INTERVIEW WITH: Booty Ritter
INTERVIEWERS: Janie and Walter Sargent
Mrs. Dainy (Dr.) Ritter
Bill Quick (Friend)
PLACE: Nederland, Texas
DATE: October 31, 1987
JS : When and where were you born, Booty?
BR: Born in a little town in Panola County . You know where that is?
JS: Minola County?
DR: Panola .
JS: Pinola .
DR: Panola .
JS: P-I-N-0-L-A?
DR: P-A-N-0-L-A.
BR: Carthage, Texas is the co unty seat. That's where I finished hi gh
school. Murvaul, Texas .
JS: Murvaul?
BR: • . • Is a little town, had a post office at that time, and nothin ' now .
WS: How do you spell that one, M-A-R-Y, or •. •
BR: M-U-R-V-A-U-L.
WS: Oh .
BR: Got an Indian name, I guess.
JS: Where is that located from here?
BR: It's right north of Beaumont on the Santa Fe (Railroad) . On up to
Longview, that's where it goes the other way .
JS: Mm-hmm. But it wa sn't too far from here.
BR: Right on the railroad .
JS: Oh . The same railroad that goes through here?
RITTER
BR:
WS:
BR:
Goes to here. Stops here, and (goes?) into Longview.
Where were your parents from?
Originally?
2.
WS : Well, my father' s--a lot of his people come from Tennessee . Hardin
County, Harlin County or Hardin County?
DR: Mm-hmm, Hardeman County.
BR: And then I believe my . . .
DR: But they were both born in Panola County .
DR: Yeah, they were born here in Texas . My daddy was born in ____ 7~· __ ___
Community thereo
WS: What 1d they have , a farm?
BR: Yeah, we had a farm, an east Texas farm, about eight bales of cotton,
and raised everything you could think of to eat.
WS: Yeah .
BR: Didn 1t sell nothin' but cotton . Watermelon, we just had loads of
them, give 'em to the neighbors , they came by .•.
WS: How 'bout melons? They grow any melons in those days, as we think
of the small canteloupe type thing?
BR: Muskmelons and canteloupes both . Big ole' muskmelon , anything, you
can grow up there .
JS: How many children were in your family?
BR: Three boys and three girls. Six .
JS: Six of ya . Where did--were you the oldest?
BR: I was the next to the youngest.
JS: Uh huh .
BR: Me and my little sister is the only two livin ' .
JS: I seeo Where did Tex come in, in the family? Was he one of the
RITTER 3.
JS: older ones?
BR: He was the youngest.
JS: Oh, younger than you?
BR: Yeah .
ws: When did you move to Nederland; when did your folks come down here?
BR: Well, my mother moved us to Carthage, and my father come down here
as a security officer . This is durint the war. He come down in 1918.
Then we moved up Carthage , we left the farm we lived on all of our lives.
About eight miles from Carthage . An' me an• Tex went to~-and my sister,
just older than me--me and my sister finished high school there, an• he
lacked two years finishin !. An 1 the last two years, South Park here in
Beaumont.
WS: Just a minute .•.
(Pause in tape)
BR: Well, originally, I came to Nederland in 1916 . Stayed with my sister,
Mary McCauley--married, up there in Panola County, and moved to Houston,
then they transferred 1 im over here . Pop station~ down there . South .
WS: A what?
BR: Poppin 1 station. Oil poppin 1 station, south of Nederland, here .
Well, it•s--I don't believe it• s quite in t he city limits of Nederland-­yeah,
it is, too. It's in the school district, I know . I don't know if
it's still in the city or not.
JS: Well, were you in the oil business, too?
BR: No . I come down here, I went to South Park . I went to Port Arthur
Dentist College, one year . And then I got through with that, I went to~~
then is when I went to oil . Louisiana oilfield. Haynesville and Homer,
Louisiana, and all through there.
RITTER
WS:
BR:
4.
Your father was in the contracting business, or was it--?
No , he was a security guard, to a ____ ?~---
WS: I heard somewhere or I read, that one of you was in the contracting
business . Housing or something?
BR: Well, I haven •t got to that.
WS: Okay. (Laughter)
BR: That•s modern day . I was gonna take it up to-~why, she can tell you
more about it than I can , we'll let her talk . (Laughter)
JS: Well, you know, maybe it would be just as well for us to let you go
ahead and talk, and tell at your own rate, if you can--
BR: I can tell about the oldest time . And uh, I worked in Louisiana
two years, came home . Well, Tex had a job buildin ' this refinery out here,
in the early part of--1924, I believe . And then I went to J unior College,
last two semesters . And then I met a little ole' girl here in Nederland
an 1 got married, an• that screwed all that thing up .
JS & WS: (Laughter)
WS: When were you married?
