The following text was automatically extracted from the image on this page using optical character recognition software:
Ethel Starkey
ETHEL: She finished her 25 years of teaching there.
FRANCELLE: Is that right? She was a very good algebra teacher.
ETHEL: And he was a cattle and oil man. They had ranches in west Texas they
discovered oil on them.
FRANCELLE: Well what do you think has been the best thing about living in Kerrville?
ETHEL: Well, certainly meeting Junior was about the best thing. And getting to know
his family and also getting to know my cousins, the Burton family. We had
always been with them in the summertime for a couple of weeks, but just
getting to know them, and the community.
FRANCELLE: Do you have a favorite memory of Kerrville, would you say?
ETHEL: We can hardly pass up camping on the river.
FRANCELLE: So all the family went out? Did you camp in tents?
ETHEL: Yeah, we did, Mother and Daddy started camping in 1916 when her mother
and my uncle moved here. And Daddy loved the Guadalupe River. So they
set up camp every summer. Mr. Schumacher, Billie Schumacher's
grandfather......
FRANCELLE: OK, so you camped up there by Hunt, then?
ETHEL: They did, before I was born. Well I think the last time I might have been a
baby the last time I camped up there because in the meantime, about 1923, my
uncle A.B. Burton bought land on the river. And there was an old house up
about 30 feet from the river. But that was before the '32 flood and, but Daddy
always camped down by the river.
FRANCELLE: And so you just camped out and you cooked over the open fires, then?
ETHEL: Oh yeah, it was wonderful. And then later we were getting older, the children
were getting older and so they started, when they visited here, Uncle - we
called him "B" - his name was Allie B. Burton. And my brother heard them
calling him Allie B., so he just called him "B." "B" and Aunt Jeanette. Uh,
Daddy would go up, my family, just mother and daddy and me, 'because
brother was away from home, seven years older, we would stay in that old
house. We would always go down swimming about six o'clock in the
morning. Because "B" would have the swim and breakfast and get to town...
FRANCELLE: Wasn't it cold at six o'clock?
ETHEL: The water was cold. But he had to get to the Bank, you know. And we'd
Kerr County Historical Commission 16 Oral
History Project