T. Harry
Williams Center for Oral History Collection
INTERVIEWEE NAME: Ruth Laney,
Sr. #
4700. 0476
IDENTIFICATION: LSU Class of
1939, Secretary to Athletic Director
INTERVIEWER: Ruth Laney,
Jr.
PROJECT: LSU History
DATES: 6/24/94; 8/5/94 FOCUS DATES: 1915-1990s
ABSTRACT:
T 681
Family background; White Castle;
schooling; Shakespeare; LSU; Donaldsonville; Miss Tandy, a favorite teacher;
reading material in her school days; O. O. McIntyre; Mayzel Adams, girlhood
friend; Olive Mury, girlhood friend; Lena Mae Hebert married Dubby Mury; Gone
With the Wind; Bowie Avenue, White
Castle; St. Anthony street, Baton Rouge; 7th Street; teachers;
fractions; recreation at school; Laney played basketball; swimming between
levees; Dr. Jim Foley, dentist, married Miss Tandy; attended White Castle High
School; only eleven grades; Laney's father interested in theatre; brother plays
pickle in school play; Laney in play with father; favorite subjects;
discipline; Chaney Joseph; description of school building; Paul English plays,
traveling group; Randolph Moody wins diamond a one, gives it to Laney;
basketball; move to White Castle at ten; Dr. Hansen in Donaldsonville; smoking;
forbidden to attend dance because she and her friends sunburned their initials
on their backs; playing school; college, reasons for going; Catherine Bres,
Eloise Dabadie, Gin Richardson, friends; Struby's Drug Store; ferry to Port
Allen; Laney majors in Speech and Hearing Therapy, but never works in the
field; opera at LSU; Nellie Pugh; Dr. Claude Shaver; Laney on LSU Debate Squad
with Russell Long; debaters from England; train depot in White Castle; Laney
got in trouble for crawling under a freight train as a girl; Laney and siblings
loved to drive around; Laney breaks key in ignition; family once drove in a
ditch; Gold Dust Twins; financing college; Huey Long; brother Ray sends Laney
orchids from South America; mother made all her clothes when she was small;
Laney would roll up the bloomers beneath her dresses; aunt made her nice
underwear; in Baton Rouge Laney opened a charge account at Dalton's; Perry
Cole, Dean of Student Affairs; Ione Burden his assistant; Laney's first job is
working in Cole's office in the Field House; tea dances; big bands.
T 682
Robertson Eastland; insurance firm; old
Field House social center of campus; warning couples to behave; Laney learned
good work habits from Ione Burden; secret admirer leads record for Laney at
office; “no-breaks” at dances; fist-fight over Laney at dance in White Castle;
Laney recalls first day at LSU; scheduling of exams; Laney didn't know freshmen
couldn't cut classes; “hogolawed”; hazing; fraternity initiations; Laney didn't
join a sorority because she didn't have the money; “rating” dates for dances;
Laney lived at home, but often spent the night with friends in the dorm;
friends Honey McGregor and Fannie Mae Chauntz; Fannie married Ed Supple, who
was later married to Honey; Laney traveled to Ohio to be in Fannie Mae and Ed's
wedding; Yankee lifestyles; Smith Hall; friends Tina Frost, Mildred Smith, Lou
Gayneau; Joe Gayneau; French House.
T 684
Laney's Speech and Hearing major; dance
at Field House; costume party; Laney went as a female pirate and was pictured
in the Gumbo; T. Harry Williams; Vivian Wintz; study of the ear; Dr.
Harley Smith, speech department; Dr. Smith perhaps later on USL faculty;
diction; record students voices with a record player; Psychology professor who
was actually working for the FBI; 1939 scandal involving President James Monroe
Smith and Governor Richard Leche (?); Smith's son Jimmy; Smith's daughter
married Owen Ware; Page Himel; bus to debutante party in New Orleans;
Psychology professor takes field trip to asylum at Jackson; Williams's
biography of Huey Long; Long and football; Laney's aunts and uncles; sign-in
and sign-our procedures at dorm; smoking in dorm; Christmas firecracker in dorm
stairwell; voices yelling “Chloe” at night; fraternities and sororities;
“rating” dates; Beverly Nolend, Laney's steady, a Kappa Sigma; cutting class; Miss
Stone Stone, Academic Dean of Women; Laney cut orientation; Eloise Dabdie;
Chooky Bouanchaud; R.O.T.C.; Pentagon dormitory; extracurricular activities;
honorary fraternities; Richard Pizzati of Block and Bridle asked Laney to be
his sponsor, but she declined; Norman Ott of Bogalusa; sports and physical
education; swimming pool; Huey Long assassination; Courtland Smith, Jimmy
Huguet and Katherine Meyer on double date with Laney at the time; Carl Weiss;
body lying in state at capitol; Laney recalls hearing news of Athletic Director
Jim Corbett's death while on a bus to New Mexico when she was serving as
chaperone on a field trip; Laney tells how she became Carl Maddox's secretary;
Nellie Pugh; Laney worked for Roger McCluskey, food service director, as his
secretary int he Union; later became Maddox's secretary, who took her with him
when he moved to Athletic Dept.; Jerry West; Ed Miremont; Maddox's insistence
that a theater be part of the Union;
Town and Gown; Music and Dramatic Arts Building; operas; completion of
LSU union; Student Government; Athletic Department; football trips; Laney had
good basketball seats; move from Union to Athletic Department; Mickey Owens;
coffee breaks, policy against; Mr. Phillips; telephone answering policy; Maddox
visiting Laney at Ollie Steele Burden Manor; Maddox thrifty; women's sports;
Sue Gunter; D.D. Pollock; Dale Brown; Charlie Mac; travel money; Dee Glueck,
assistant athletic director; Steve Carter; Athletic Council; expansion of
facilities; comparison to other schools; death of Corbett; Don Phillips; Sue
Marino; banquet planning and tickets; revenue vs. Non-revenue-producing sports.
T 685
Steele
name appears in family; Laney's date and place of birth; parents; family's
educational background; Tennyson; siblings; chores; dining customs; school;
Cleve Joseph, bank president catches Laney crawling under train at age nine or
ten; Dr. Darcantel, family physician; Sunday School picnics; State Fair; Belle
Grove; Ware family; Nottoway; Owen family; J.T. Owen; bridge parties; father's
influencing on Laney's reading habits; Mother's religious influence; St. James;
relatives; grandparents; napping; grandfather farmed; horse and buggy; open
Dodge touring car; parents' affectionate relationship; sleeping arrangements in
the home; aunts and uncles; driving; milking cows; butter; meals; LSU; Russell
Long; voting; Bryan Pugh; DKE fraternity; Huey Long assassinated; debate squad;
Darlings of LSU; Homecoming not as important then; importance of college
education; bus; prices of items when Laney was a students; smoking; Carl
Maddox's office policies; Maddox conservative with money; importance of
football program; Maddox retired 1979; Laney worked until 1983; Bo Ryan; Gerry
Stovall; Bob Broadhead; Dietzel; Dale Brown; Jordy Hultberg; College Temple;
Chris Jackson; Rudy Macklin; Shaquille O'Neal; Assembly Center; Cow Barn;
cheerleaders; Gym Armory; coaches' salaries; Beulah and Frank Metz; Dee Glueck;
scoreboards; Moore track stadium; Marty Broussard; Jack Gilmore; Verty Gilmore;
recalls porter who brought her coffee.
TAPES: 681, 682, 683; 684, 685 TOTAL
PLAYING TIME: 7 hours
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PAGES TRANSCRIPT: 89; 137
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