Della Renfro Oats discusses her husband's father, John Oats (3 minutes)
LaVOY: What do you remember about the old gentleman, John Oats?
OATS: I didn't know him a great deal but everyone was very fond of him. He was very kind, always loved to tell these stories about the time he was in Austin and when he had the cattle out there, about the great hard winter of 1889 and 1890. I think that was the time he came to Fallon because they'd lost most of their cattle out there, the snow was so deep and they couldn't feed them and so forth. As I say, he just was a very highly respected man, very generous.
LaVOY: What did he look like when you knew him?
OATS: The most of the time I saw him, he was sitting in a chair because it was difficult for him to get around, but always smiling, and jolly and talking. He was a small man, a short man in stature.
LaVOY: That's why the Maine Street is wider at one end than the other?
OATS: Oh, that's what I understand. Now whether that's a tale or truth, I do not know.
LaVOY: What business had he gone into?
OATS: When he came to Fallon? He came over here and bought the acreage which is now an the east side of Fallon understood or when I knew about it, extended to Stillwater Avenue up to far as Serpa Lane.
LaVOY: That would have been the east side of Maine Street?
OATS: Yes, east side of Maine and it went to Stillwater Avenue and extended then down north to Serpa Lane and then of course out across from E.C. Best but they purchased that land from his two sons, Alfred and Johnnie, for that school.
LaVOY: Oh, I see. Now he had the two sons and Alfred is the one that you married?