1954

A quieter year. JJL meets with genealogy researchers at the Driscoll Hotel in January. He resigns as General Counsel of TSPE, effective April 1956.

A Grandson

Leonora leaves for Norfolk, Virginia, on July 5, “to be a grandmother.” On July 19:

Jack W. Ledbetter called from Norfolk about 5:50 a.m. Reported that son John Jackson Ledbetter II, wt 6 lb 9½ oz born in Norfolk at 4:51 a.m., EST, 3:51 a.m. CST.

JJL records his grandson’s birth with the same engineer’s precision he brought to his own sons’ infant health twenty years earlier.

Health and Leisure

A complete physical exam in May: “Everything ok.” But illness returns within weeks — chills, fever, cramps, diarrhea.

JJL takes up fishing and golf. He rents a boat dock at Bull Creek Lodge on Lake Austin, launches a twelve-foot aluminum boat, and plays golf at the Austin Country Club. In October, Leonora has a breast biopsy at Brooke Army Hospital — no malignancy.