ten-year-old Lola McKellar
set up a lemonade stand to
raise money for his treat-
ments. In 2015, when a 350-
year flood sent water rushing
into local homes, an army of
volunteers showed up to get
a wheelchair-bound neigh-
bor and his wife to higher
ground, then came back to
help rebuild. On the beams,
volunteers wrote Bible verses:
“He lifted me out of the pit of
despair, out of the mud and
mire. He set my feet on solid
ground and steadied me as I
walked along.” (Psalm 40:2)
Preserving and honor-
ing the past has been key to
helping Mount Vernon sur-
vive. The Ostertags and a few
other families have restored
and reopened some of the empty
storefronts, including the old barber-
shop, built more than 100 years ago.
After a nine-month renovation, it be-
came a coffee shop called Watermelon
Mills, named for the barber, William
“Watermelon” Mills, who always had
a pot of coffee on for his customers.
“When we opened, people would
come in and point to a corner and say,
‘That’s where I got my first haircut,’”
says Shannon.
The Ostertags also bought the old
general store, M.L. Edwards & Co., and
turned it into a combination bistro/
boutique/event space. (Shannon even
persuaded her ex-husband, Henryaround and turns up in a few highlight
reels getting into it with Shaquille
O’Neal.) Shannon, a native Califor-
nian, had never even been to Texas,
and she’d never lived in a small town.
Her first glimpse of Mount Vernon
was on the Internet.
“It’s got this great school system
and this little Mayberry downtown,”
says Shannon. In Scottsdale, her son,
Trevor Ruelas, went to a high school
that had more kids than the entire
population of their new town.
Mount Vernon has the kind of big
hearts you tend to find in a small town.
For instance, when the local constable
was diagnosed with cancer last year,
This family has planted deep roots in its adopted
hometown: (left to right) Greg Ostertag, Trevor Ruelas,
Charlestynn Ostertag, Shannon Ostertag, Lily Ruelas
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