What started as a dedication to the Mineola railroad museum housed inside the Amtrak train station morphed into more of a reunion as the Ballard and Puckett family came together to be greeted by friends and classmates from the time the grandchildren were growing up in Mineola while their grandfather worked the rail line.

Bob Odell Ballard was a railroader in Mineola starting in the 1930s for the Texas and Pacific Railroad, and when the T&P joined the International and Great Northern, he went to work with Union Pacific.

He worked the switch yards in West Mineola and became a full-time engineer in 1942. His main route was from Mineola to Fort Worth.

His grandson Jim Bob Puckett recalled when he was 5-7 that he would know whether his Pap Paw was home or not when he saw his pickup parked at the depot.

As America prepared for its bicentennial in 1976, work began to restore the old 610 steam locomotive.

It pulled the American Freedom Train through the state in 1976, and Ballard was selected to drive it from Fort Worth to Mineola.

The display presented by the Pucketts includes photos of Ballard with the historic locomotive.

Their interest in having this history on display began when visiting the Texas State railroad on Oct. 12 in Palestine, where the 610 is stored. They were able to tour the locomotive which is featured in photos in the display that now hangs in the depot museum.

Ballard’s only child, daughter Bobbie Ann, became a Mineola school teacher and her husband, Charles Haynes Puckett, ran the Puckett Soil and Fertility Co. He was a 1957 Mineola graduate and she graduated in 1959.

Jim Bob Puckett recalled working at the Select Theater as well as the drive-in east of town while still in middle school.

“Mineola was a big part of our lives,” he said, despite having to move away before he completed school.

“Growing up here was something special,” he said. “We grew up in the East Texas way.”