VIRGINIA FREEMAN SELMAN

The following bio was taken from page 384 of the book entitled "Rusk County History" compiled and edited and used with permission of the Rusk County Historical Commission.

Transcribed by Claudia Schuster

Submitted by Gloria Briley Mayfield, Rusk County TX Coordinator

Some of my earliest memories were of the depression of the thirties. The house where I was born in 1924 was built by my daddy in 1922. The first house that Daddy built in 1919 was struck by a tornado and destroyed.

We moved to the Kangerga place when I was five years old. My memories of that place are: the house with an open hall through it, the barn filled with feed and peanuts, and the gear house with wasp nests in it and the many stings I received from the wasps. Daddy built a house on Farm Road 1716 in 1936 at Chalk Hill, where I lived until I married.

I started chopping cotton when I was five. I worked along with Mama and my sister, Ida Mae, and brother, Basil. Daddy plowed and planted the crops.

I had yellow jaundice one summer. Dr. Menefee of Tatum, Texas was my doctor. For the jaundice he told me to eat a lemon, rind and all, each day. I remember Mrs. Lura Williams came and sat with me for hours when I had high fever. Mrs. Mary Wilson was the community nurse then.

Daddy was working for the W.P.A. for fifty cents a day, and one dollar and fifty cents if his team of mules was used. He worked in the winter months after the crops were in.

Mama always had a quilt hanging from the ceiling, and the neighbor women came in to help quilt in the afternoons.

Daddy was a barber before I was born. His barbershop was on South Green Street, attached to Mr. Starr’s store in Longview. Daddy was a good fiddle player. He went to a fiddlers’ contest at Mr. Charlie Gilliams’ house and won first place.

I graduated from Tatum High School in 1941. We won the Bi-district championship in football that year.

I married Altis Gibson just after Pearl Harbor day. He went into the service about a year later. We had four children. Michael Dewayne died at birth. Danny Durwood married Linda Jamar and they have three children—James Durwood, Stephen Lynn, and Kenneth Dwain. Then there were twins, Sherman Dale and Sharon Gayle. Sharon died at birth. Dale married Linda Kaye Robertson and they had two children, William Andrew and Virginia Ann.

My second marriage was to James Charles Selman. We have one son, Charles Dwain, who married Jan Carol Knebel and has one daughter, Carol Lea Selman.

Danny graduated from Longview High School, Kilgore Junior College, and Texas A & M. He is employed by Sun Incorporated, as an engineer in all phases of the oil business. He has recently managed a drilling expedition to Tanzania, East Africa.

Dale graduated from Longview High School and attended Kilgore Junior College and Texas A & M. He is an engineer and is vice-president at Cherokee Equipment. He travels extensively in foreign countries.

Dwain is a graduate of Longview High School and attended Kilgore Junior College and The University of Texas. He is self-employed in several businesses in Austin, Texas.

Submitted by Virginia F. Selman