Amy Goodman Houser: A Local Legend Who Keeps Showing Up for Caddo Mills

I had been trying for a while to figure out the right way to tell Amy Houser’s story. I already knew Amy through Caddo Creamery, and I had written about Caddo Cakery in a roundup last December. Even then, I knew her story was bigger than a few paragraphs tucked into a larger piece. I just had not figured out what the right story was yet.

Then I started asking readers who they thought should be included in October’s Local Legends series, and Amy’s name came up more than once. The reason was almost always some version of the same thing: “Amy does so much for Caddo Mills.”

That was the light-bulb moment for me. Of course. That was exactly where Amy’s story belonged.

When you start looking at the different parts of Caddo Mills Amy has been involved in over the years, they may seem like separate chapters, but they keep coming back to the same thing.

Amy cares deeply about Caddo Mills and what happens here.

And to understand where so much of that involvement began, it helps to go back to the downtown building where I first got to know her.

Seeing What Caddo Creamery Could Be

Amy did not grow up in Caddo Mills. She grew up in Enid, Oklahoma, and later lived in Garland and Wylie. When her family started looking for a little more space and a little more country, someone suggested Caddo Mills.

One of her first experiences here was the Christmas parade, and it immediately reminded her of home. Her daughter later started fourth grade here, and over time Caddo Mills became much more than simply the place they had chosen to live.

Amy had always been involved wherever her children were, whether that meant being a team mom, helping with sports, or stepping in where she was needed. But the kind of community involvement people know her for today really began to grow later.

A big part of that story started downtown.

At the time, the building that would eventually become Caddo Creamery was an antique store called the Emporium. Amy loved the architecture and the old downtown setting, even though the building itself needed a tremendous amount of work.

“I love architecture in general, but I love old downtowns,” she told me. “I loved that building.”

Amy was working in corporate medicine, approaching 50, and had no food-service experience. The idea for an ice cream shop began during conversations with Michelle, the building’s owner and owner of Simply Heaven a few doors down. Amy mentioned that Caddo Mills could really use a café or ice cream shop, and Michelle told her she should open one.

Amy laughed it off at first.

About a year later, the antique store was preparing to close, and Michelle brought the idea up again. This time, there was an actual building attached to it.

The more Amy thought about it, the more she could picture what the space might become. Not just somewhere to buy ice cream, but somewhere people could come downtown, sit for a while, bring their children, meet friends, and feel connected to the community around them.

Getting there required far more than a fresh coat of paint.

Plumbing, electrical, and HVAC all had to be replaced. The upper floors were packed with decades of accumulated items, and Amy remembers standing in boots with a shovel, filling buckets and boxes while load after load was hauled away. She estimates they filled around a dozen roll-off dumpsters.

Then 2020 arrived.

Amy had taken possession of the building in January and hoped to open in May. Heavy rain complicated the plumbing work, and then COVID changed everything. When Caddo Creamery finally opened in July, there were dots on the floor to keep customers six feet apart, occupancy limits inside, and orders being carried out to cars.

It was not the opening she had imagined, but the place she had pictured was beginning to take shape.

I got to see some of that myself. Caddo Creamery became part of the routine for my granddaughter and me. Every Thursday when I picked her up from school, we would stop for ice cream. During COVID, when businesses were beginning to reopen but school still looked very different, I even brought her there to sit at a table and work on schoolwork.

At the time, it was simply one of our places. Looking back now, I realize we were doing exactly what Amy had hoped people would do there.

And somewhere in the middle of rebuilding an old building, learning an entirely new industry, and opening a business during a pandemic, Amy learned something about herself too.

“You’re never too old to change careers,” she said.

Creating a Gathering Place in Downtown Caddo Mills

What Amy hoped to create with Caddo Creamery was always bigger than ice cream.

