Family Life in El Paso

John Jackson Ledbetter Jr. arrived in El Paso in October 1929, newly hired as Assistant City Engineer. Leonora Lackey — whom he had been courting during his time in Dallas — was nearby with her family. The couple married in November 1930. For the next eleven years, until JJL was called to active duty in January 1941, the family’s life played out in rented houses on the west side of El Paso, within reach of the International Boundary Commission headquarters and the Rio Grande.

Jack Wallace

Their first son, Jack Wallace Ledbetter, was born on August 24, 1931. The diary tracks his growth with an engineer’s precision — 28 pounds 10 ounces in February 1932, 30 pounds by April. Jack disappears from the park on March 15, 1934, and is found after an hour’s search in a neighbor’s home. On Christmas Eve that year, JJL returns from the Bachelor’s dance at the El Paso Country Club at 2:00 a.m. to find his three-year-old “having the time of his life” in the living room.

Jack may have whooping cough in May 1935. His tonsils and adenoids are removed at Providence Hospital in December; JJL buys him a Mickey Mouse watch afterward. In 1936, he gets his arm caught in an electric wringer at school — no bones broken but badly bruised. In 1938, a neighbor’s child cuts his left eyeball with a kite stick.

William Burl

The second son arrived 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.

JJL weighed his son before and after every feeding:

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, 1934)

Bill was hit in the head with a tin can by a neighbor’s child in February 1938 — Dr. Stowe put in a stitch. He stuttered badly through the spring. He was diagnosed with asthma in June. His tonsils and adenoids were removed in May, by the same surgeon who had operated on Jack two years earlier. On May 6, 1938:

Took family to picture show tonight. Saw the ‘Hurricane’. This is the first time Bill has ever been to a picture show.

In November 1938, Bill entered nursery school at the El Paso Tech Institute. He was four years old.

The Winter of 1937

The worst sustained crisis in the early diaries. Starting January 23, nearly every member of the household fell sick with overlapping respiratory infections. JJL tracked temperatures obsessively:

Stayed home all day taking care of family. Dr. Dutton came out to the house early this morning and late this evening. Jack had temp of 103 to 104 all day. Bill and Leonora in bed sick; had fever. (January 25)

Dutton and Rennick out this morning. Report moisture in Bill’s lungs. Leonora has very bad throat. I was up most of night taking care of family. (January 27)

Bill’s chest X-ray on February 13 showed unresolved pneumonia. The next day, JJL loaded the entire family — Leonora, Jack, Bill, and the maid Augustina — into the Chevy and drove from El Paso to San Antonio, settling at 950 Bailey Street for recovery.

Then Jack got measles. Then Bill got measles. Bill developed croup. Meanwhile, Leonora’s father Harrell Lackey was hospitalized with flu in San Antonio. The crisis lasted nearly three months.

Margaret

On February 3, 1936, a telegram arrived from JJL’s mother in Blytheville, Arkansas: “Margaret had fatal accident shipping body home.” Margaret was JJL’s sister. She had married Rico Dewey and was living near Live Oak, Florida.

Over the following days, the story unraveled through telegrams. First: “Accident Sunday night cause unknown.” Then: “Margaret death caused by self inflicted gunshot wound in her home.”

JJL drove from El Paso to Blytheville — through Dallas, Texarkana, Little Rock, roads covered in ice — for the funeral. At the house, he had Rico go over his story in detail:

According to Rico Margaret was shot about 11:00 p.m. Feb 1. Rico’s mother was in bed, Rico was lying in front of the fireplace, and Margaret was in her gown and standing in the kitchen door when the shot was fired. No one saw her get the gun. (February 7)

JJL did not believe it. He wrote the Sheriff at Live Oak, corresponded with an attorney, and on February 28 filed an insurance claim with Metropolitan Life, stating plainly: “I do not believe that the gunshot wound which caused my sister’s death was self inflicted.”

On June 10, 1937, vindication arrived: a certified copy from the Circuit Court Clerk at Live Oak confirming Rico Dewey’s conviction and sentence to twenty years at hard labor for Margaret’s murder.

Domestic Rhythms

Between the crises, the diary records the texture of ordinary life in Depression-era El Paso. JJL buys a flute for $43.75 in November 1935 and spends “considerable time practicing.” He receives his Scottish Rite Masonry degrees, 4th through 32nd, over four consecutive days in November 1936. Leonora’s mother, Mrs. L. W. Lackey, visits to help with the new baby. A&M beats Texas 20–6 on Thanksgiving 1935.

The family moves from house to house — 3719 Clifton to 3902 Idalia in May 1937. JJL buys Jack a roll-top desk on December 21 while the ground is covered in snow. In December 1938, he applies for the position of Assistant Attorney General of Texas. He doesn’t get it.

By the end of 1940, JJL holds his IBC identification card — No. 513, issued January 10, 1940, signed by Commissioner Lawson — entitling him to cross the boundary between the United States and Mexico at any time or place in discharge of his duties. He is an engineer, attorney, and reserve Captain. His sons are nine and six. In a few weeks, the Army will call, and the El Paso years will be over.