A LOOK BACK -- JERRY PERSON

Several years ago when I was a member of the city’s Historic Resources

Board, one of my duties was to photograph structures that were to be

demolished.

Little did I know that one of these little historic homes would turn

out to have belonged to the man that we will be looking at in this week’s

column.

The house that I took those pictures was originally at 633 Frankfort

Ave. and belonged to oilman James R. “Ray” Thompson, who was born in

Murphysboro, Ill. on Sept. 27, 1901.

In those days, one of the most dangerous jobs was a coal miner, and

not long after Thompson’s birth, his father was killed in a mining

accident.

Eileen Knee of Huntington Beach told me that Ray’s mother died before

he was 3.

Ray went to live with his grandmother until he was 9, and afterward

went to work on a local farm when he was 16.

And like his father beforehand, Ray went to work in those deep and

dangerous coal mines until he decided that coal mining was not for him.

He came to California when he was 21.

When he arrived here in 1922, he went to work as a meat cutter in

Whittier.

Good fortune smiled on Ray on Dec. 11, 1925 when he gained employment

with the Standard Oil Co.

Once again, fate again smiled on Ray a year later when he married Ruth

Hughes on Dec. 17, 1926, and from that time until he died a few years

back, Ray had lived most of his life in beautiful Huntington Beach.

During his time with Standard Oil, he worked at all types of jobs from

a lowly roustabout to a driller to production foreman.

There was even a short time when Standard wanted Ray to work a few

months in Taft but Ray returned to the town he loved best.

After 38 years of working there, Standard Oil gave him a retirement

dinner at the old Huntington Beach Country Club on Sept. 1, 1964.

Even after retirement, Ray was active in many community affairs and

was a member of our local Methodist Church.

He would take pride in helping with their services and their events.

He served as a volunteer fireman for several years. And for many

years, Ray was a member of our local Masonic Lodge No. #380. In 1950, he

was made a master in that organization. Knee told me he was also a patron

of the Order of Eastern Star in 1954.

Ruth and Ray had one son Gerald “Jerry,” who graduated from Huntington

High.

Knee said that Jerry became a vice president for Bank of America, a

position that Ray must have been very proud.

In his later years, Ray tended to his house and yard, and one of his

hobbies included taking pictures.

I wonder if he knew that one day I would be taking pictures of the

outside of his house just before the wreaking ball struck.* JERRY PERSON

is a local historian and longtime Huntington Beach resident. If you have

ideas for future columns, write him at P.O. Box 7182, Huntington Beach,

CA 92615.