She wanted downtown Caddo Mills to be the kind of place people chose to spend time. In her head, she pictured what she called a “Hallmark movie Caddo,” a small downtown where people gathered for the Christmas parade, knew the business owners, stopped to visit, and still felt connected to one another.

“I wanted to be community centered,” she said.

Over time, that is exactly what the Creamery became. Families became regulars. Kids sat at the tables doing homework. A group from the Church of Christ met there for Bible study. People came in for ice cream, but they also came to sit, visit, and spend time with one another.

“I really liked community,” Amy told me. “I think that’s probably when I really felt my love for Caddo, and especially downtown.”

That love of community showed up in ways she probably could not have predicted when she first opened the doors.

One of those stories began with a customer named Kathy Kirkpatrick.

Not long after the Creamery opened, Kathy came in and asked Amy if she made birthday cakes. Amy had made cakes for her own family, so she figured she could make one for Kathy.

That first cake turned into another, and then another. Kathy had children and grandchildren, and Amy remembers her coming back regularly with a new request and a new challenge. Sometimes it was a particular theme. Sometimes it was an ice cream cake Amy had to figure out how to create and safely send home.

“She challenged me,” Amy said. “That really brought something else out in me.”

Those orders became part of the path that eventually led to Caddo Cakery, and Amy has continued finding fun ways to build on it. She also has a dessert trailer called Hippie Fluff, which brings cotton candy, candy, and baked goodies to weddings, birthdays, neighborhood events, and pop-ups around the community.

Then one month, Kathy did not come in.

Amy noticed because Kathy had become such a regular part of the rhythm of the shop. She later learned that Kathy had passed away, and Amy decided to attend her visitation.

It was there that another part of the story came together. Amy met the children and grandchildren whose birthday cakes she had been making and learned even more about the woman who had walked into her shop month after month. Kathy had been a longtime educator in Caddo Mills, and Amy learned more about the legacy she had left behind, including the school that bears her name.

For Amy, it was one of those moments when the connections of small-town life suddenly became visible. A customer had become part of her story, and Amy had unknowingly become part of that family’s celebrations.

“That is community,” she said.

Learning How Caddo Mills Works

Eventually, Amy made the decision to step away from Caddo Creamery. Her life had changed, and after going through a divorce, she found herself trying to sustain something she had originally imagined with more family involvement around her. As much as she loved what she had created, she realized she could not continue carrying it by herself.

Life has changed again since then. Amy has remarried, and today her husband, Larry, is often right beside her, helping with many of the community events and projects she takes on.

But leaving the Creamery did not mean Amy stepped away from Caddo Mills. In many ways, it gave her room to become involved in the community in different ways.

She had joined the Caddo Mills Chamber of Commerce as a business owner, and about a year after opening the Creamery, a vice president position became available. Amy was asked if she would consider stepping into it.

What interested her was not simply promoting her own business. She wanted to understand what other small-business owners were experiencing too. Were they dealing with the same struggles she was? How were they getting through difficult seasons? What did they need, and how could local businesses help one another?

“I grow off of learning everybody’s situations,” she said.

Her Chamber work has also put her behind some of the community events many Caddo Mills residents know best. Amy organizes Caddo Market Days, Fox Fest, and Fall Stroll as part of her Chamber work, bringing local businesses, families, and neighbors together throughout the year.

That desire to understand what is happening around her, and to help create reasons for people to come together, has become a recurring part of Amy’s story.

When she was later asked to serve on Planning and Zoning, Amy admits she did not really know what Planning and Zoning did. Someone gave her the quick version, she said yes, and then she started learning.

The more she understood, the more interested she became in the decisions that will shape what Caddo Mills looks like years from now. Where does commercial development belong? How does residential growth affect the rest of the city? Where does green space fit? What happens to emergency services as the population grows?

Amy knows Caddo Mills cannot remain exactly as it was. Growth is happening, and change comes with it. What matters to her is making sure the things people love about this community are not lost along the way.

