Cecil A. Partee Memoir - University of Illinois Springfield
Cecil A. Partee Memoir - University of Illinois Springfield Cecil A. Partee Memoir - University of Illinois Springfield
Q: When did you start thinking about where you night study law? A: I guess maybe my junior or senior year. There was a professor there who was a graduate of Drake University, Mr. Eppse, and we had had one or two or three of our graduates to go to Drake law school in Des Moines. So probably that was where it focused on and they got me a scholarship to go there. Then someone in the business department had gotten me a scholarship to go to Cornell to go into a masters in business. Actually, what they wanted me to do was go up there and get a masters and come back and work at the university in the business area. In the meantime, I just frankly decided that I didn't want to go to Des Moines. Because I came from a small town in Arkansas, I wanted to go to a big city. I had been up in this area a couple of summers working in a steel mill out in Joliet and then I had worked in Chicago one summer. I liked Chicago and I decided I'd try to come to Chicago. After we made the arrangement through the State of Arkansas for the tuition, then I had my choices and I came to Chicago instead. Q: You say you worked summers in a steel mill in Joliet? A: Yes, I was at what is called a coke plant, Carnegie Illinois coke plant. I became a member of the Steelworkers of America out there and worked there in the summer, back in the early forties, at five dollars and eighty cents a day. Big money. Q: What kind of work did you do? A: I was what was called a luterman. When slack coal is cooked and heated, it's done in ovens, large, large ovens and at the end of every oven, there is a large door, like this door except larger. (points to door of the office) It's made of metal and the cracks around there, you take fire clay and seal it. You take a trowell, you know, like a bricklayer, and seal those cracks. That was my job, what's called a luterman. Seal it so that while it cooked, there would be no air coming in or out. Then you would take the door off and they would push it through with a big metal coke oven pusher, they called it; push it out into railroad cars. Take it off and then they would quench it with water, you know, and make the coke. Coke was used, I suppose, in steel mills in lieu of coal for making steel. They would put these cokes in there, they got hotter and stayed hot longer. So this was a coke plant for--you made the coke for use in steel mills generally. I worked out there two summers. Had an industrial accident out there. I almost lost my right leg, which caused me to be given a 4-F status. I missed school one year because of that. 1 didn't get back to being out of the hospftal until around November. Q: What happened? A: Fellow who ran the door machine, just through inattention, ran the door machine into my leg and I had an iron rod that went just about six, five or
six inches, into my leg. And just miraculously missed the bone by a sixteenth of an inch. I was in the hospital most of the summer. Q: How did you come to get the job in Joliet? A: Well, one spring a fellow came there from Joliet and said there were jobs up there. And so, when school was out that year, one of my friends just took his dad's car and we drove up there. The jobs weren't that plentiful. I know the first three or four days around there, we couldn't find anything and then I finally got a job working at a stove foundry shaking out parts. I was not physically able to do the work, it was just too much. I think I may have worked there one or two days and I had to give it up. In the meantime, while I was waiting to get on at the coke plant, I took a job working for a fanner cutting asparagus. We cut asparagus for a few days. I don't particuLarly care for it now. I had too much of it. Worked out these about a week and then I got the job over at the coke plant. Q: Must have been hard on your back, cutting asparagus. A: Oh, you better believe it. I always remember what my grandmother used to say when I was little and I'd be working in a garden with her and 1'd say, "Oh, my back hurts." She would say, "You don't even have a back, you only have a gristle." She said, "You don't have a back until you're twenty-one years old. You got nothing but a gristle back there, so it can't hurt you," you know. But it is hard on your back, you're leaning over all day long cutting that stuff. Q: Where did you stay in Joliet? A: Well, we lived down on Ohio Street with some people. Just a roomer, you know. It was a room in someone's home. I stayed there for a couple of weeks or so and then I moved up to what is called Riley Hill which was sort of a little area in an unincorporated section between Lockport and Joliet. But it was right across the road from the coke plant, which made it very convenient. So I had no transportational cost. Q: And you spent two summers at this same job, then? A: Two summers there. Q: So the second time you returned, they knew you already. A: Oh, they knew me already, I had no problems then. I had no problems. Q: And then you say you worked in Chicago another summer? A: Yes, I worked for a chemical corporation. Just laboring work for a company called Emulsol Corporation. Q: And what did you do there? A: They had eggs that they powdered and we were packing them in drums for :
- Page 9 and 10: Volume I SESSION 1, TAPE 1, SIDE 1
- Page 11 and 12: Q: You say she taught there near Bl
- Page 13 and 14: The third grade teacher taught us t
- Page 15 and 16: A: No. None as dramatic as that. Ha
- Page 17 and 18: and said, in one of the contests, L
- Page 19 and 20: I 1 Q: Oh? i '1 A: And then I had a
- Page 21 and 22: So the whole family relationship an
- Page 23 and 24: a tie-in between that and what we c
- Page 25 and 26: A: And my grandmother. My grandmoth
- Page 27 and 28: But I think it was more or less a S
- Page 29 and 30: a debate on , "What is most destruc
- Page 31 and 32: somebody or something foul. So, had
- Page 33 and 34: when prohibition was over and they
- Page 35 and 36: A: Mixed crews, yes. Q: Do you reme
- Page 37 and 38: to her for fear she wouldn't pay me
- Page 39 and 40: lawyer who became a judge there. He
- Page 41 and 42: A: (pause) I don't know. I think pr
- Page 43 and 44: CHARLES CECIL AND BESSIE DUPREE PAR
- Page 45 and 46: COURTESV OF BESSIE D. IVY CECIL PAR
- Page 47 and 48: CORNEAL DAVIS (L) AND CEClL PARTEE.
