Page 16 - Summer 2019 - Lubbock Senior Link Magazine - Online Magazine
P. 16
HONORING SENIORS
JUANA LEE
STEPHENSON:
“I don’t have a story”
By Jane Bromley
uana Lee Stephenson thought storms, “Pappaw” and his friends “with kitchen privileges”, but she
her name was “Baby” until she would meet on a vacant lot, and stayed close to her Mammaw and
Jwent to school. She was the only Juana Lee would go along, so that Pappaw. By then, her grandfather
child of Winfred and Leta Perry. She she could stand at a wicket and was blind, so he obtained a permit
was born at home, on the corner of wave a white handkerchief, so her and taught her to drive in an
15th and Avenue U in Lubbock, in grandfather would know which way old Plymouth coupe. He needed
July 1927. She lived with her parents to aim the mallet. someone to take him places, even
and grandparents, and even though though she was only 11. In fact, the
the Great Depression began just Before moving to Dupre Elementary last evening they spent together was
after she was born, she remembers in second grade, Juana Lee attended in the Plymouth “practice driving”.
how “well-loved” she was while Geo. M. Hunt where she vividly She walked home afterwards but
growing up. She has lots of pictures remembers the “union suit” she was awakened that night to the
illustrating her happy childhood. had to wear - complete with long news that her beloved grandfather,
One of those photos is of a birthday stockings. (“All the other girls got her “champion”, had died.
party with her cousins, Larry and to wear anklets.”) When she got a
Travis Holley (Buddy’s brothers), in pair of white boots, she was able Every secondary student in Lubbock
attendance. She is, in fact, a second to roll the stockings down inside at the time attended “Junior High”
cousin to Lubbock’s favorite son. the boots on the way to school and and “High School” on 19th St.
pull them back up “behind a barn” When Juana Lee was 17, and about
The 91-year-old is a treasure trove before she got home. That worked to graduate in 1945, she planned to
of information about Lubbock’s until someone told her teacher, Mrs. attend Wheaton College in Illinois.
early years, and she recalls her Ship. Once, at recess, Ralph Lindsey However, her boyfriend, Elmer
experiences in striking detail. The (whose parents owned the Lindsey “Buck” Stephenson, was going to
family moved to a 2-bedroom home Theater) put a “horny toad” down be drafted as soon as he turned 18.
on Ave. G, across from the Santa Fe the back of her dress. She was so The teenagers decided they should
Railroad Depot, where she would distraught that Mrs. get married before he left.
place pennies on the tracks for Ship made Ralph Their mothers had to go
amusement. The family rented out stay after school for with them to get a marriage
the front of the house, and the four many days. license, and they married
adults and “Baby” lived in the back. in Jan. 1945. Buck went to
Tragically, her register on his birthday,
Mrs. Stephenson’s vivid descriptions parents divorced April 12th, and the young
of early Lubbock are entertaining when Juana Lee bride waited at the Dunlaps
and enlightening. One story involves was in 5th grade. It Department Store across the
her grandfather’s deteriorating was devastating to street from the courthouse.
eyesight and his love for the game her. In those days, That was where she was
of croquet. As everyone knows, the only people when someone in the store
West Texas weather is not always who divorced lived heard and shared the news
cooperative, but the sandstorms of in Hollywood. She that President Roosevelt
the 30’s are legendary. However, and her mother had just died. Juana Lee
even during some of the worst dust rented a room remembers everyone crying.
16 Lubbock Senior Link
