The War Hero from Kerrville, and the Missing Street Named in His Honor

Staff Sergeant Pedro Castillo, a Kerrville hero
who gave his life for his country in World War II.
Click on any image to enlarge.

As most readers know, I’ve been writing this Kerr County history column for a very long time – it will be 29 years, next month. After all this time, it’s rare that I run across something that surprises me. This week I found something I’d never heard of before. A surprise.

The front page of the August 27, 1954 edition of this newspaper had this headline: “Coming Centennial and Memorial to War Dead Prompts Council to Rename Many Kerrville Streets.” I had thought I’d write a column about the origins of various Kerrville street names, and my query of the newspaper database had this story pop up as its first recommendation.

My first idea for this week’s column was to write about how streets came to be named Hayes, Paschal, or Palmer. This column is not about those street names – it’s about a street name that has vanished.

The 1954 story was about “Pedro Castillo Street.” While I don’t know all of the street names in Kerrville, this is one I don’t recognize.

I recognized the Castillo name, of course. In the mid-20th century, the Castillos were a very prominent local family. They owned a retail store on Francisco Lemos Street, and were very active in community affairs. If you enter ‘Castillo’ in the newspaper archive database, you’ll find many Kerrville stories about the family – probably close to 100 stories.

Pedro Castillo was in news stories, too, though often under the nickname Pete Castillo.

Pedro J. Castillo was a war hero from Kerrville. He gave his life for his country in World War II.

Castillo was born in Kerrville on August 17, 1918. His parents were Mr. and Mrs. R. J. Castillo. He attended the Guadalupe School, then Notre Dame School, then Tivy High School, and then Schreiner Institute. After graduation, he continued his studies at St. Mary’s University in San Antonio, and later at the University of Texas at Austin.

He was a student at UT when Pearl Harbor was attacked. Castillo volunteered for the military five days later.

He was assigned to the Army Air Corps, and served with the 287th Bomb Group of the 856th Bombardment Squadron, and attained the rank of Staff Sergeant.

He died as the result of a plane crash in England on August 12, 1944. A Catholic priest helped rescue him from the wreckage and gave him the sacraments during Castillo’s short stay in the hospital, and then the final rites of the Church; this same priest came to visit Castillo’s parents in Kerrville when the war was over. Castillo was only 26 years old when he died.

Castillo is buried in the military cemetery at Cambridge, England.

The 1954 story about street names has two surprising items.

“It is the [Kerrville] City Council’s plan to continue this program in the changing of some of the City’s unnamed streets such as A, B, C, and 1st, 2nd, and 3rd, etc., to bear the names of those citizens who gave their lives in the 2nd World War and the Korean War. This is actually a continuation of a naming program that was carried out naming of [Earl Garrett, Sidney Baker, and Francisco Lemos streets] who gave their lives for their country in World War I.”

These plans, apparently, were never completed. The ‘alphabet’ street names persist, as do the ‘number’ street names.

Now for the very surprising resolution from the Kerrville city council of August, 1954: it called for the renaming of two Kerrville streets. Schreiner Street was to be renamed Pedro Castillo Street, and Water Street was to be renamed Schreiner Street. The resolution was signed by Kerrville mayor J. L. Bullard.

Gentle Reader, as you know, the street in front of our print shop is still called Water Street, and Schreiner Street still exists between Sidney Baker Street and Town Creek.

The street name honoring Pedro Castillo, a true Kerrville war hero, has vanished.

So – it looks like I have a mystery to solve. I’ll do some research and report back, later. If you know the answer to this riddle, I hope you’ll let me know.

Until next week, all the best.

Joe Herring Jr. is a Kerrville native who enjoys studying Kerrville history mysteries. This column originally appeared in the Kerrville Daily Times October 21, 2023.

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