I’d rather drink muddy water
Sleep out in a hollow log
Than be in California
Treated like a dirty dog
Sleep out in a hollow log
Than be in California
Treated like a dirty dog
In my family research I continue to marvel at how many of our family members came to California in the 20th Century from Oklahoma. Numerous relatives were either born in Oklahoma or lived there for significant periods of time before settling in California. The list includes my parents Eugene and Maida Shepard, both my Shepard grandparents and their 4 children, both my Gower Grandparents and their 3 children, Cindy's parents Joe and Paula Harris, her father's Grandparents Fred and Mary Harris, as well as her aunt and uncle Juanita and Gene Eeds. This is quite a collection of family members with roots in Oklahoma who settled in California. This influx of Oklahomans to Southern California occurred in the 1930s when a huge migration took place. Many had lost their farms because of the Dust Bowl and were desperate to find jobs.
Harris Family Immigrants from
Oklahoma to California: Fred and Mary Harris
with their children Mittie, Sammie Joe and Nikki
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For several months in 1936, the Los Angeles Police Department, under the direction of Police Chief Edgar Davis, set up what was called a "Bum Blockade" along California's eastern border. 136 LAPD officers were deployed to 16 different border stations to turn away "Okie immigrants" who could show “no visible means of support.” It sounds surprisingly similar the immigration problem at our international border today. The blockade of 1936 was obviously a tremendous miscarriage of justice. Yet equally surprising was the fact that it received a lot of support, in particular from the Governor of California, Frank Merriam. Even so it did not take long for the illegality of that "Bum Blockade" to catch up with the LAPD. Within just a few months, the State Attorney General's Office got involved, law suits were filed, public opinion rose up against it, and the Blockade ended.
William and Bura Shepard (right)
with children Pauline, Eugene and Thelma,
son-in-law Bill Russell and
grandchildren Rex and Beverly
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Last week on February 19, my cousin Hershell Gower celebrated a birthday. Born in 1943, he was the first in our family to be born in San Diego. A year later his brother Jimmie Gower was born. By the time my brother Gary and I came along in 1946 and 1948, the Shepard and Gower families had begun to settle into life in San Diego. The stigma associated with being "Okies" was dying out. Instead of a put-down it had become a lighthearted way in which they referred to themselves. Even so, the fact of being from Oklahoma continued to have an indelible influence on the life of our family.
My grandparents Nola and Leroy Gower
with their children Maida and Vicky Gower
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Three Immigrant Okies Remain. I can identify just 3 people alive today who were part of that family migration from Oklahoma to San Diego nearly 80 years ago: my mother Maida Gower Shepard (of Anacortes, Washington), my aunt Thelma Shepard Boyd (of El Cajon, California), and my aunt Vicky Gower Johnston (of Chandler, Arizona). Our thanks go to them and their now departed parents who had the foresight to see the possibilities of life on the West Coast.
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Steve Shepard
(his, him, his)
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Steve Shepard
(his, him, his)
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