BR: 1925 . February the 7th.
WS: Right in the wintertime.
BR: Yeah.
WS: Groundhog day, up north ~ in that general area, I guess--the first
of February or something .
BR: Then after that, come back an 1 we got married, an• our first son
was born here in Nede rland. An ' he's 60 .
DR: Sixty years old .
BR: An• my youngest son, we lost him in the Navy . Got his neck broke .
WS: During the war, or . . • ?
RITTER 5.
BR: It happened just before his 21st birthday .
WS: Was this durin' the war, or ... ?
BR: Yeah , right after the war. (World War II)
WS: Oh .
BR: He was out in Einewetok Island when it happened . He was on a ship.
a pretty big ship, a Navy ship . Bunch of 'em got down to go swimmin '
over there , an' they--they had some little ole' volleyball of some kind,
an' his day off , you know, an ' he dove off in that place an' hit a rock,
and it's shallow . That little ole' boat, you know, they thought it was as
deep as the rest of the ocean . Didn't do . •.. But he lived. That was just
before his 21st birthdayo An' he lived til he was about 40.
DR: Isn't that sad?
BR: Course, he was paralyzed all the way--quad .. . And, now you can go with
a question; maybe I can think of somethin' else .
JS: Okay . When you first started working, were you living right here in
Nederland, or have you been right in t he town of Nederland all of your
married life?
BR: Yes, ma'am . Married here. Been here ever s ince . Then I went to
work in the refinery in 1924--the latter part of 1924. They had part of
that refinery finished. But I started to--in t here I worked two or three
months for a construction crew, while they was buildin' that refinery,
checkin' steel as it come in from those tanks, and stuff like that . Tex
had the job, he was workin' summer while he went to Texas University . When
he called me in Louisiana I hadn't been home for a couple years, I guess .
Wanted to know if I'd like to come home. an' I told 'im, said, ''Oh, I'll
talk to my boss when I go to work Monday mornin' ." An' it was Fri day when
I called 'im! I had an old T-Model--1 finally made it~-them clay hills
RITTER 6.
BR: up around Jasper an• up through there is pretty hard to cl imbl I
(opened?) wide open, get about halfway, an' I 1d half to put it back up,
an' back up the hill, an ' start again. Some of 'em, two or three shots,
I'd get over 'em all, I finally made it home.
JS: About how long did it take you? Do you remember?
BR: Oh, I left there in the mornin', I spent--got sleepy, an' drove
off the side of the road up there, an' I woke up the sun was shinint .
So I pulled out again . I was up by the other side of Jasper, there .
But you couldn't do that this day an' time . I never heard another car
or anything else pass while I was asleep! That was way back there .
(Laughter)
JS: (Laughter) I was gonna say, probab.ly back in those days you could
sleep real soundly, anyway, and nothing much would wake you up . That's
the way we were .
BR: I had a bunch of old clothes . I just grabbed up my clothes, an' I
was out in the oil fields where we was workin' an ' stayin' in a camp, when
we first brought that field in, an' I just gathered all them old clothes ,
clean ones and dirty ones, an' pushed em ' all in the back of that ole
T-Model . I had enough of 'em in there where I had a pretty good bed back
there . (Laughter)
WS: Some of them dirty clothes probably weighed up pretty good.
BR: Yeah. (Laughter) Most of 'em clean, though . We would do our own
washin' . Dress clothes, we'd . . .
WS: Must be quite a job to get that oily stuff out of your clothes,
was it, or not?
BR: No . We washed in a big ole barrel, was.h all day .
WS: I just wondered, I thought •..
RITTER ].
JS: You spoke of the camp that you lived in . Was that a barrack~t1pe
living?
BR: Yeah, it was a Gulf Oi l camp, an• had these tarpaulins over a tent
about that high . Wood about that high, and then a tarpaulin . It's good -~
WS: Did you have a cook, hired as a cook?
BR: A cook, we called him a crumb boss. (Laughter) Had a cook, and
got all the food you co uld eat, three times a day.
WS: Hmm. They fed pretty good, then .
BR: He had an assistant that'd cook, dishwash, an• all that kinda mess.
It was a good place to stay.
JS: It was a good place. How far were you from Nederland--out of town,
then?
BR: Well, we was about eight or ten miles from Haynesv ill e. An' when we
wanted to go out of Haynesville we'd catch a little ole dickey. It'd pick
up all the oil field workers , in these gondola cars--not a f lat car, but
it'd come up about that high . That there would be just tight with oil
field workers that had come to the railroad, an• he 1d stop, an 1 let 'em
all off!
JS: (Laughter) They had come to town .
BR: Come to town the same way. Come back to the fie ld the same way in
the mornin' .
JS: How often would you go into town--once a week?
