The Odessa American from Odessa, Texas • 13

Monday, Jan. 7, 1985 THE ODESSA AMERICAN SB Mask maker favors flamboyant lifestyle Waco blooms with preserve WACO (AP) One of the first wildflower preserves in the nation will bloom in Central Texas after its dedication' by former first lady and conservationist Lady Bird Johnson. The preserve, named Miss Nellie's Pretty Place, will be located at Cameron Park near the Brazos River in Waco. Officials at a Friday banquet to unveil plans for the 6.5-acre park area said it will be one of the few places in the United States where wildflowers bloom in a city. Mrs.

Johnson was featured speaker at the banquet. The project has received a $100,000 donation, which municipal officials said is the largest single gift to the city of Waco since William Cameron donated the park which bears his name. Miss Nellie's Pretty Place is named in honor of "Miss Nellie" Conger Poage, who used to pick flowers on the site. "The idea of a natural wildflower park is a pioneer one," said Harry Harelik, president of the Greater Waco Beautification Association which shares management responsibility for the park with the city. "It will be one of the' few such locations in the U.S." where wildflowers can be observed within a city, he said.

Midland woman named to board AUSTIN (AP) Gov. Mark White on Friday appointed Lydia Evaro Torres of Midland to the State Board of Dental Examiners for a term extending through May 10,1987. Ms. Torres, 27, is a Xerox Corp. marketing representative.

She replaces Geraldine Tucker of Austin, whose appointment did not receive Senate confirmation. rr- By KATHY THOMAS-H ARGIS The Galveston Daily News For The Associated Press GALVESTON Feathers and a faint fragrance of jasmine float around Mike Stark as he creates his flights of fantasy. Stark, a big man with a bushy, red beard, makes delicate-looking masks out of colorful feathers, rhinestone jewelry, sequins, bones, fur and anything else that strikes his fancy. A Greenville, Texas, native, Stark now lives in New Orleans' French Quarter. At a table set up in the en-' tranceway to the store, the friendly, flamboyant artist glued feathers to the hand-formed half-mask forms.

When all the layers of feathers were attached with a hot glue gun, he dug through old cookie tins filled with rhinestone jewelry collected from flea markets and garage sales. He quickly found the piece de resistance to finish the crown of the mask. Stark favors the flamboyant. Maybe that's why he dresses the way he does. "This is not a costume, this is daily wear," he said, referring to his unconventional clothes.

Dressed in blue harem pants, a plaid tunic and a rose pink scarf tied around his head, Stark doesn't look like an ordained Baptist minister, but he is. Stark was born in Greenville 45 years ago. He attended the Baptist seminary in New Orleans and that city directed him to his artistic career. "I fell in love with the city it's a city full of sheer magic New Orleans has a mystique that stimulates magic," he said as he plucked a handful of pink-dyed feathers from a cluster and glued them individually onto the mask form. Wearing masks, or "masking," is magical and fantasy, Stark said.

"Masks allow them (the wearers) to take off the masks they wear everyday. It allows them to express another part of themselves. "It's not you responsible for what you do. The mask made you do it," he said with a smile. Many of the approximately, 2,000 masks he makes each year are custom-made to reflect the personality of the wearer.

He makes masks for the New Orleans Mardi Gras, New Year's parties, Halloween and masquerade parties for customers all over the world. An Austrian princess orders at least 12 masks a year for a special dinner party where each guest gets a custom-made mask. Stark also does five shows a year at Key West, East Hampton, N.Y., and other places around the country to sell his masks. The feather masks range in price from $30 on up, depending on the amount of time and the number of feathers. A New Orleans restaurant owner paid $4,000, the most yet for a Stark mask.

The restaurateur wanted to look like a cockatoo for Mardi Gras, so Stark designed a full headdress in three shades of blue that extends down his arms. Stark said he wears it only on Mardi Gras day during the street parade. "Street masking is really important for Mardi Gras," Stark said. For the Galveston Mardi Gras set for February to be a success, he said, everyone should wear masks. "Otherwise it's a spectator sport." 9 A AP LsrphotO Stark puts finishing touches to one of his masks Former dropout turns imagination into millions klmost the majority of the time, people will say if you have a genius intelligence, you don't need anything else.

