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Cecil A. Partee Memoir - University of Illinois Springfield

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on. My mother and dad used to give me books at Christmas and birthdays and<br />

that kind <strong>of</strong> thing. Not always just toys.<br />

Q: So you liked reading very much, then.<br />

A: Very much. And still do.<br />

Q: Let's'see, were you involved in plays, dramatics, in any way?<br />

A: Yes, we had dramatics there in high school and also, when I was in college,<br />

I was a member <strong>of</strong> the Players Guild and also a member <strong>of</strong> the debating team<br />

when I was in college. be <strong>of</strong> the motivations for the college was that--the<br />

school had some formal dances and I didn't have a tuxedo, but if you made the<br />

debating team, the school furnished you a tuxedo.<br />

Q: Oh! Well! (laughter)<br />

A: So that was a part <strong>of</strong> my motivation to get into it in college. But I<br />

always enjoyed debating. It's always been a very interesting kind <strong>of</strong> thing<br />

for me.<br />

Q: Do you remember any <strong>of</strong> the plays in high school that you took part In?<br />

A: Well, we had a play that we did, East Lynn. And what were some <strong>of</strong> the<br />

others, I don't . . . Death Takes a Holiday, we did that in high school and<br />

in college. I don't remember the names <strong>of</strong> any <strong>of</strong> the rest <strong>of</strong> them.<br />

SESSION 2, TAPE 2, SIDE 1<br />

Q: Sir, what I would like to do, if we could, is spend some more time on<br />

Blytheville and your life in Blytheville.<br />

A: Okay.<br />

Q: What was your first job there, first paying job?<br />

A: I guess my first paying job was selling newspapers.<br />

Q: Yes. You talked about that the other day.<br />

A: No, that's another experience. That was the daily papers. Z first sold<br />

weekly papers, the ones that came out <strong>of</strong> Chicago, Kansas City, and Pittsburgh.<br />

They were black papers and we sold them on the weekends. They were weekly<br />

editions and I started writing a column in those papers so that I could say to<br />

people, "Your name's in the paper,'' and they would buy one. (laughter) They<br />

had news from all over, all these little towns where they sold their papers<br />

down South. I wrote a column in all <strong>of</strong> them, just a little penny-ante news<br />

about different things. As a consequence, people would buy them because<br />

people never got their name in the paper in those days, unless they killed

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