Santa's East Texas Helpers
By Marvin Mayer
The fictitious town of Metropolis was home to "Superman." When not saving the planet or its inhabitants, super hero Superman, blended into the city's population by pretending to be "mild mannered reporter, Clark Kent."
Similarly, fictional billionaire Bruce Wayne, when called on to fight crime in Gotham, became super hero, Batman.
The list of comic book superheroes is well known, but few people ever heard of real life heroes, Neal and Mary Cain, a/k/a the Santa Clause's of Garden Valley, Texas.
Garden Valley is situated on FM16, about 9 miles west of Lindale. All four of its stop signs are at the same intersection. According to the 2000 census, 150 people called Garden Valley their home, but back in the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s, it was a somewhat larger community boasting its own post office, hotel, and a cotton gin.
Mary and Neal would be the first to call themselves "ordinary, simple folk," dwelling in a typical dog-trot style home on the edge of Garden Valley. At a time when the nation was in the grip of the worst economic depression ever experienced in its young life, man and wife managed to survive on incomes derived from low paying jobs; he, as an attendant at State Hospitals and she as a school teacher. Somehow, they managed to find within themselves, the true spirit of Christmas, and in 1927, they invited Mary's students to their home where they would share the joy of the season. Twenty children, many of them from under privileged families, attended that first party and were given Christmas gifts of warm clothing and edible treats. The clothing was to keep them warm during the cold winter so they could get to school; the treats were to warm their hearts. It was the beginning of a tradition that would be repeated for some 35 years.
Word spread, and the annual Christmas visits to the Cain home grew from year to year. As more and more children came to claim their gifts, it was necessary for the Cains to extend the party from its initial one-day, relatively small gathering to a 2-week time frame. Not unlike some of todays "trick or treaters," they came by the carload and bus load, from individual families to orphanages. Over 4,000 children were recipients of gifts and "goodies" in 1958.
While the original concept was to help those in need, no child was turned away. It didn't matter if the child was black or white, Christian or otherwise, if they were able to get to the Cain's house, they left with gifts.
The depression and meager salaries notwithstanding, Mary and Neal managed to fund those early years' parties out of their own pockets. As the party grew in popularity and size, they were helped by funds from individual donors and from some corporate sponsors.
At least one measure of the success the couple achieved in bringing the Spirit of the season to his young visitors was in the form of a letter to Santa from an 8-year-old who had 5 brothers and sisters. It read, "Dear Santa, I will be happy on Christmas. Because there will be toys and things like that. It will be fun on Christmas Day. But mother and daddy are broke. I hope they will get some money some day. I love you very much. Please help my mom and dad to get some money. Your friend, Nancy."
Neal wrote back to her. "Dear Nancy, Your letter to Santa Claus on Dec. 17th has come to my attention and I am thrilled to know in the heart of a little eight-year-old girl you were thinking of others and that is the Spirit of the One whose birthday we will celebrate on Dec. 25. He, too, was always thinking and helping others who were in need. If all of us, like you, would just put Christ back into Christmas, what a fine place this would be. Knowing that there are six children in your family, including you, attached to this letter is a basket that contains everything necessary for a Big Christmas Dinner for you and your family. Sincerely, SANTA CLAUS OF Garden Valley."
Mrs. Cain died in 1962. Mr. Cain followed her 3 years later. In keeping with their simple lives, there is no mention of their Christmas parties on their head stone. And while there is no way to be certain they were the catalyst to such events as today's "Toys for Tots" or "Angel Trees," who's to say they weren't? Merry Christmas.