Col. John Jackson Ledbetter Jr.

John Jackson Ledbetter Jr. was born on October 23, 1901, in Holcomb, Missouri, the son of John Jackson Ledbetter Sr. and Lucy A. Ledbetter. He graduated from Blytheville High School in Arkansas in June 1919 and earned a B.S. in Civil Engineering from the A&M College of Texas (now Texas A&M) in June 1925. His classmates knew him as “Blister” — a nickname recorded in the 1925 yearbook, The Longhorn.²

Engineering Career

After graduation, Ledbetter launched a career in civil engineering across the American Southwest. He worked as an assistant engineer for the City of San Antonio’s Flood Prevention Department (1925–1928), then served as office engineer for Floyd and Lockridge Consulting Engineers in Dallas, working on water supply projects for Waco and San Angelo.¹

When the San Antonio department was abolished in October 1928, Ledbetter confronted the Mayor directly after a dustup over blueprints: “Told him that if I wanted to steal from the city I would have taken their money while I was in charge of various construction jobs in place of a few blue prints.”³

From 1929 to 1931, he was assistant city engineer for El Paso. On May 4, 1931, he took the oath of office as Assistant Engineer for the American Section of the International Water and Boundary Commission — the position that would define his career. As designing engineer, he worked on the Lower Rio Grande Valley Flood Control Project ($10 million), the Rio Grande Rectification Project ($5 million), and the American Dam and Canal ($4 million). His salary rose from $3,200 to $3,800 per annum over the decade.¹³

Law and Licenses

While working full-time as an engineer, Ledbetter studied law by correspondence through LaSalle Extension University in Chicago. In December 1929, he wrote to the Clerk of the Texas Supreme Court asking about the Bar Examination — “the first mention of JJL considering the study of law,” as his son Bill later noted. He completed four years of coursework between 1931 and 1935.³

On January 10, 1935, he received his license to practice law in Texas: “Appeared before C.W. Harper District Clerk El Paso County Texas, took the oath as an attorney and registered about 10:30 a.m.” On March 19, 1938, he received his Professional Engineer license (Texas No. 1485). He was now both a licensed engineer and a licensed attorney.¹³

Military Service

Ledbetter was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in the Field Artillery Reserve upon graduation from Texas A&M in 1925. He rose to Captain by 1936, serving periodic active duty at Camp Bullis and Fort Bliss.¹

On January 3, 1941, he was ordered to extended active duty with the Construction Division. His wartime assignments included Chief of Legal and Labor Relations at Fort Sam Houston, Director of multiple divisions at the Southwestern Division Engineer Office in Dallas, and Commanding Officer of the Baton Rouge Engineer Depot. He was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel in October 1942.¹

In early 1945, he attended the School of Military Government at the University of Virginia (graduating with a “Superior” rating) and the Civil Affairs Training School at the University of Michigan, where he studied Japanese language and culture in preparation for the occupation of Japan. He was in Ann Arbor when President Truman announced the Japanese surrender on August 14, 1945.⁴

But his health was failing. An active duodenal ulcer led to hospitalization at Percy Jones General Hospital at Battle Creek, Michigan. On November 14, 1945, an Army Retiring Board found him “permanently incapacitated from active military duty by reason of duodenal ulcer and that such disability was a result of incidence of the service.” He was promoted to Colonel on October 29, 1952.⁴

The Diaries

Ledbetter kept personal diaries from September 1928 through 1961 — thirty-three years of daily entries that survive as an extraordinary record of one family’s experience of Depression-era hardship, wartime service, and mid-century Texas life. His son William Burl Ledbetter transcribed them in 2008.

The diaries reveal a deeply reflective man. In August 1929, he wrote a multi-page philosophical essay on the purpose of life: “The mind is so small in comparison to the subject it would grapple with that the thoughts seem to come to a jumping off place, so as to speak or to round a bend and come to a vertical wall of unlimited height and infinite breadth.”³

They also document his meticulous fatherhood. After the birth of his second son Bill on September 15, 1934, the diary becomes an almost clinical infant health record, with near-daily weight measurements in ounces, detailed formula recipes, and feeding schedules. He tracked every fever spike during the harrowing winter of 1937, when the entire family was sick for nearly three months.³

The later diaries (1945–1961) chronicle his struggle with chronic illness — the ulcer that ended his military career eventually required the surgical removal of 80–90% of his stomach at Brooke Army Hospital on March 5, 1951 — and his transition to civilian life in Austin.⁴

Fraternal Life

Ledbetter received the 4th through 32nd degrees of Scottish Rite Masonry over four consecutive days in November 1936 at the Scottish Rite Cathedral in El Paso. He was a member of the Shrine and belonged to the American Society of Civil Engineers, the American Bar Association, and the American Geophysical Union.¹³

Post-War Career

After his military discharge, Ledbetter served as Executive Secretary and General Counsel for the Texas Society of Professional Engineers (1946–1957), maintaining offices in Austin. In 1957, he was briefly appointed Texas Interstate Compact Commissioner, confirmed by the Texas Senate on April 8.⁴

Family

On September 5, 1925, Ledbetter married Loraine Leonora Lackey, daughter of Leon Lackey and Allie Nuckols. They had two sons: Jack Wallace Ledbetter (born March 31, 1930, in El Paso) and William Burl Ledbetter (born September 15, 1934, in El Paso).¹

Jack Wallace was appointed to the U.S. Naval Academy by Congressman Lyndon B. Johnson in 1947 and graduated with the Class of 1951, commissioned as Ensign USN in a ceremony where General George C. Marshall delivered the principal address.⁴

Through his son William’s marriage to Barbara Jean McDuffie, the Ledbetter family became connected to the Morris and Craig families of East Texas.

Ledbetter and Leonora divorced on November 6, 1958. He married Neva Clifton Moore in Reynosa, Tamaulipas, Mexico, on April 1, 1959.⁴

He died on July 19, 1963, in Austin, Texas, at the age of sixty-one. He is buried at Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery, San Antonio, Section PE, Grave 421C.⁴