ROANOKE, Texas — If it happened in Roanoke in the past 90 years, chances are 92-year-old Cozette Harris remembers it.

“I’m 92,” Cozette Harris. "There wasn’t anything between here and Dallas but ranch land and farmland."

Harris is one of the longest-lived residents in Roanoke. Years ago, she knew nearly everyone in town and every street before the population started to surge.

“It’s amazing," she said. "I had to go to the doctor down there, and I swear I almost got lost.”

According to the Texas State Historical Association, Roanoke had about 350 residents in 1890, along with a school, a cotton gin, several businesses, and four churches. After Harris’s family arrived, the town kept growing.

“We had 500 when I was growing up,” Harris said.

That small community feel remains important to

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