BR: Well, they was gain' all t he time, all • . •
JS: Oh, I see, any time you wanted to .
BR: But they made arrangements to quit at our quittin' time . Some of
'em--we was about the only one that had a camp along there cl ose, that I
know of--most of t hem others had to stay up t he track--sometimes the
RITTER 8.
BR: farmers (that) owned the land , or whatever t he,y did, would take 'em
in an' board. I stayed like that for a little while, but I decided--got
that camp built, we all moved out there .
JS: And then you met Mrs . Ritter, and how did that come in relation to
this? How long afterwards did you meet her and was married and move into
town?
BR: When did I meet you? '23 or '4--?
BQ: (Laughter) Now, Janie, when he was talki.n' about the oilfield, that
was in Louisiana. Pineville was right out of Al exandria, Louisiana .
JS: How'd you spell that name?
BR: Haynesville?
BQ: P-I-N-E-V-I-L-L-E.
M: Haynesville .
W: No--that ain't right.
JS : Haynesville?
BR: The first we stopped was an oilfield i'n Homer, H-0-M-E-R .
BQ: Okay. Way up north Louisiana .
BR: And the next place was Haynesville, H-A-N-E-V-I-L-L-E, I guess .
M: H-A--Doesn't it have a Y in it?
BR : Yeah, H-A-Y .
JS: Haynesville.
M: H-A-Y-N-E-S-V-I-L-L-E.
JS: Okay.
BR: Well, Haynesville (pronounced as "Hi: nesvi lle "), that ' s actua'Jly
what they called it .
JS: I'm getting that so when I transcribe this, I can, you know, know
what- -
RITTER 9.
BR: Yeah .
WS: Than you come down here to work--Tex Ritter'·s old job, is that it?
BR: Yeah, an' then that's when I . .. Got through with that, the refinery
wasn't finished, so I went to Lamar . Junior College at that time, the
second year, I believe •.. '24 is when I went there .
JS: That's right here in Nederland .
BR: No.
BQ: Beaumont.
BR: I lived in Nederland then, but I'd ride the old inter-urban. I
haven't told you about that; they had that inter-urban track from Port
Arthur to Beaumont. Come right through Nederland . They had that when-­I
was comin' down there in 1916 an' stayin' with Sister at night. She
was young, an' afraid to stay, an' I wasn't much help to her, I was just
about fourteen, just about as afraid of these (furriners) as she was.
Most of 'em at that time couldn't talk English . The majority of 'em lived
there on Main Street, an' they'd let me into this big old house across
the track, two stor~ ·hoose ~ We'd get into a fight with one of those Cajun
boys comin' from school, an' boy, they'd come pourin' out of there, women
an' everything else, out of that ole two story house--jabberin' at you,
you wouldn't know what to say. (Laughter)
WS: Did Tex get in on this, too, I suppose?
BR: No. He come--he was busy goin' to South Park--that was the last
two years.
WS: What did it cost you, about a dollar to ride the old trolley up
there?
BR: Oh, about two bits.
WS: I was gonna say, I was thinkin' that prices were--
RITTER 10.
BR: That'd buy a book.
DR: .•. bought a book about 35 cents . . .
BR: Well, after all, I just paid two bits there for a while . It didn't
go up a nickle or two .
DR: We bought books . • .
BR: Oh, yeah, that was cheap transportation .
OR: If I can interject this--he was goin' to Lamar . Our--it was called,
used to be called, South Park Junior College . And he was gain' there, an'
I was finishin' high school in Port Arthur, because I had come to Port
Arthur . And we--he lived just a block from me . We'd walk down to the
Inter-Urban together, and I'd go one way and he 'd go the other .
BR: We ld have a fun time tellin 1 each other how much we loved each
other.
WS & JS: (Laughter)
END OF FIRST SIDE OF CASSETTE - 15 minutes
Tape I, side 2. (15 minutes)
JS: Who ran the Inter-Urban? Who ran that? Was that a private company
who ran it?
BR: I think so .
JS: It wasn't the city.
BR: No, oh no .
OR: (unintelligible)
WS: I guess you referred to that earlier, didn't you--?
BQ: Eastern Texas Electric Company, and they were later bought out by
Gulf States Utilities Company .
BR: Yeah, that' s the Gulf State track runnin' right here behind my house.
DR: It was really, really a very great thing, t hat Inter·-Urban--
RITTER 11.
BR: Well, if I'd a been livin' here then, I'd a caught it right out there.
--and Port Neches ran a bus over here, and it really--you know, kids
that went to school . . .
BR: That wasn't a bus.
DR: Oh, what, Port Neches ? (taxi?)
BQ: That was kind of a large old wooden station wagon, wasn't it?
