Kaye Northcott

Voices of Galindo: Spotlight on Kaye Northcott

By Lisa McGiffert, recorded on Feb 28, 2024
Editor’s clarifications are in [brackets]

Long time Galindo resident Kaye Northcott recalls her memories here, from moving into the quirky yellow concrete house at 3000 Oak Crest Avenue, to her long career in journalism and the strong neighborly ties that developed over the years. After nearly 50 years she sold her house in December 2024.

Tell us about your house! 
Mike Tollison and I moved here in early 1976 after having bought the house for $21,000 from Mrs. Dorothy Munson, the widow of Elmer Anderson. Elmer built things out of concrete for a living. So, he dug a hole then built the house up from the basement through the first floor with cinder blocks. Elmer was from Sweden, so perhaps he built the basement because they have them there.  

One thing I have since learned is that if you have any leftover concrete you have to get rid of it. So, Elmer got rid of a lot of concrete here. That’s why we had to knock out a fake pink concrete fireplace with recessed neon lighting. He also made an entire concrete backyard with a turquoise fishpond but no drainage. I’m still finding concrete in the yard. And he signed it. When I built a new driveway, I had the builders pull out a piece that says Anderson and the dates. I should have put my name and dates in the driveway too, but it never occurred to me. 

In 1976, what was the neighborhood like?
It was mainly a Hispanic neighborhood. This was sort of a white enclave up on the hill. A lot of the houses around me are still here–anything that is small and looks like it would be affordable. Some of the houses on the hill were here. The older houses on Cumberland and the “barracks” were here. The big 2-story houses with balconies were not here then.

Leo Holden, who we called the “Mayor of Oak Crest Avenue,” would take in everyone’s trash cans if they were left out on the street after the trashmen came, which was very nice. He was mainly concerned about people knowing when no one was home. 

Let me also mention Jerry Pulley and Walter who lived next door at 3002 Oak Crest. [That house has since been torn down and replaced.] Jerry was an arborist with one of the best tree services in town. He was doing that about the time Live Oak decline came to the neighborhood. And of course, this is Oak Crest Avenue, and it took out all of the oaks on this side of the street. Jerry participated in early experiments with Texas A&M to try to figure out ways to control it. For a time, we had baggies of serum hanging out of the trees inserted with a needle, but nothing worked, they all died. There are only some across the street that survived where the avenue was wide enough to stop root lock. 

Jack and Lee Howard still own the lot south of Jerry. It was fun to watch them start building because they were such hippies. They didn’t know what they were doing, but it turned out that Jack was a really good one-man builder. It is charming–they did not take out a single tree. Jack was from East Texas, and he knew trees. He wanted to live inside those trees so he built around them. They now rent that house.  [ed. note: You can look at the house and see that they used a lot of spare parts because nothing matches!]

What work were you doing at that time? 
I was editor of the Texas Observer then left to be a freelance journalist focusing on politics. I did the Texas Monthly best/worst legislators project; an article on drug smuggling along the border that we made into a documentary for public television; and an article about Ben Barnes and John Connelly who wanted to develop land near here. In 1986, I went to work for the Ft Worth Star Telegram, covering the Texas legislature. When I moved to Ft. Worth six years later I kept this house and rented it out because I knew this was where I wanted to come back to. [ed. note: When she returned to Austin, she worked at the Texas Co-op Power magazine until her retirement in 2010.] 

What went on in this house? Did you have gatherings? 
We had many parties for the Texas Observer here. Molly Ivins was a very good friend of mine and John Henry Faulk and his wife Liz were good friends. I remember when Molly’s dog, Shit, died we had her memorial here and John Henry and I made remarks. We also had a lot of dinner parties and Sunday brunches. One time I came home and there were people on my roof watching the fireworks! 

Did you ever participate in neighborhood meetings? 
Yes, when we got involved with stopping the Barnes and Connelly development, we created a neighborhood group – the Dawson Area Neighbor Group, or DANG. I think that is still the name of the one across South First and at some point, this area became Galindo. I remember knocking on a lot of doors, where people would be inside the screen and wouldn’t open the door. There was a hell of a lot of apathy. I think a lot more apathy than there is now. 

