We moved to Lake Jackson, and I went back to work for Dow Chemical for a total of eight months. At that point, I decided to return to college in Beaumont. We picked up and left, burning all our bridges, against the advice of almost everyone. I couldn’t blame them, considering my track record with school.
In September of 1969, we moved to Port Neches, Texas, seventeen miles from the Lamar State College of Technology campus. I began the fall semester. We rented a small house. Cece found a job in a doctor’s office in Beaumont, and I went to work singing at the Club Lafitte in the Holiday Inn in Beaumont. We kept those jobs for 2 years and 8 months, while I attended school year-round, and finished my education and graduated in May of 1972.
The Navy had taught me how to study. I made the Dean’s List in my first semester back in school. I finished with a 2.7 grade point average on a 3.0 scale — an A‑ average. The name of Lamar State College of Technology changed to Lamar University during my senior year, I was the first class to graduate from Lamar University, and they later changed to a four‑point GPA system.