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Ethel Starkey
FRANCELLE: Were you working there before you moved to Kerrville?
ETHEL: Well during the war I worked in the headquarters of two what used to be horse
cavalry units. But they closed it down as horse cavalry and I worked there
until my brother was being sent overseas, Bowman Baker, who lived in
Kerrville three or four years. He wanted, his wife, my sister-in-law, and me to
live together, they had about a year old little girl named Carol. So I quit my
job and moved back to Edinburg, got a job in the bank there and we lived for
about three years -- he was overseas about three years.
FRANCELLE: And so can you tell us what brought you to Kerrville then?
ETHEL: Well, I received a telephone call from Allie Burton and Aunt Jeanette, his
mother, saying they needed help in the office and they wondered if I would be
willing to come to Kerrville to help them out, and I said I'd love to come to
Kerrville. We had come up every summer camping out on the river.
FRANCELLE: How old were you then?
ETHEL: Twenty-five.
FRANCELLE: Twenty-five, and you were unmarried at that time.
ETHEL: And so, I've been here ever since. I met -- Rankin Starkey owned the
Kerrville Daily Times. And he was coming around picking up advertisements,
came by the office and I met him. And he knew my brother Bowman, knew
him well. So he went home and said, "Guess what? Bowman's sister just
moved to Kerrville." Well the following Saturday, "Junior," his name was
A.L. Starkey, Jr....
FRANCELLE: And everybody called him "Junior."
ETHEL: And Junior came by the office to meet Bowman's sister, because he knew
Bowman too. So we hit it off, and that was it.
FRANCELLE: So you started dating then. So that was a good move, to move to Kerrville.
ETHEL: Yes, it was wonderful. I loved Kerrville anyway.
FRANCELLE: How long did y'all date before you were married?
ETHEL: Well it was about four years. He had brought his mother's land, part of it, and
owed her for it. When he got out of the service - he was a B-17 pilot overseas,
and when he got out in 1945, December, he had saved throughout his life, he
had $8,000, which was a lot of money. He had loaned it to Rankin because
Rankin was building what was going to be the new Kerrville Times building
on Earl Garrett Street, which is now called the Executive Office building,
directly across from the courthouse. When he was building it, he tied up
Kerr County Historical Commission 7 Oral
History Project