Kitchen Table Tales - Burford family

All my stories about the Burfords are, at best, second or third hand - but interesting family lore. Take them with a grain or two of salt.

The story I've heard is that Freeman was an aspiring oil man who married a big oil man's young daughter - maybe they eloped? They bought a big house in Dallas once owned by Shepherd King, another oil man who had come on hard times. The family lived there briefly before Carolyn and Freeman divorced. The house then became headquarters for some large company (insurance, maybe) before being bought by Caroline Hunt's company and turned into the Mansion, one of the best hotels in Dallas.

One story has Freeman being accused of dealing in "hot oil", which happened during the early days of Texas oil. Some oil men and the government worried that all the oil would be pumped out too fast, and the price would drop, so a system called depletion allowance was devised. Wells were only allowed to pump so much per month. Some oil men ignored the restriction and continued to pump. The story I remember is that Freeman was not allowed to travel out of the North Texas area because he could be arrested if he appeared in some other counties.

The Burfords had three children - Bill, Carolyn and Ann. One story is that during the divorce proceedings, the children wanted to go with their mother and Freeman actually whipped Bill in the courtroom to make him change his mind. He did change his mind, but after a while, Bill and Carolyn packed their things and ran away to live with their mother.

Bill was very bright and won a Fulbright to study in England and became a well-known poet. He declined a paid position on the board of Skelly oil, and reportedly his father said "OK, you want to be a poet? You can starve like one," and withdrew all financial support. Bill was sent to a boarding school where he was friends with Marlon Brando, and received his doctorate from Johns Hopkins.

He met Lolah Mary Egan at SMU and after they married, Bill taught at the University of Texas at Austin and was a very popular teacher. He had not finished his dissertation, and when the administration found out, he was let go until he could finish it. His mother-in-law paid the fees for him to finish. It was on Marcel Proust.

Carolyn Skelly Burford never remarried, but had a high-profile life wherever she lived. According to one story, because of the divorce, her father's estate was divided between her and her sister. At the time of her divorce, the estate was very valuable since oil was high. However, when Old Man Skelly (which is what Daddy always called him - never having met him) died, oil was down and the estate much less valuable. The sisters sued each other to the detriment of both.

Carolyn had a fabulous collection of jewelry which was frequently stolen. There is a Vanity Fair article about her which made her sound very sad. She had had (the story goes) very unfortunate results from plastic surgery and became a sort of recluse. She would give huge parties and never come down stairs to attend them herself. There was also a rumor that she would go into shops and pick things up - the store would just send a bill to the accountant and be paid.

Freeman and his new wife were to go on a cruise, and a pastor (maybe from St. Michaels?) counseled him to make some allowance for Bill and Lolah and the children, even though they were still estranged. Freeman did set up trusts before his death. I believe he died shortly after returning from the cruise.

Bill got a job teaching at the University of Montana, Missoula, and Lolah began writing her novels, beginning with "Vice Avenged, a Moral Tale." published by MacMillan.

Freeman Weedman Burford

While looking up the Burford-Egan-Dean connection, I found this bio of Freeman Burford, the father of Byron's sister's husband. He died in early 1967 and I never met him. More stories about him in next post.

Freeman Weedman Burford was the son of Guy and Harriet (Weedman) Burford.
He was a successful oilman.

Freeman Weedman Burford was born 8
August 1900 in Farmer City, IL to Guy Ernest
and Harriet (Weedman) Burford. The family
moved in 1905 to Muskogee, OK where Guy
Burford entered the oil business. Ultimately,
the family moved to Dallas, TX. Freeman
Burford died 7 January 1967 aboard the
steamship, Mariposa, as he and his wife were
returning from Australia where they had been
visiting the U.S Ambassador to that country.

Mr. Burford was a prominent public figure for
four decades and once considered running for
Governor of Texas. He was a distinguished
veteran of World War II in which he was
awarded the Bronze Star Medal, Legion of
Merit, Croix de Guerre and the French Legion of
Honor.

Freeman Burford attended public schools in Muskogee and was a graduate of Shattuck
Military School in Fairbault, MN. He attended the University of Oklahoma School of
Law.

He entered the oil business in Oklahoma in 1921 and in 1926 moved to Shreveport, LA
where he was Vice President and General Manager of Crystal Oil Refining Corp. He was
the organizer and General Manager of Burford Oil Company in Pecos, TX in 1929 and of
the East Texas Refining Company in 1931.

He was a pioneer producer and the first refiner in the East Texas oil fields, selling his
producing properties to Magnolia Petroleum Company in 1935 to become an independent
producer and natural gasoline manufacturer in Louisiana, Arkansas, and Texas.

He entered the Second World War and was a graduate of the Command and General Staff
School in Fort Leavenworth, KS. He was a full Colonel and oversaw the operation of
3,500 miles of gasoline pipelines, which supported the Allied war efforts. He was
awarded medals to commemorate his performance in those roles.

After the War, he became President of the Sid Richardson Refining Company (1947-
1960); owner and President, Harbor Terminal Company (1959-1962) and was an
independent oil operator at the time of his death.

He married Carolyn Skelly, daughter of William G. Skelly who founded Skelly Oil
Company in May 1927. They had three children: William S. Burford, Ann Burford,
and Carolyn Burford.

The couple was divorced after 1935 and Mr. Burford later married Jacqueline Faison of
Greenville, AL. There were no children of this marriage.

Mr. Burford was a colorful and strong personality. He was a strong proponent of Texas
industrialization and was in great demand as a speaker in the 1930s when he proposed a
program to make credit available to tenant farmers to buy their own farms. He considered
running for Governor of Texas but declined.

He was a key figure as a custodian of the Cotton Bowl in Dallas during which time the
enterprise prospered.

In 1935, Freeman Burford bought a large home in the Dallas area that was destined to
become what is now the Mansion at Turtle Creek Hotel. After the divorce, Carolyn
Skelly Burford retained the house for many years and reverted to the use of her maiden
name. Articles have been written about the house and featured in the Dallas Morning
News.

The first Mrs. Freeman W. Burford (Carolyn Skelly) was a colorful figure in her own
right having suffered more than one jewel robbery and theft. She died in 1996 in her
home in Newport, R.I. An article in the December 1999 issue of Vanity Fair gave an
account of Carolyn Skelly.

Freeman Weedman Burford achieved considerable success both in business and in the
Dallas community at large. He was arguably one of the most successful business people
in the Weedman family.

One of the more interesting "it's a small world" stories is that when we decided to get married and the families got together, it turned out that Byron's sister Lolah had married Bill Burford. Bill's father, Freeman Burford, was an oil man who built an oil refinery in Pecos.

When Daddy graduated from the University (of Texas at Austin) in 1932, the depression was still on and jobs hard to find. He had majored in business and could type, though. (Apparently his handwriting was so bad that he had permission to type out his exams - which probably was maddening to other students trying to think!)

Somehow, through Pecos connections, Daddy got a job with Burford's East Texas Refining Company making $100 a month as a typist. Daddy lived at the YMCA. Family lore says that Daddy made extra money by playing catch with Bill Burford (his father not having time to teach him.)

Freeman Burford married Carolyn Skelly, the young daughter of a very successful oil man - and I think for a very brief time they lived in Pecos.