BR: Naw, it got to where the jitneys, we'd call 'em--there were two of
them--would make that Inter-Urban, goin' each way every time. They'd
usually have a load gain' to Port Neches. Take two of 'em to haul 'em.
And that in-between time, when the car hadn't got there yet; they'd start
a crap game out there. Them jitney drivers spent all their spare time
shooti n' craps. (Laughter)
BR & JS: (Laughter)
JS: How long would it take to make the trip between here and .. .
BR: The old Gardener brothers--one of 'em was one of the tl~ain hands
over in Port Neches. They all dead now , all of 'em that I knew .. .
WS: Did you get into contracting work then, after college, is that about
it?
BR: Yeah. Are you ready for that now?
WS: Well, I guess, yeah .
BR: Played out with the old stuff--you got anything I need to say? (To BQ)
BQ: Well, tell us about growin' up with Tex. Did he always sing?
BR: No.
JS: I was wondering where he got his start in singing. Did he sing in
church, or around the community?
BR: Well, first I ever heard of it, was--he went to Texas University .
He used to try to sing, an• l~ We'd have them little ole country
RITTER 12.
BR: singin' schools, up there in ea~t Texas, when school was out--
shape notes, you know. Rest of us could sing pretty good , but he never
could learn to carry a tune, back there . He was a little smaller than
me. But I did; they'd come get me into all them ol • singins', an' come
by to get me to go . I sang tenor, and then I'd lead some of the songs
at them ol • singin's . But I quit fool in' with it , I had to shape notes
and all. . .
WS: What 'd you call those?
BR: Shape notes. Do-re-mi-fa-sol-la-ti-do.
BQ: Sacred Harp?
BR: Huh?
BQ: Is that the Sacred Harp, they call it? Shape--
BR: Naw. Shape notes.
JS: Shape notes . Uh - huh--I've never heard of that term.
BR: They're shaped. "Do" was round, an' "Fa" was kinda rectangled,
an' they had 'em all different. Used to see what note it was, you'd know
what tone to hit, ya see.
JS: What, they'd teach that in school, wouldn't they?
BR: Yeah, they taught that to all the boys and make ya go forward and
backwards, worse than tryin' to learn your ABC ' s. (Laughter)
JS: And Tex wasn't any good at that, huh?
BR: Ma'am?
JS : And Tex wasn't any good at that?
BR: Next time I heard him singin'--well, I think he sang a little around
her e ~ maybe started to try to--
OR: Yeah , he did sing , 'cause I remember hearin' .. •
BR: - -Went into the Texas Glee Club, and he got into that . Then he got
to singin' bass in there in the quartet they had . They come here to Beaumont
RITTER 13.
BR: one time; we went up there an' heard 'im. He did pretty good; he
surprised mel (Laughter) Singin' bass . They'd go all over the country ,
that Texas Glee Club.
DR: Booty's oldest brother led singin• . And they thought they could
sing so good that they--tell 'em that--won't you tell how--
BR: He could sing good---Oh, I forgot the music an• everything else
when I moved down here . Wife kept me busy all the time .
DR: Oh, Booty, tell them what you--if you wanna cut that off while I
talk to • im.
(Pause in tape)
BR: --got a night program on it~ now.
DR: Ralph Emery?
BR: So, Ralph . Ralph Emery . So, I went with Tex . He had a little ole•
program then over in Nashville. Oh, they (had) a big insurance company an'
they had a whole deal over there, where he'd put on a little show. An•
he wanted to know if I wanted to go with •im, an• I said, 11Wel1, I ain•t
got nothin' else to do, I'll just go with you . What are you gonna do? 11
He says, ••oh, I told Ralph I'd come over an sing a song or two this
morn in'." (Laughter) So we got over there, an • got--there was a young-­!
guess kind of a trio there, an' a girl, first time she'd ever been on
television--sang, and then Tex did his little thing, an' he told ol' Ralph
he had a brother there. An' I was standin' at the back of the house , an'
he says, "We 11, reckon we can get him up here?" An' Tex says, "You can try ,
I don't knml/ . 11 (Laughter) So he called for me, an' asked, an' that' s
where I met Ralph Emery .
An' he got to questionin ' me up there, like, kinda like ya'll doin'
an' wanted me to sing. He said Tex said I was a better singer than he was.
RITTER 14.
BR: I said, "Yeah, but that was a few years ago." I said, "I 'm like
Gravel Gertie now . 11 (Laughter) So, we visited a while, an' he asked me
when Tex--where Tex learned to s ing . I says, "\vell, did he ever?"
JS & WS: (Laughter)
BR: (Laughter) Ralph didn't know what to say on that. An' we was up
there--a little--well, he was a pallbearer here when Tex died. We was up
there last year, wasn't it?
