Leslie Lowe's (23) Story

L to R: George Lowe, Leslie, Nora Ferguson, Claudia

The early years of the depression were not as hard on Lowe family as it was on many other families.  This was because they owned their own farm and were fairly self-sufficient.  This does not mean that the depression did not affect the family, however.  They did suffer some lean times and work outside the farm could not easily be found.  Leslie quit school when he was seven years old and in the second grade to help work on the farm.

 

  Leslie, who was born on June 14, 1919, met Maurine Marshall at a church they both attended and began to court her.  One of his fondest memories of this time was seeing Maurine one afternoon after she had just finished plowing a field with the help of an old mule.  She was exhausted and lying on the back of the mule, riding it to her home.  She did not know he was there or that he had seen her.  He said he thought she was the prettiest girl he had ever seen.  They were married on November 4, 1938.  Leslie and Maurine had four children, but Kenneth-the youngest- died at birth. The surviving children were:

            1. L.D. Lowe

            2.  Helen Lowe

            3.  Betty Lois Lowe

L to R: Leslie, L.D., Helen, Maurine, Betty

  When Leslie was young, some misunderstandings had occurred between the Lowe and Garlington families.   There was a rumor that if hunting dogs strayed onto Garlington land, the dogs went missing and were never found.  In the1950s, Leslie had two hunting dogs he was very proud of.  One was a blue-tick hound and the other was a mixed breed.  One day the dogs were hunting, caught a scent, and took off at a full run, baying all the way.  Leslie lost sight of them but followed the baying until it stopped.  The dogs had entered Garlinton land by this time.  Leslie searched everywhere for his dogs, but found no sign of them.  Finally, he decided the Garlingtons possibly had his dogs.  He took his rifle and walked up to the Garlington home.  He yelled at them that he wanted his dogs back, but they called to him from the house and told him that they did not have the dogs.  Leslie eventually gave up and left, but he never found out what happened to his dogs.  For the rest of his life, he held a grudge because he felt the Garlingtons knew something about his dogs.

  During the late 1930s and early 1940s, Leslie worked in two of the alphabet programs that had been instituted by President Roosevelt.  First, he worked in the NYA, and later in the WPA.  For a few dollars a day, he would shovel dirt and fill up dump trucks.  He and others did this from sun-up to sundown every day.

  With the outbreak of World War II, both Hardy and Acie Lowe joined the service.  Acie joined the Army and made a career from which he would later retire.  Hardy fough in the Pacific Campaign in the navy and had three P.T. boats on which he was serving sunk by the Japanese.  In 1944, Leslie joined the Navy and his unit was scheduled to be part of the force that would invade Japan.  However, due to President Truman’s use of the atomic bomb, the invasion was not necessary.  

  After the war, Leslie learned welding as a trade and worked for several years as a welder to support his family.  Then, in 1955, he was working in a shipyard when he fell from some scaffolding.  His neck was seriously injured and he could not work for more than a year.  The family suffered but survived.  Betty, one of Leslie’s daughters, remembers eating canned peas and drinking tea for most evening meals during that time.  Maurine worked to help support the family as best she could.  For a time, she worked making pies for $2.00 a day.

  In 1964, Leslie suffered the first of three heart attacks.  The first attack led to his being disabled and unable to continue working as a welder.  In 1972, Leslie had his second heart attack.  The doctors said that only a portion of this heart was still functioning and it was a miracle he was still alive.  The attack did not stop him though.  He continued to be active, working his garden every year.  

  Leslie was an avid deer hunter and never went anywhere without his rifle and usually a shotgun as well.  In his later years he drove a red Dodge truck and loved to keep in contact with the truckers on highway 69 North using his CB station.  He worked everyday finding old engines and taking the wiring from it to sell to various junk yards, as well as digging out cast off iron ore deposited by the Lufkin Foundry.

 

  I was very close to Papaw Leslie.  He would keep and take care of me

  On August 29, 1983, Leslie suffered his third and fatal heart attack.