“Why do we have to be like everybody else?” she asked while talking about the small-town feeling she hopes Caddo Mills can maintain.

That curiosity has taken Amy into parts of the community most people never have a reason to see. She spent time helping with the administrative side of the fire department, working with budgets, payroll, and meeting records. She has also become involved with efforts focused on downtown revitalization and keeping older downtown spaces relevant as Caddo Mills grows.

For Amy, those roles are connected. Each one gives her another view of the community and a better understanding of how the pieces fit together.

The more she learns about how Caddo Mills works, the more she sees where she might be able to help.

When Helping Does Not Need a Title

Some of the things Amy is proudest of have nothing to do with a board position or a business.

One of them is a little food pantry.

Through her community involvement, Amy got to know a woman who was already helping feed more than 25 families each week. Then another need became clear closer to Hanchey Park. There were children coming home from school who sometimes needed food, seniors living nearby, and families in the surrounding neighborhood who could use a little extra help.

So they built a pantry.

Amy talks about that kind of work very simply. If you see a need and you are able to help, then you help.

She does not talk about any of it as though it makes her extraordinary. In fact, she pushed back on that idea more than once during our conversation.

“I don’t feel like I’m anything special,” she said. “I just feel like I have time and I have resources, and I know some people.”

Amy is quick to point out that there are all kinds of ways to serve a community. Some people give through their children’s schools. Some help through their businesses. Some donate, volunteer, coach, organize, or simply show up when somebody needs an extra set of hands.

At this point in her life, Amy has more time to give than she once did, and she chooses to use a lot of it in Caddo Mills. She told me that she prays about helping people and believes God places her where she is supposed to be.

For Amy, that can mean serving on a board, helping another business, supporting a community project, or simply being available when someone needs help.

The title seems to matter far less to her than whether the work is useful.

“Amy Does So Much for Caddo Mills”

Near the end of our conversation, I told Amy something I am not sure she fully realizes.

When readers recommended her for Local Legends, they did not send me a list of positions she has held or projects she has worked on.

They simply said, “Amy does so much for Caddo Mills.”

Amy would probably still argue that she is not doing anything particularly remarkable. When I asked what she hoped people would remember about her twenty years from now, she did not seem especially concerned with leaving her name behind. She described herself as one small piece of the dust that passed through Caddo Mills and hopefully did a couple of good things while she was here.

Maybe that is exactly why so many people thought of her.

Amy’s impact is not one big thing. It has been years of noticing what is happening around her and finding ways to be part of it, whether that meant bringing an old downtown building back to life, learning how city growth works, supporting local businesses, or recognizing a need in the community and doing something about it.

Her roles have changed over the years, and Caddo Mills has changed right along with them, but the thread running through her story has stayed the same.

She cares deeply about this community.

She cares about the people who call Caddo Mills home, the businesses trying to build something here, the future of downtown, and what growth will mean for the town years from now. When Amy sees something that could make Caddo Mills better, she wants to understand it, be part of it, and help where she can.

“If it’s going to be good for Caddo,” she told me, “then I want that. I want that to happen for Caddo.”

And maybe that is why I loved seeing Amy’s name come up again and again when I asked readers who belonged in Local Legends.

They saw the same thing I did.

Amy cares deeply about Caddo Mills, and she has spent years finding ways to show it.

 

About Caddo Cakery & Confections

Caddo Cakery & Confections grew from Amy Houser’s love of creating cakes for the families she met during her Caddo Creamery years. Today, Amy creates custom cakes and baked treats for celebrations throughout the Caddo Mills area.

To connect with Amy about Caddo Cakery & Confections, find Caddo Cakery & Confections on Facebook and send her a message.

Caddo Cakery & Confections
Caddo Mills, Texas

More Local Legends from The Local Letter

October’s Local Legends series celebrates the people whose stories, service, and connections have helped shape our communities.

Meet Pud Kearns Click HERE

Meet Terry Driggers Click HERE