The Italy I Remember Contributed by Jane Shipp   Although I grew up in Dallas, I spent a great deal of time growing up around Italy because my parents owned a farm on the Bell Branch road. After my mother retired as Supervisor of Surgical Recovery at Methodist Hospital in Dallas, my parents moved to Italy where they purchased a small home on Clark Street from Mrs.  Smith - Dale Evans' mother.  My mother lived there until 1986 when she moved to Amarillo.   Back in the 1950s-1960s Italy was really booming little town.  There was an Italy Dry Goods (Florelle Wilson owned that), Pinkham's Dry Goods - a 5 & 10- cent store (can't remember the name) an Affiliated Foods Store, McConnell's furniture (probably in the 60's) a cafe, the domino hall, Dr. Dykes (a family doctor who treated many folks in Ellis County),  a couple of banks and I even remember  back in the '50s a picture show!  The Central Baptist  Church (still there), First Methodist Church, first Christian Church and First Baptist Church.  But by the 1970s, the town really started dying and is still hanging on for life these days.  Not much there now but a lot of good memories for many of us.   Copyright © 2008-2017, Ellis County TXGenWeb. All Rights Reserved. This page was last modified: Thursday, 01-Jul-2021 13:30:23 MDT