Premont ISD plans Memorial Day block party to honor alumni

Premont ISD will turn the Premont Collegiate Front Lawn into a Memorial Day block party Monday, blending a hometown reunion with remembrance for two fallen alumni. The district is asking families to gather from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. to honor Jimmy Clark and Hector Gonzalez while celebrating the strength and spirit of the school community.

The campus event is built to feel like a neighborhood get-together as much as a memorial. Premont ISD listed burgers, hot dogs, a car show, a photobooth, yard games, a moon jump, a DJ, drinks and fruit cups, and asked attendees to wear red, white and blue. The setting, outside Premont Collegiate High School on the Front Lawn, puts students, parents, alumni and residents in the same place for a holiday weekend that often brings people back home.

The two men being remembered carried the story of Premont beyond the town limits. Archival veteran records identify Jimmy Clark as James Phillip Clarke, born Aug. 15, 1948, who died April 18, 1968, in Qung Tr, Vietnam, while serving in the U.S. Marine Corps as a private first class. Hector Gonzalez, identified in memorial records as Hector Manuel Gonzalez, also served in the Marine Corps and died Sept. 2, 1968, as a lance corporal. For Premont ISD, naming both men in a school event ties local memory directly to military sacrifice.

That connection matters in a district founded in 1921 that now serves students in Premont and rural areas in southern Jim Wells and southeastern Duval County. Premont ISD reported about 747 students from PreK3 through 12th grade as of December 2024, and state education profiles describe the district as overwhelmingly Hispanic and largely economically disadvantaged. In a town of roughly 2,450 people, a campus gathering can serve as one of the few places where the whole community crosses paths at once.

The timing adds another layer of meaning. Memorial Day falls on the last Monday in May and is set aside to honor men and women who died while serving in the military, with a national moment of remembrance at 3 p.m. local time. By staging the block party on school grounds, Premont ISD is giving local families a place to remember Clark and Gonzalez, celebrate students and keep a small-town tradition rooted in shared history.