« Worst Cop-Outs Ever | Main | BOO says you »
Horany's Store
September 25, 2007Horany.
It's a funny last name. My sister and I always joked we were going to marry someone named "Smith" or "Jones" just to get rid of it-and we pitied my brother for not being able to shake the crazy name. Despite our juvenile dread of having people make fun of us and our eagerness to get married just to put the pain behind us, we did always feel a little special, and a little exotic. We also felt like we were part of a history of North Texas that many people may not know about-the long story of Lebanese immigrants in this area.
Horanys come from Lebanon, a land a world away, in the Middle East. My great-granddad, Shukri "Sam K." Hourani, a devout Christian, saw the writing on the wall, so to speak, and moved his family to the United States around the turn of the 20th century. They came through Ellis Island on July 4, amid celebrations of Independence Day in New York. The old story goes that because of those fireworks, they were worried they were coming to another land filled with war. But they realized it was just a way to celebrate and all were happy yet again.
Like many immigrants, my family endured and prospered with hard work, perseverance, and faith in God. I always wonder what Sam would think if someone told him one of his many great-granddaughters would grow up in freedom, graduate from college and become a reporter! I think he would be proud, and I hope he would know he made the right decision to come here!
But I digress, as many do when speaking of personal history. My great-uncle Ray opened Horany's Department Store in Olney in the 1920's, and his brothers-in-law, Freddie and Johnny Horany, bought the business from him and kept that store open for many years.
After their first store burned in Schidler, Oklahoma, Sam and his wife Nebeha opened a department store in Archer City in the late 1920's. Sam died in a tragic traffic accident in the late 1940's, but Nebeha kept the store open until she died in 1963. My great-uncle Mitchell opened a store in Megargel as well. They supplied the area with everything a resident of a small town in North Texas could want or need.
Fast forward almost 60 years, to the 1980s.
When I was a little girl, my granddad, Melvin, the youngest of Sam's eight children, would take me to the department store in Olney. They had a Radio Shack inside, and I thought that was the coolest thing since sliced bread. They had dresses, they had shoes, and they had cassette tape players all in the same place, and the best part-it had the same name as I did! I felt welcomed there, like I had come home, even though I grew up in Wichita Falls. I think others customers, even if they didn't have the same name as the store, felt that way too. And I'll tell you why.
In my job as a regional reporter in Young County, every time I would say my last name, someone inevitably would tell me "I bought my wedding dress at Horany's Department Store" or "Are you related to those Horanys down in Olney?" It fills me with pride to know that my family has been able to touch so many people's lives in a positive way. The store is closed after a long run in the 1990's, closed, but certainly not forgotten.
Now Horany's Department Store in Olney will serve again, this time as a dentist's office.That funny name is on the outside of the building, and even if folks nowadays might not know why, they are still being served by Horanys.
Posted by Stacy Horany at 05:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Comments
Stacy may not know it, but her great-granddad, Shukri "Sam K." Hourani is shown in the 1905 R. L. Polk Directory for the City of Krebs, I.T.,(now Oklahoma) as "Sucie Horany" and as being a peddler. By 1920 census as owning a candy store in Cushing Oklahoma. By 1930 he was the owner of a dry goods store in Archer City, Texas.
