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.