But if it's not identified, you don't have it. My life is the best example I can think Turney I population. His score qualified him as a member. He invented toys, liquid cleaners and some food products, including an item called "Otter Pops," fruit-flavored frozen popsicles still sold on the West Coast. "I invented a lot of items and products I sold that the world could easily do without," Turney said.

"In 1976, 1 decid-' ed that if I was going to develop products, it would be things that would be beneficial to mankind." Turney 's biggest money-making pro- ject is the construction, sale and opera- -tion of cogeneration power plants throughout the country. Because Systems International Inc. is privately held, its financial figures are not public. Turney's favorite project is the non- profit Cheon Star Educational Trust he created in 1983 to raise money for pro- grams for gifted children. For a $35 donation, you can become a star.

Not the Hollywood type, but the -celestial kind. Actually, you can have a star named after you or a friend. Millions of stars in the sky have been cataloged by scientists and pinpointed by geographical coordinates. Most, however, remain nameless. Cheon will choose one of these scientifically cataloged stars and give it the formal name of your choice.

school's basketball coach. To return, however, his father required him to pay $1 a day for room and board until he left home for good in the 11th grade. "I worked in furniture factories, textile mills, restaurants; sold Bibles, blankets and fans door to door; drove a truck, and even did some cooking," he said. "My theory was, the more things I knew how to do, the better I could make a living. In the 50s, I thought if I could make $36 a week, that would put me on easy street, compared to the $29 a week I was making in the factory." Turney was lying in a hospital bed in Columbia, S.C., recuperating from surgery for leg injuries from a car accident when he found the motivation he needed to change his life.

"I read two books: 'Atlas Shrugged' by Ayn Rand and 'Think and Grow Rich' by Napoleon Hill. Those two books had more to do with me turning around than any other one thing," he said. "They made the point you are responsible for your own life and can do anything you want to do if you want to do it badly enough. I began doing it. It goes slowly, but if you constantly strive to im-prove whatever you are, soon you become what you perceive yourself to be." Turney took an IQ test issued by Men-sa, the organization for people with intelligence levels above 98 percent of the By OLIVE TALLEY Houston Chronicle ForThe Associated Press HOUSTON Howard Turney grew up thinking it was wrong to be a dreamer.

Now, he knows better. His father, a railroad worker struggling to support 11 children from three marriages, scorned creative play and admonished Turney to use his spare time to hunt rabbits and deer to help feed the impoverished family. Although Turney had read every book in the library of the tiny school he attended in Fort Thomas, teachers considered him one of their worst students. He was a gifted child with genius-level intelligence, but nobody, including himself, recognized it. Lacking encouragement and stimulus, he dropped out of high school, spent two years in the Army and then wandered the Eastern seaboard working menial and odd jobs.

He never got a high school diploma or college degree, but he never quit reading. At age 31, he, by chance, read two books that ultimately spurred him to change his life around. Now, at 53, Turney is a successful businessman who parlayed his daydreams into multimillion-dollar businesses and launched a crusade to help gifted children. "Almost the majority of the time, people will say if you have a genius in- Turney "You have never heard a hillbilly from Arkansas or any place you can name in the United States who had a vocabulary as bad as mine," he said. "In my 20s, I was introverted and damn near speechless in front of a man wearing a tie.

I had to overcome things most people take for granted. You cannot imagine how far it is from there to here." Turney left home at 12 and returned a few months later at the insistence of the telligence, you don't need anything else," Turney said. "But if it's not identified, you don't have it. My life is the best example I can think of." It is hard to imagine Turney as the insecure, inarticulate and poorly dressed man he describes as the Howard Turney through age 31. His craggy, wrinkled face and piercing eyes hint at the rough times he experienced, but his gentle manners and carefully chosen words defy that image.

Over the Counter Scouting the Basin i CC. YC'jriSICST TO SUCCESS went to OC because felt more secures there. 1 wasn't ready to go away to school. The Investment paid off and I sot both the -foundation I needed and the security to Soon." Foster Thursday, Jen. 10 I i I Block 34, Twp.

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Exxon No. 15 Donald Hutt Fee, 12,035. Oilman dies in house fire DALLAS (AP) Dallas oilman and philanthropist Edmund W. Mudge Jr. died at his north Dallas home in a fire apparently started by a lit cigarette, fire investigators said.

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