East Texas teacher creates over 17-foot tall mum for homecoming

TATUM, Texas — In Texas, everything's bigger as the saying goes and homecoming mums are no different. But Tatum Primary School art teacher Lezlie Neuville took the tradition several steps further by building an over 17-foot fall mum that now hangs on the wall of Eagle Stadium.

Neuville said Friday she made the project as a gift from Tatum Primary to Tatum High School, which is celebrating its annual homecoming. The Eagles are matched up against the West Rusk Raiders.

"When I laid it down, it was 17 and a half foot tall. It was only supposed to be 12, but go big or go home, right? And then by the time I built the stand with the five gallon buckets and the cement and all that, it kind of little bit taller," she said.

She got the idea from the high school secretary, who said her hometown did something similar. She started working on it and soon the mum took on a life of its own. As her children were doing extracurricular activities, Neuville prepared the mum in a little over a week's time.

One comical moment about the experience she recalled was sitting in the floor of the custodian's closet with a serving spoon trying to mix cement.

"Looking like a mess, but, you know, fun times," Neuville joked.

Her supplies included a bunch of coffee filters, coroplast and much more.

"All my ribbon is roll paper that I laminated to try to keep it waterproof, a ton of zip ties, some beads that I found at Hobby Lobby that I got from the Christmas section, which are on half price," Neuville said. "And some ornaments that were also the footballs or ornaments from Ellis Pottery."

Neuville had never made a mum until creating this monster. So she had to pick a few mum makers' brains for advice.

"And I was like, 'what do I do? It looks kind of blah. What do I do?' They're like, 'well, try this, try that,'" she said. "So they kind of gave me some ideas, which is wonderful, and I'm so thankful for them."

After the mum was hung up, she was on a 20-foot ladder completing some finishing touches.

"And I'm scared to death of heights so I have no idea what they were saying. I was just thinking, OK, drill the hole, drill the hole," Neuville said.

In her own words, a homecoming mum is a flower adorned with ribbons and noise makers - and it's a bit over the top.

"I love over the top, so it works for me," she said.