Olen Melvin POOLE

The following bio was taken from pages 348-349 of the book entitled “Rusk County History” compiled and edited and used with permission of the Rusk County Historical Commission.

Transcribed by Gloria Riley

Submitted by Gloria Briley Mayfield, Rusk County TX Coordinator

In 1936 my parents, Lee and Ezzie Poole, moved from New Hope to a farm east of New London. I was already living in the London Community in order to go to school there. During this time, there were many small ones, two and three-room schools in the county. Some had one room and one teacher for seven grades, and one school that I attended had three rooms, two teachers, and a principal, and nine grades. After these schools, enrolling at New London was quite an experience for me. New London at that time was partly two-story, had an elementary building, and a gymnasium, and taught grades one through eleven. It was supposed to be the richest rural school in the world. It certainly looked so to me after the schools that I had attended. The explosion at the New London School occurred in the spring of my second year there. I was on the second floor in the study hall, which was over the mechanical drawing room and shop. I left the study hall, crossed a hall, and escaped without injury through a window in the locker room. After checking on my brothers who were in the elementary school, I ran all the way home to let my parents know that the four of us were all right. There were not many jobs in the East Texas area when I finished high school in 1940, so I went to California. There I attended school for a while and then went to work for Consolidated Aircraft in San Diego. Then along came World War II. In January 1942, I joined the Air Force and started training as a gunner on a B-17. Our group was sent to England, and after making thirty-one missions over German Occupied Europe, I returned to the States in September of 1944. On September 28, 1944, LaMerle Ellis, daughter of John and Pallie Ellis, and I were married. LaMerle was born in Anacoca, Louisiana, and her parents and family moved to Texas in 1937. She attended Gaston School for two years and then moved into the New London district and finished high school there. We moved to Amarillo, where she worked in Civil Service, and we lived there until I was discharged from service in October of 1945. I went to work for the Parade Company and have been employed there for thirty-six years. LaMerle and I have three children: Brenda (Mrs. Billy Feltman), who is an elementary music teacher in Lufkin; Jimmy Poole of Overton, who is employed by Exxon; and Darrell, who is a sophomore at Kilgore Junior College. Jimmy married Debbie Heath, daughter of Ray and Pansy Heath. We also have four grandchildren, Heath and Holly Poole and Julie and Jennifer Feltman. In 1951, LaMerle and I built our home on a farm east of New London. We have been members of Pleasant Hill Baptist Church for thirty years. We are both employed now but are looking forward to retirement. Written by Olen and LaMerle Poole