After the War

After being discharged from the Army, Bill had ridden the train to Oklahoma City, then the bus to Konawa.  No one was there to meet him, so he walked the last dusty mile down Thunder Road to the old house where he had grown up. 

When he walked in the door, he was greeted like he had never been gone. Returning to Oklahoma was not what he had hoped it would be.  Jobs were scarce. The only one he could find right away was managing the drug store. 

Bill in front of hte drug store in Konawa, Oklahoma

His mother had given away all of his clothes, and his sister, Nora, had let the engine block freeze on his beloved old car.   He was ready to blow that town, but here he was working at the drug store hoping for a future.    

He went back to First Baptist Church, where he had grown up, and where a single adult Bible Study class had been started.  There he met Faye Emerson, a teacher at Konawa High School.  She had made quite a reputation for herself.  She was teaching Spanish, Home Economics, English and sponsoring the Drama Club.  It was quite a teaching load and on top of that she found out a coach, who was teaching only one P.E. class and one history class was making more money than she. After talking to the principal about it, he told her she would have to go to the school board....which she did.  They had no answer and gave her a raise.  Bill was impressed with this educated fireball of a lady, and they had started dating.

It wasn’t long until Bill’s job inquiries started producing some results.  His experience in the war qualified him for an engineering job.  He got a letter back from Ford, Bacon and Davis. They had a job for him in Jal, New Mexico starting in July.  He accepted the job but he hated to leave Faye and the relationship he had come to enjoy.  He proposed.  It was June.  She accepted. 

Faye and Bill after they announced their engagement June,1946, in Prague at The House on the Hill.

They decided to marry the following June in ‘47.  

Faye had made more money while teaching in Kansas. Since Bill was going to be working in Jal, New Mexico, and the school year finished, she decided to go back to her old job in Kansas, to pay off some debts. Bill left for his new job and a month later, Faye took the train back to Kansas.

The next February, about the time Bill's job in Jal was finishing, his aunt in Texas City told him Brown and Root was hiring in Texas City.  There was also a possibility for a career employment once the construction on the chemical plant was finished, so telling Faye about his plans, he took off for the coast. 

Bill worked 12 hour shifts at the plant and picked up extra jobs at the docks or on the ships when he could find them, saving as much money as he could.  From his rented room, through the thin curtains on the window, as they fluttered in the humid Gulf breeze,he could lie in bed and see the flares from the plants. It was temporary, he had put money down on a nice apartment a few blocks away for June after the wedding, when Faye arrived. 

The night was hot and sticky. There was hardly a breeze from the one little window. Bill couldn’t sleep and decided to go out to the plant early, before his shift started 7 am. 

Once there he heard a fire had started down at the docks, one they were having some problems with.  There had been fires before on the docks, but it had never been much to worry about, in fact it had been a sight seeing adventure for many in town. Being a firefighter at the plant, he had been told to be ready to go.  About 9 a.m. the fire on the Grandcamp got completely out of hand and the ship blew.  Bill stayed put and worked his shift since they felt they were far enough away to not be in danger at that time.   When he got off work, with no one being allowed back into town he headed for the Blimp base in Hitchcock where everyone had been evacuated.  On his way out of town he saw flat bed trucks with the injured being taken to Galveston.  

He returned to work early the next morning.  No one knew what had happened to their homes, apartments and in many cases family members.  No one was being allowed in to town. On the radio they were hearing all that had happened, how far reaching the explosion had been, that people as far away as Louisiana had felt it. He knew the place he had been living had to be gone. And the apartment he had put money down on was gone as well.  Then he thought about Faye, and realized she had probably heard about it too.  He drove to the telegraph office in Galveston, got in a 6 block long line to send a telegram to Faye.

In Kansas Faye was teaching school.  It was improper for a single woman teacher to have an apartment alone, so she was living in the attic room of the superintendent of schools.   She had not yet come downstairs when the superintendent and his wife heard the radio broadcast of what had happened in Texas City.  They pondered it for a moment, and decided to keep the radio off when she was came down, and give notice to the teachers to not say anything to Faye.  She had been teaching there during the war, when her first fiance, a pilot, had been shot down over the Sea of Japan.  Surely this could not happen to her again. So they decided to not say anything, and pray that there would be word from Bill.

Two days went by and no news from Bill.  The morning of the third day the superintendent and his wife decided, after school, they would have to tell Faye what had happened.  With no notice from Bill, he must have been killed or badly hurt in the explosion.

With dinner on the stove, several other teachers invited for dinner, and heavy hearts they all sat down in the living room to advise Faye of the disaster.  No one knew exaclty where to start the conversation. The superintendent decided to just turn on the radio.  It warmed up, and as the voices were starting to become clear, there was a knock at the door.  They all braced for the worst.  It was a telegram for Faye....from Bill.

Faye was stunned at what had happened and that she had not known.  She felt shocked and relived all in one breath.

Six weeks later in Prague, Oklahoma, Bill Greenlee and Faye Emerson were married at her parents home.

They started their new life in a town reeling from the worst industrial disaster in the history of the U.S. They made friends helping people put their lives back toether, as they started their own new life.

Bill and Faye in Bill's Chevy convertible, that had to be hot wired to start.

Bill and Faye’s first home on 18th Street.   I think it says 21 18th Street

They were forced to buy a house since apartments were almost nonexistent after the explosion.  Their first house, on 18th street, cost $5000.  They were worried about how they would ever afford a $50 a month house payment.

*Some of the details may not be exact.  This is however, my best remebrance of the way they told the story.