DR: A year ago.
BR: Tex's wife, they honored her up there in Nashvi ll e, an' that was a
big deal. 01 • Ralph, we saw him there that night, an• he wanted to know
how l ong I was gonna stay, an' I says, "We're leavin' tomorrmoJ . 11 He says,
"Well, stay over 'til Monday an' I'll have you as a guest on my program! 11
An' I says, "Fo r what, Ralph?" (Laughter) He says, "Ah, we' ll just talk,
find somethin' to talk about . "
WS: That's good.
BR: An' I says, "No, we ' re headin' out; we 've got the reservati on back
to Nederland. 11
(Pause in tape)
WS: Will you tell us about Tex singin' there~ when you--in the fireplace--
BR: Oh, well, you know, there wasn't much to do in the country. You
had to make your own entertainment an' everything else . An ' my t wo sisters
was pretty s ingers, an' my young sister was good enough to carry a tune-­my
young one, the one just older than me. My oldest broth er an ' me, well,
at night my mother would get us around the fireplace, you know, get us five
to sing, an ' Tex would ease up there an' he'd s tart, too . (Laughter)
She'd tell him to sit down . "Sit down, Tex . " Daddy's ( 1.__ ), "Why don't
you sit down, an' I believe the rest will sound pretty good ."
RITTER 15 .
WS: So when did he pick up this Tex handle--was that because he--after
he got a little more notoriety and became- -
BR: Well, you know, he made about 88 of those ol' western movies .
WS: Yeah.
BR: Along about the same time as--well, when that sayin' 11Western 11
come in"
DR: He picked it up in New York, didn't he? He started bein' 11Tex 11 in
New York.
BR: Yeah, he was all right in New York on some stage plays, an' a new
company opened out there--Nashvi 11 e . An' they was hunti n' a covJboy singer,
an' they was ta1kin' to one of Tex's friends! he says, 111 know where you
can get a good one . 11 Tex was out on a dude ranch, so they come out there
an' took 'im back to Hollywood with 'em. So he had his job before he got
out there.
When was this, in the late '20's?
DR: It was the '30's.
We're into the '30's, then .
DR: It's in his book, but I can't tell ...
Well , just approximately ...
BR: Yeah, I guess that 's right, in the '30's .
DR: About '37, I would say.
BR: He was a littl e older--when he got started out there, he was
married--how old was he when he married, about 32?
DR: Well, he was 36, but then he didn't marry until later.
JS: Did he marry someone from the Nederland area, in this area?
BR: No, it was a girl out there. She made a few of these westerns.
They had to have somebody to sing to, you know, in those ol' westerns .
RITTER 16.
JS: Uh, huh.
BR: Pick up a pretty girl an' turn to her--instead of just kissin' a
horse an' singin' with him all the time.
JS: (Laughter) That's pretty good. Then after he left~ he sang in
college. And then you said he worked--had this radio station for t he
insurance company. And then~ did he go from there into Nashville?
DR: No, Ralph Emery had the radio station--had the program on the
radio station. An' Tex was a visit--
BR: Yeah. Ralph Emery was workin' for 'em . Big insurance, National
Life, I believe it was, out of Nashville.
JS: Oh, I see.
BR: They started all that business up there .
JS: And then he went from there to New York, where he started--got the
movie parts.
BR: No . New York was--that was before . You know, when he went to New
York--well, I think he was through with the ol' westerns when he come back
to Nashville. 'Cause t ha t 's where it all moved to. See, when he started
in it, he cut a lot of records. He worked for Capitol, out there in Los
Angeles . He had an office in there, when they opened that Capitol Record
Company. It's still ( 1 ). But he never did--well, he did go there
sometime; I went around there one day an' he showed it to me . Had his name
up over the door, you know. Yeah, he'd work for 'em--he'd find people he
thought was good western si nger, he'd bring 'em in, an' if they was good
enough to cut a record, they'd let 'em cut a record, you know .
DR: What program was he on that your daddy used to~-wouldn't let anybody
speak?
BR: Well, that was a radi'o, out in New VorL a 1 ong tfme before .. .
RITTER 17 .
DR: Radio . The day of radio, in New York, an' it was - -
BR: He was on two or three of them ol' chain radio--that was before the
television got in too much . He went in there about the time they wanted
to--television comin' on a little bit , or at least startin' to--on the road .
An' when they started makin' westerns, it wasn ' t too long ago .. .. An' they
was huntin' these singin' cowboys, you see. This new company . Gene Autry
was already out there , an' I believe Roy Rogers (__1 ) . An' three or four
of them ol r timers .
JS : Mm-hmm . Did he--excuse me , go ahead .
BR: Most of 'em gone. Gene's still livin', but he looks terrible bad .
