For the Texas Textile Mill Oral History Project. Former employee of the Texas Textile Mill and longtime resident of McKinney, Texas. Childhood and education in McKinney public schools; work as cotton picker for local farmers; parents’ jobs in the mill; family life on “the mill block;” importance of the New Deal; memories of 1948 tornado; social life in McKinney; nature of work at the mill; union organizing; determination to earn an education so as not to have to work in the mill any longer; graduation from Baylor University; family history.