Life began for me on a small dairy farm, in a devout Christian home located near Loranger, in the parish of Tangipahoa, Louisiana. Upon finishing high school in 1952 I joined the work force, first trying several lines of gainful employment.
!n 1959 landed a truck driving job for W.M. Chambers Tank Truck Line in New Orleans. This was my first unionized job and I knew nothing about unions and how they work, but I sure enjoyed the wages and benefits that came with this job and determined to learn more about unions in addition to resolving to search for union employment in the future employment searches. I continued my employment with W. M. Chambers until 1961 when for personal reasons I resigned and moved to Tulsa, Oklahoma where I had a promise of a job with Madden Brothers Excavating, a company that was not under union contract but when they were subcontracting under a unionized contractor they paid the employees union dues and required them to join. I know the Madden family personally and they agreed to put me to work with the understanding that I would start in Oklahoma for them and when I found employment under a union contract I would be accepting the new opening.
I had a stepsister and her husband, Jim and Anecia Wall living in Tulsa at that time who, invited me to stay with them until I could get an apartment for my wife and two sons could join me here. I arrived in Tulsa on Sunday night and David Madden picked me up at the Wall home Monday morning and upon arriving at the job site There were picketers carrying on strike signs. David assured me the strike was not against them but and my response was, I will be here with the pickets when you come out, there is no way I will cross that picket line.
Needless to say the next day was devoted to finding a job getting a pre-employment, doctors examination and given a start time the following day. This wasn't a union job but it was a living wage job that kept me going until I was able to get on at Roadway Express, a.major L. T. L. carrier where I worked until retirement at the end of 1995.
From the beginning of my tenure at Roadway Express I became active in Teamsters Local 523 Tulsa, Oklahoma. This included attending all the membership meetings and volunteering to doing a variety of duties for the local. In the late 1960s I was elected job steward at Roadway and continued in that position for most of my remaining employment there. Through the years I was asked by the local to take a leave of absence from Roadway to work in the political arena on behalf of the local or to conduct some organizing campaigns. Also I was called on to lobby for labors interest in the state capital. On many occasions with groups and other times the Local president and I would go together. Other times, I would go alone calling on legislators.
In the early 1980s I was elected to the office of recording secretary of the local and later became secretary/treasurer. There after I became a member of the board of the Northeast Oklahoma Labor Council and the Oklahoma State Federation of the AFL/CIO
