The gift of a small palm more than 50 years ago is the reason for a dedication this week at Bales Intermediate.

Bales is named after Zue Stevenson Bales, a young girl from Kansas who moved by covered wagon to the Quaker settlement, Friendswood. She attended the Academy and later became a teacher and then principal.

At age 57, she became a missionary to Mexico. It was on a trip home to Friendswood that she arrived with a small sago palm, a gift from the Mexican people.

She planted the sago palm and cared for it 20 years. When the Lee brothers bought the property and started their nursery, it was Zue Bales who told them about the sago and asked them to care for it, They did so for 30 years. Recently, the Lee brothers sold the property and closed the nursery.

Where should the sago go to be carried for in memory of Zue Bales? The campus was thought to be the perfect choice.