Reader's Digest - USA (2019-07)

NATIONAL INTEREST

Mount Vernon, Texas, could have

become just another fading

outpost. Folks in town weren’t

about to let that happen.

Some of the heart and soul in Mount Vernon:

(top, from left) Enam Chowdhury, chef at the

Chophouse on Bankhead, one of the hot spots on

the town square; Tom Wilkinson, retired professor

and native son; (middle) Karen Chowdhury, partner

in the Chophouse; Lauren Lewis, manager at

the renovated general store M.L. Edwards & Co.;

(bottom) Teresia Wims, mayor; Henry Ruelas,

construction whiz behind many renovations in town

Small-Town

SPIRIT

Lives Here

By Jody L. Rohlena

Photographs by Buff Strickland

★★★★★★★★★★★★

★★★★★★★★★★★★

96 july/august 2019 | rd.com