1934

A year of milestones. JJL is promoted to Associate Civil Engineer at the International Boundary Commission at $3,200 a year. He is elected Secretary of the A&M Club at El Paso. And he receives his Certificate of Character and Capacity from the El Paso Bar Association — years of self-study in law beginning to pay off.

The Birth of Bill

On September 15, 1934, at the Hotel Dieu hospital in El Paso:

Took Leonora down town before breakfast and had Plaza Drug fix her a 1½ oz dosage of castor. At 2:00 p.m. took her to Dr. Rennick’s office and he then took her up to Dr. Turner’s office and had an x-ray picture taken of the baby. We then went to the hospital, Hotel Dieu, arriving there at 3:00 p.m. Leonora went into the delivery room at 7:30 p.m. and at 9:31 p.m., a five pound boy, William Burl Ledbetter, was born.

The diary becomes an infant health record of startling precision. JJL tracks Bill’s weight at every doctor visit, notes feeding quantities to the quarter-ounce, and takes photographs constantly with a portrait attachment.

Bill weighed 6 lb 3¾ oz gross before feeding and 6 lb 6 oz after feeding, indicating that he got 2¼ oz milk. (October 4)

Other Moments

Jack Wallace disappears from the park on March 15 and is found after an hour’s search in a neighbor’s home. Leonora’s mother, Mrs. L. W. Lackey, visits to help with the new baby. Tires cost $7.40 each. On Christmas Eve, JJL returns from the Bachelor’s dance at the El Paso Country Club at 2:00 a.m. to find Jack Wallace in the living room “having the time of his life.”