In terms of the neighborhood, I think it is more of a neighborhood now than it has ever been just judging by the number of people who walk, or are pushing strollers or walking their dogs up and down the streets. People are enjoying it more. I just wish the city had had enough sense to build sidewalks! The neighborhood group is much more organized now. Though we had a neighborhood group before, it was totally motivated to fight Ben Barnes.

So what is the Barnes-Connelly story?
Ben Barnes [former Lt. Gov of TX] and John Connelly [former Gov of TX] had a partnership, and they bought several acres that ran from South 1^st through to South 5^th [south of Limon Ln] to build apartments. The neighborhood didn’t want that. It was still pretty much a Mexican American neighborhood, and the Mexican Americans remembered Ben Barnes when he was Lt. Governor. He had tried to stop the farm workers from coming to Austin to try to get a minimum wage set up. He and the AG and their staff went to New Braunfels to meet with the farmworkers and told them, “don’t come any farther, this is far enough; we get your message, so don’t come to the Capitol to demonstrate – we are not going to be in town.” Of course they came to the Capitol. 

And every Hispanic with any political consciousness knew how offensive that interaction had been. They still remembered when Ben Barnes had previously tried to redevelop their neighborhood. So, we got a valid petition to stop some of the construction on the north side of their property. We went to the City Council with a huge number of people, and pretty much backed them off, which forced them to sell. We probably got much better built houses [on Limon] than they would have built because Ben Barnes built everything to look like a cheap Holiday Inn, because he owned some Holiday Inns. We also stopped the alley behind Oak Crest from going all the way through – that would have become a road. 

Joe Rydell, an environmental lawyer who helped, lived at the end of South 4^th Street. He rode his bicycle everywhere and was really admired at City Council because he knew so much and his points were always good. [ed. note: When Limon Ave was eventually developed, years later, the owners once again tried to get multi-family zoning for that street and Joe was instrumental in stopping that, keeping the street zoned as single family.]

What changes did you make to your house?  
The front room [which is now a large open space] was two rooms. It had blue linoleum and pink walls, maybe to go with the pink fireplace. [Kaye points to a plug about 6 feet up the wall] That plug was for the fireplace neon lighting. And, on the other side there were cabinets – a linen closet – in the hallway, to make use of the fake fireplace. And in 2019, I added a room and bathroom on the back of the house. 

Tell us more memories about your house:
Mike Tollison, who lived here about 5 years, was involved with the Armadillo World Headquarters so all our home repairs were done by musicians – Shiva’s Headband, the South Austin Jug Band. There were many repairs. This was a very crude unfinished house. After Mr. Anderson died, Mrs. Anderson had divided the house along the hallway. She lived on the north side and rented out the south side. So, it was a half assed duplex when we bought it and that’s why I call the storage area the lower kitchen; it was her kitchen. 

When Mike and I decided we wanted to buy a house, we went to the adults. Our adult friends were Ann [former Texas Governor] and Dave Richards. They said ok, here is what you do: you find a nice part of town that is still cheap. So, we got the Sunday paper out and made a plan, and Ann and Dave drove us around this neighborhood. So, they helped us find this house. Not specifically this house, but then we started looking for places with good trees, hillside, and we discovered a crude house with a lot of potential. 

What are your memories of the restaurant on South First [2809 S 1st St]?

Who else do you remember?  
Some of the Fabulous Thunderbirds lived in the neighborhood near Galindo Elementary. And we have to mention Jocelyn Gray [who lived at 3005 S. 4^th St across the alley from Kaye] who was a good friend. I had worked with Jocelyn, and I knew you from the Capitol and we became three friends up and down – I was upstairs and Jocelyn was the mezzanine and you were downstairs. 

What will you miss about this neighborhood? 
Moving from 2000 square feet into 1000 square feet, with no room for books. I’m going to miss the space. I’m going to miss the yard and the people. I like the location – there are a lot more good places to eat than Exposition Blvd where I live now. 

Thank you Kaye, you will be missed!

Is there someone or someplace you would like to spotlight in Galindo? Reach out to us at newsletter@gena.org.

More About Kaye

• Interview here [2010, youtube]
• List of some of her articles: https://muckrack.com/kaye-northcott/articles
• Before the Texas Observer, Kaye, as the co-editor of the University of Texas Daily Texan, went to Selma to cover the civil-rights march to Montgomery and a “hallmark of her term was continuing criticism of the United States’ deepening involvement in Vietnam, despite pressure from the administration to stop.”