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OH 1594

About the Interviewee

IntervieweeBALENTINE, John Ed (b. 1918)

About this oral history

Interview ID #OH 1594
Date(s) of interview
DescriptionLongtime resident of Denton County, Texas, and former North Texas State Teachers College student. Memories of life on the Christal Ranch and other Denton Co. farms, including descriptions of ranch work, wheat harvest, and entertainment options in the nearby town of Denton; education in Denton schools, including kindergarten at what is now Texas Woman’s University and high school at the North Texas demonstration school on what is now the UNT campus; family’s economic difficulties during the Great Depression; undergraduate studies at North Texas as an Industrial Arts major; descriptions of student social life; decision to drop out of school to work for magnolia Oil Co. in Kermit, Texas; induction into U.S. Army; World War II service in Pacific in anti-aircraft battalion; return to Kermit and Magnolia Oil Co.; courting of and marriage to Jeanette Smith of Denton; transfers to Chickasha, Oklahoma, and Gainesville, Texas; descriptions of historic Denton County photographs.
Interviewer(s)Todd Moye
Physical Description124 pp. plus documents (88 pp.)
Terms of UseOpen