JS: Did Tex keep pretty close ties with this area , even af ter he went to
New York and Hollywood?
BR: Oh, yeah . He got out on the road, well , after he left Hollywood,
he got to makin' these trips . Be out a week or two at a time . He got
within 300 miles of this place , he'd come by , it might be four o'clock in
the mornin'l He'd always come by--call me--if somebody called me about
after midnight , I'd know who it was . Always wake yaup.
DR: He was very clos e, an ' he loved Nederland . He always--you know ,
Nederland was his home , that was all he ever considered . An' after his
death, he had appeared on "Hee Haw" an' it came on (and) saluted Nederland .
We saw it after his death--"Salute my home town, Nederland."
JS: Uh-h uh.
BR; Well, he had a standin' date with the Grand Ole Opry. Whenever
he'd get close, he'd appear on it. He didn •t have to make a day, he 'd
just go by an' tell 'em he was in town, an', "Well , ya gonna be here
Friday or Saturday?" 11 Yeah ." "Well, come on by . " He 'd always be on
that show when he went through there .
RITTER 18.
(Pause in tape)
WS: Well, you're gettin' into the Pure Oil I believe it was, Company
out here that you started workin' for.
BR: Oh yeah . I went to work there in the latter part of '24. That was
right, the Pure Oil Company . Actually, at that time, it was Humphreys
Oil Company when i t started, but then got it ( _ ?_. _) around as Pure Oil
Company, an' they took it over again. So I worked there 28 and a half
years, an' retired in '53, first day of January . Then 1--my wife an' I
had started a little ol' lumber yard over here (just one I finished _ ?
Aw, just a little ol' place, an' it's grown quite a bit. I wasn't able to
work no more, so I just turned my part of it over to the grandkids. Got
the one son left, an' he had three boys . ? He tried to send them
all to col lege--he was a dentist, you know . They couldn ' t have nothin'
on their mind but ( woman ___ ) so they're over there, an ' all married.
Each one of em' got two children apiece . An' we got six--I guess we got
six great-grandchildren--(background conversation in room is loud here
and Ritter's words are inaudible) Seven. The boys have two apiece, an '
she (our grandaughter) has the one girl, that's seven great-grandchildren .
Oldest one's about 13 now .
WS: Then you did some contract work too?
BR: Then, while I was at the lumber y~~d, after I quit, then's when I
started the --(it was) so small , my wife could take care of it, then--
! started addin' on stuff like that, you know . Me an' an old friend I
had there, an' I'd help 'im.
(End of Tape I) Side 2, 15 minutes
RITTER 19.
Tape 2, Side 1.
BR: --borers, these pine beetles, they call it . They just took ( 1
an• we'd run into four or five acres, trees that big around just deader
then a hammer . They won't let 'em even treat them, so these big lumber
companies got to makin' their circle--if they see one with beetles in it,
it'd start dyin', you know, an' they'd bore a hole in that thing, cut it
down--the log was still all right! An' they'd spray an' treat all that
stuff, an• kinda control 'em. But they won't let 'em do nothin' like that
no more, so I guess them beetles gonna take that pine timber over.
JS: And you say your son or--and grandsons have your lumber business
now .
BR: One of them is a contractor. An' we got a commercial contractor--
started with us when he was about 15, he's about 36 now. Then we have
another boy over there that just does add-ons. Builds a room, builds a
little house, every now an' then somebody wants. But then I got into-­after
I started small, like that, then 1--we had a--we got into a--bought
100 acres from a boy over in Port Neches--up here pretty close--well, the
Nederland-Port Neches line runs right through part of it . So I developed
it, so we developed that 100 acres or more--me an• my son an' another
fell a.
(Pause in tape)
BR: It was known as the Ridgewood addition, out in Port Neches .
WS: A hundred acres, you said, was in this?
BR: Yeah, approximately . Bought it from one of the Kitchen heirs. We
built it up, I guess, a couple of years, just me an' about one other guy .
An' then another guy come in there , where that buildin' there was . An' a
fella by the name of Vanderweg had about 75 acres on this side of the
RITTER 20.
BR: street, out there--Merriman I b.elieve they call it. So, we developed
that . Part of that 's commercial land, that's still there, but we sold the
bank some property on it.
WS: This is in the township or town site of Nederland, or just out, or~-?
BR: Well, the Kitchen was in--part of it was in Port Neches, but they
got it cut, now, into the Port Neches School District. But where we are,
over here, well, part of that is in the Nederland School District, but it
cut across some of them houses in line, when they straightened it out. We
took all on the other side, an' then we had a straight line on this side
an' Port Neches come out this highway, over there, Merriman Street. So we
did those two additions, then bought the one over here in Nederland . ( 1
a nice tract of land, about the only good one left in Nederland, at the
town site .... Course I got some new ones, one now out here, an' got some
nice houses on 'em. One over there close to the airport that got some
nice houses--small, but this was hundred acre tracts.
vJS: I understand from Bill earlier that this was basically rice farming
land, primarily--
BR: When we come here it was all rice farming.
