Olive in Port O’Connor shortly after arriving in Calhoun County in 1981. Jane and Richard (Dick) moved from LaGrand, Oregon when Dick was transferred to Port Lavaca by his employer, GTE telephone company. The hot, humid weather of Port Lavaca was not a pleasant change from Oregon. “It smelled ‘fishy’,” Jane said. They couldn’t find a suitable place to rent so, they ventured out a little further and found Port O’Connor. Finding a trailer home to rent, they were able to purchase it and Dick subsequently made a lot of improvements to it.

Dick continued working for GTE until his retirement in 1996. Meanwhile Jane found work as a cook. She worked at The Fishing Center and at the old Strykers, and lastly at Harbor Inn in Seadrift, until her retirement in 1997. “I still remember people around here by their food orders, “ Jane said, “how they liked their eggs fixed, and things like that.”

Jane was known around Port O’Connor for her affinity for stray cats. Known by many as ‘The Cat Lady’, she at one time took care of 47 cats, all having been named and ‘fixed’. She would bring strays home from The Fishing Center where people often dropped them off and has raised many kittens by hand. She remembers once walking down the street and turning to see 17 cats following after her.

Currently her brood of cats numbers about 25. Having to leave them is not easy, and Jane thought it would be more kind to turn them over to the Humane Society. “At least they will have a chance of finding a home,” she said.

With the help of their friends Pam and Hardy Mills of Seadrift, Dick and Jane have now moved to be near their daughter Linda and family In Pickton, Texas. Moving to Pickton is sort of like ‘going home’ says Jane. Pickton, which is about 100 miles east of Dallas, is only 40 miles east of Jane’s birthplace in Titus County. Pickton is also a small community, so it won’t be so different from Port O’Connor.

Jane was looking forward to being with her daughter for Thanksgiving and her daughter’s 62nd birthday, to being with her only grandchild, Laura, and her two great granddaughters. “We are embarking on a life-changing experience,” she said. “We plan on purchasing a mobile home and setting it up on my daughter’s 19 acre home site. We will be within hollerin’ distance of each other,” she said.

After living here so long, Dick and Jane have met a lot of folks, “and we enjoyed knowing most all of them,” Jane said. “I will especially miss my church family and friends. My one regret is that I didn’t get to cook more fried chicken for Pastor Erny.”