Page 50 - Senior Link Magazine Spring 2023 - Online Magazine

LOCAL LEGENDS
Pure GOLD
Janie Landin Ramirez
By Jane Bromley
osé and Mary Landin were
migrant workers in Lamesa with
Ja blended family of 13 children.
They spent long summers in meager
work camps, hoeing and picking
cotton and green beans. Daughter
Josie became the first to graduate
from high school and received a
scholarship to Draughon’s Business
College in Lubbock. José couldn’t
read or write, but he was smart. He
knew Lubbock offered opportunity;
he wanted to keep his family
together, and he wanted them to
prosper. Thirteen-year-old Janie did
not want to move to Lubbock. She
was in seventh grade and had just
My parents and their truck where they
carried families from camp site to site
in the late 1940s.
50 Lubbock Senior Link
been elected the first Latina on
the student council at Lamesa
Junior High.
In December 1969, the family of
(then) 10 moved to Lubbock, and
José got a job at Texas Tech as a an eternity, they heard her father
custodian. Mary joined him in 1971, and brother calling out their names.
and Janie became a junior mom, The two had walked for miles
caring for her five younger siblings. through the wreckage and chaos.
It was a huge step for José, but he The children were all barefooted,
knew his family would benefit. He but “We walked to Uncle Lazaro's
found a small two-bedroom house house and stayed with them for a
near 4th and L. Only six months few days. That's when I learned the
later, May 1970, tragedy struck the generosity of Lubbock, the place I
close-knit family. didn't want to be.”
José was at work at Tech and son Joe
was finishing his shift at Taco Bell as The family lost everything. Thirteen-
year-old Janie thought for sure
a threatening storm moved in. Mary they would go back to Lamesa. But
Landin and her seven youngest her father said, “No, we will start
were watching TV. As the winds over. All that has been lost can be
grew ominous, Mary yelled for her replaced.” José was Janie’s hero, and
children to get under the kitchen she trusted him. “We stayed and
table. Eight of them crouched rebuilt. Eventually, my father was
together, and Josie and Janie held able to buy us a beautiful 3-bedroom
onto their five younger siblings as home in Arnett Benson.” The family
the house was blown apart. Janie emerged stronger.
remembers, “We were all praying.
We couldn't breathe because of all “When I was 16, I told Pop I did
the dirt and debris in the air. It only not want to work in the fields
lasted two or three minutes, but it anymore. He drove me to apply
felt like hours.” They stayed under for a job at Texas Tech. Because I
the table for a long time because of could read, I got the job cleaning
loose electrical lines sparking and President Grover Murray's area in
the smell of gas. It was terrifying, the Administration Building. There
but Janie kept saying, “Pop will find were so many shelves to be dusted.
us.” Complete silence and darkness
It was my responsibility to pay the
enveloped them. After what seemed $88 mortgage on our house.”