WS: All rice farming.
BR: When my wife an' I married, we had to put a wire fence around our
house . The cows were still all sleepin' up here at night . We had enough
mosquitos without them! (Laughter)
JS: --them bringing them in, huh.
BR: Oh, we had a little old house over there, back of old Tom 2 's .
restaurant on Nederland Avenue. Lived there for a good many years, sold
it, when our son got hurt. An' I built a pretty nice house over there on
Franklin . When we got ready to bring him home, well, then, he decided
RITTER 21.
BR: that he wanted one different, so we built this one an' sold that
one. Wasn't no trick to sell . .. (it?) . I told that realtor that I didn't
want people a-comin' an' a-goin'--if she found a hot prospect, she could
let him come get it. So about the first one she found, he bought it .
I guess he figured the price was all right.
JS: You spoke about building over by the airport, and we ' ve just been --
BR: That's--that wasn't me.
JS: Oh, that was Bill Doornbos .
BR: That was somebody else.
JS: Yes.
BR: Two or three of 'em built over here.
JS: Oh, I see .
WS: Bill, could you add anything for us here?
BQ: Not really. Oh, you mentioned--! was out with your wife--you men -
tioned Alan Meadows, over on the other side of town?
BR: Yeah. That's a tract there in Nederland . Sti ll got some lots left
there, but, thank goodness, we sold that man that Wal-Mart store there, an'
we had enough money to pay it all off. (Laughter)
BQ: Right .
BR: The only thing wrong with it now is these high taxes .
BQ: Yes.
JS: Then you certainly seem to have been involved in the growth of Neder-land,
si nce you came in, in 1920.
BR: Oh, yeah. Shoot. When I moved here, there was very few houses, to
tell you the truth . Where we lived over there.-that l ittle old house--it
was way out there by itself, an' then they got to buil din' up a little along
that street there, behind Tom's restaurant (Jom Lee, 1415 Nederland Avenue)
RITTER 22.
BR: you know where i t \'Jas back there .
BQ: Mr. Ritter's been in a number of civic projects. And also instrumen-tal
in the sanctuary--new sanctuary in the Methodist Church. And there's a
senior ci tizens' facility on the other side of town, and it 's named in his
honor. And there are a number of things around t own that he's had a ve ry
large part in.
BR: Well, when the kinfolks come, an• we•ct show •em that hadn•t been here,
I'll take •em down an• show •em my name on the Senior Ci t izens•, an• t hen
I'll bring 'em back up this way, I say, '1Now , t his is where the uptown people
live . Texi s on this end , you know, with the windmi l l. " (Laughter)
DR?: I don•t think there was anything civically that he was not involved
in, really. He served the school board twelve years. And t ha t was pretty
good fo r Nederland, at that time. But--we were, you know, Nede rland was
small, and they•d get these committees--one time they got one to clean up
the town , I think . Whatever they had, well , he was usually in on it .
JS : Really active in it. I suppose you stil l keep acti ve--
BR: Not t oo ac ti ve. (Laughter)
JS: I don't mean physically, but--real i nterested--
BR: r•d like to be, but I just have trouble. I take about four or f i ve
pills, one every day. I'd ask ' im, "Well, how l ong do I have to do this?"
"Rest of your life." So, I'm loaded with pills. I couldn ' t tell ya how
l ong that would be. (Laughter)
DR: He still has his office over at the l umber company .
BR: Yeah, I go over there all morni n• ; I ' ll ei ther work or visit . Well ,
t hat' s my day's work.
JS: Well, Booty, our ti me is about up, but I certainly have apprec iated
RITTER 23.
JS: the time you've spent with us, and also you, Dainy, the comments
that you've added. It helped us out a lot .
DR: I wanted to give him a few plugs.
BR: Yeah, she got a little that I left out.
JS: You can say things that he can't say.
DR: Well, I sure can . But I will--! would like to interject that he had
wonderful parents . What I wanted to tell back there was--course this is
just not for posterity, but--when his--Tex got this show that became national,
you know--his daddy had a radio, an• he would step right up there to hear it,
an' nobody there would breathe, you know . Because everything stopped at
five o'clock so that you could hear that. And as I said our children were
small--he died when they were small--and he j ust couldn't listen--but his
father was a wonderful man, and his mother was very fine.
BR: ~~Y father an • mother died three hours--no, three months of each
other.
