By Deanna Brown

When B.J. Thomas rolls into town Saturday for two concerts, at least one Corsicana resident can say she “knew him when ...”

Charlye Worley is a wife, a mother, a grandmother, and a fourth grade teacher. But once upon a time, she dated an up-and-coming singer. The beauty from Hallettsville was in a contest at a bowling alley in Altair, Texas, when the first meeting with Thomas occurred.

“His band was playing at this bowling alley, in this town that was just a spot in the road,” Worley said. “All they had was a restaurant, a motel, and this bowling alley. Of course, the girl from Altair won the contest.”

Worley said the second meeting didn’t stand out in her memory.

“It was several months after that first meeting that we had our first date,” she said.

She had grown up with her grandmother and her sister visiting dance halls that dotted the countryside, many with no air conditioning.

“They had these big open windows, and we would watch the dancing from there,” she said. “Back then, the State Championship High School Rodeo was in Hallettsville, and during the four days of rodeo, there always had big dances.

“In 1961, we would go to his bands’ gigs, and while he played and sang, I sat around and listened, and danced with a few people. Then we would talk to each other between sets.”

She recalled Thomas being pretty poor back in those days, and he worked a regular job during the week. His band, The Triumphs, were from Rosenberg, and mainly played on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights. Thomas also had a friend who had a band, Roy Head and the Traits, she remembered from those days.

“B.J. was a nice fellow, just a nice guy,” she recalled. “I think he had one older brother and a sister, and came from pretty humble beginnings. In those days, everyone just got in cars on the weekend and went somewhere to dance. There were places out in the middle of nowhere that had a huge dance hall.”

One thing that sticks in Worley’s mind is that Thomas seemed to really care a lot about his family. He also didn’t have a car, and most of the time, rode with someone else. Once she got a car, in order to work and go to school, they were both in business.

“I remember one night, leaving a dance in Schulenburg, and B.J. was driving,” she said. “There were some of those posts about three feet high, with that really strong wire between each post. Generally, I think they marked places you weren’t supposed to drive. Anyway, B.J. hit that thing right about the headlights, and wrecked it. It was always late at night when they finished playing, so it was dark. But he did fix the car.”

Worley was attending the University of Houston and working 30 hours a week for a company that did keypunch and verifying, and eventually met Dr. Max Worley. Her romance with Thomas cooled, and she and Worley married.

“Then Uncle Sam called Max in a doctors’ draft for the Army, and he was sent to the Panama Canal zone to get people eyeball-ready for Vietnam,” she said. “We lived in Panama City, which was an experience in itself.”

After Worley’s discharge from the Army, the family relocated to Wyoming, and spent 17 years there, where Charlye resumed college in 1983 at the University of Wyoming.

“It was a horrible winter, and we had a car that didn’t work right, and I told Max I was going back to Texas whether he went or not,” she said.

Mutual optometrist friends in Dallas told Max about Dr. G.T. Denson, and his optometry practice in Corsicana. They visited on Memorial Day weekend, and by Labor Day, Denson had invited Worley to join him .

“We sold our house within two weeks in Rawlins, Wyoming,” she said. “That was at a time when nothing was selling. Some people from Giddings, Texas bought the house. They only lasted there a year. It was not the prettiest part of Wyoming, and 17 years was enough penance to pay.

“The people there are fantastic, but the weather is awful.”

The Worleys settled in Corsicana in 1985, and raised their sons here. Charlye teaches fourth grade at Fannin Elementary, her 20th year with Corsicana Independent School District. Max has a thriving practice downtown, and their son Jason is married to MaryAnn Livingston, with three sons: Brennen, Kellen and Dillon, and son Jarred and his wife Heather have the “granddogs.”

Charlye has not seen Thomas since 1961, even though her brothers had an occasional sighting over the years, and her mother kept track of him through the gossip columns.

But she has her tickets in hand for the 8 p.m. concert, and hopes to get a chance to catch up after the show.

“He was always very polite to people,” she said. “He was never one to get into fights.”

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