July 2025

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Editor’s Note: Following the recent tragedy in the Texas Hill Country, the Alpine Avalanche is sharing stories of Brewster County residents, businesses, and organizations offering support. If you or your organization are involved in relief efforts, we’d like to help share that information with our readers. Please email us so we can help spread the word.

Long before electricity and amplifiers, people made music with whatever they had: hollow logs, stretched skins, bones. From those raw beginnings came centuries of innovation, leading to the instruments we know today. Among them, the guitar has carved out a unique place, inspiring musicians and building connections and relationships across generations. Those connections at one local shop are the heart of the business.

“What you get by achieving your goals is not as important as what you become by achieving your goals.” — Zig Ziglar (1926 – 2012), world-renowned motivational author and speaker “So,” friends ask, “How is retirement going?” “Great,” is my go-to answer. “It lasts just long enough … between calls from people needing my help for a while.” Careful planning of one’s career, I’ve always advocated, is a crucial step in life.

Last year, scientists signed the New York Declaration, formally acknowledging that animals, including invertebrates, have consciousness. That’s right: your dog, your goldfish, and possibly even the cricket chirping behind your fridge at 3 a.m. are not only alive, but aware of it. And now that this is official, I’m not sure whether to celebrate or to start apologizing to every mosquito I’ve ever slapped mid-air.

Belinda L. Espinoza, a dedicated mother and grandmother whose love knew no bounds, was born on March 9, 1967, in Alpine and left this earth far too soon on July 4, also in Alpine. Anyone who had the honor of knowing Belinda will remember her fiercely hardworking nature and vibrant spirit. Throughout her life, Belinda embraced her career with an unwavering commitment, often juggling multiple jobs to provide for her family. She lent her talents to Sul Ross State University, as well as several years at the local grocery store, where she held various positions from bakery staff to cashier and even store manager. Her final role was as a trusted mail carrier for the United States Postal Service, a testament to her tenacity and strong work ethic.

Becky DeLeon, 75, of Amarillo, passed away on Sunday, June 29. Celebration of life services will be at 3 p.m., Friday, July 11, at Boxwell Brothers Ivy Chapel with Pastor Darrel Bonjour officiating.

Melanie Grace Musgrave Elliott passed away at Val Verde Regional Medical Center, surrounded by family, on June 21, after a brief but very brave battle with cancer. She was born in Los Angeles, California, on June 15, 1961, to Joseph Lafayette Musgrave and Patricia Anne Devine Musgrave, who preceded her in death.