JS: Oh, for goodness sakes . Well, it must have been really interesting
to keep track of your brother, Tex Ritter, especially since he was proud of
coming back here, and interested in you--
BR: Well, he wanted to come here an' be buri ed here.
WS: Oh, he's buried here, is he?
BR: That's where our son was buried, over in this Oak Bl uff Cemetery.
(Formerly Block Cemetery) He said he wanted to be buried right here; he
liked this location. Wasn't too long, where he died.
DR: Our son died in the Memphis Veterans Hospital, and Tex got there
just a few hours after he was gone . And so he visited with our other son,
was there, and he--
BR: Yeah, that was a coincidence . When we lost our son, well , Texan'
RITTER 24.
BR: I--I was--the oldest son, my only son, then--we was drivin' over
there at the morgue that mornin' to make arrangements to get him back home,
his body. Then we come out of that place, started back~-we had an apart­ment
'way over across town there, in Memphis . I looked over there an' saw
somebody, an' I says, "Jim, stop this car. That's Tex walkin' over yonder . "
I hadn't heard from him--well, he'd come by every time he'd come that direc­tion,
an' see Al . An' I whistled at 'im, an' he come walkin' over there;
he said, "What are you doin ' here?" I said, "Well, we come over to make
arrangements for Al." He said, "Well, they told me about it when I got up
there . He passed away 1 as t night. 11 He said, 11 I di dn • t know how to find
you." I said, "Well, just follow me, an' I'll take you." (Laughter) So
we had the boys--my son got in the car with the boys--Ben--he come on out
there an' stayed a while. He wanted to know when he was gonna be buried,
an' I said, "Now, Tex, you been good to come see Al, an' you don't have to
make that trip." Oh, I knew he'd have to cancel out somewhere, you know.
"Oh, no, I'll be there." That's all he said. He was. He was here .
DR: But--that's what I wanted to tell . When Tex came, an' of course all
our--Allan became known--our son--because he was--well, Bill, you remember
Allan.
BQ: Sure.
DR: He was into everything, even though he was handicapped, you know .
And, of course, he had a tremendous funeral, and anyway the house was just
filled with people, and flowers, and everything else, and food . And so
when Tex left, he said, "I have not seen that much love, in I do not know
when." He said, "It's the most wonderful thing." And he loved the ceme­tery.
And when he died, and his wife called to see if he could be buried
in--~course, it was sudden, you know.-buried, was it all right to bring
RITTER 25.
DR~ his body back. Booty was gone , and I told her, "Well, sure." And
so then, in making the arrangements, every time I would talk with her, she
said, "Well, what did you do for Allan?" She evidently must have really
been so impressed when he went back, and of course--well, we've never thought
of the celebrity part with him, you know. But she did make a statement I
think he would appreciate, is--she was standin' right there, and she said,
--I told her that the Baptists had offered their church~-Tex loved our church.
And of course he had belonged, when he was here, to the first little white
church we had. And I said--she sai.·d-- I to 1 d her that the Baptists had
offered, and that his--'course his nephew was married that time in Beau-mont,
if they wanted to use anything else--and I said, "No, it'll be at
our church . " I didn't ask anything on that--Dorothy had just told me .
And so, anyway, I told her. And she said, 11We didn't want that," said,
"we had the celebrity funeral. in Nashville. We were burying the man,
here." And so that was the way that it was done, you know, just .. . And
another thing--I'll pitch this in, this is not for the book--but Emmett
McKenzie was a wonderful singer, and a real friend of my son, the one we
lost. And he is now with the Port Neches bank, but he retired as school
superintendent. And he was in Carthage at that time, and I called him,
to see if he'd come back and sing . And when he--the day of the funeral--
and Emmett could sing well--and he saw Tom T. Hall, and he got scared.
And he came in there, he said, "Mrs . Ritter, I just can 1t sing, get Tom T.
Hall to sing. I can't sing in front of him. 11 I said, "I don't want Tom T.
Hall." I said--'course, everything we had cleared with Dorothy, I mean,
you know, and what was to be sung, and everything--and I said, "We don't
want Tom L Hall, we want you . " And he went into the kitchen, and Shirley
and my niece were standing in there, and he said, "Shirley, I just can't
RITTER 26.
DR: do that.'' He said, 11 l'm goin' over to Mother's .. '' She said~ 110ainy,
won 1 t you--you can do it. '' And he did a terri fie job . He sang so much
better than Tom T. Hall. He was just great . But that's just pitched in,
for the side . Well, to give the humor, I mean the family part of it.
JS: That's interesting .
DR: But he did a real excellent job.
JS: Well, it sounds like Tex was busy, but you all--just as busy here
at home, on the home front . And again, we sure appreciate your time and ...
BR: Quite welcome .
WS: Well, I think Bill will be ...
(End of Tape 2. )