- Page 49 and 50: A: Beautiful. I stayed in the dormi
- Page 51 and 52: A: I didn't know any of them until
- Page 53 and 54: A: Well, just like going out for th
- Page 55 and 56: 4 1 SESSION 3, TAPE 3, SIDE 1 Q: I
- Page 57 and 58: yourself and so forth. Whereas, in
- Page 59: A: Yes, I remember a fellow by the
- Page 63 and 64: Q: And you're still in touch with t
- Page 65 and 66: A: But they said, "You can go somew
- Page 67 and 68: Q: How did you get back and forth?
- Page 69 and 70: just on the weekend which was a lot
- Page 71 and 72: A: Well, I was there for about a ye
- Page 73 and 74: old fellow told me that he's from t
- Page 75 and 76: We tried to get a decision between
- Page 77 and 78: 63 Abraham Lincoln Hotel and we wer
- Page 79 and 80: Q: That had already finished? A: No
- Page 81 and 82: legislation, I think one day what I
- Page 83 and 84: A: No, that was about two years bef
- Page 85 and 86: A: Yes. q: Did she continue active
- Page 87 and 88: Q: Was this in replacement of Mr. C
- Page 89 and 90: Filipino or some man may be married
- Page 91 and 92: deal of controversy about them. Q:
- Page 93 and 94: well paying jobs but they had to do
- Page 95 and 96: joined other organizations for the
- Page 97 and 98: A: Generally just before an electio
- Page 99 and 100: A: No, I don't think we had opposit
- Page 101 and 102: where they paid you far two years t
- Page 103 and 104: BLACK DEMOCRATS IN THE 77TH ILLINOI
- Page 105 and 106: CECIL PARTEE AT WORK IN THE SENATE
- Page 107 and 108: A: No, it was the Legislative Refer
- Page 109 and 110: Q: Well! (laughter) A: Yes, didn't
six inches, into my leg. And just miraculously missed the bone by a sixteenth<br />
<strong>of</strong> an inch. I was in the hospital most <strong>of</strong> the summer.<br />
Q: How did you come to get the job in Joliet?<br />
A: Well, one spring a fellow came there from Joliet and said there were jobs<br />
up there. And so, when school was out that year, one <strong>of</strong> my friends just took<br />
his dad's car and we drove up there. The jobs weren't that plentiful. I<br />
know the first three or four days around there, we couldn't find anything and<br />
then I finally got a job working at a stove foundry shaking out parts. I was<br />
not physically able to do the work, it was just too much. I think I may have<br />
worked there one or two days and I had to give it up. In the meantime, while<br />
I was waiting to get on at the coke plant, I took a job working for a fanner<br />
cutting asparagus. We cut asparagus for a few days. I don't particuLarly<br />
care for it now. I had too much <strong>of</strong> it. Worked out these about a week and<br />
then I got the job over at the coke plant.<br />
Q: Must have been hard on your back, cutting asparagus.<br />
A: Oh, you better believe it. I always remember what my grandmother used to<br />
say when I was little and I'd be working in a garden with her and 1'd say, "Oh,<br />
my back hurts." She would say, "You don't even have a back, you only have a<br />
gristle." She said, "You don't have a back until you're twenty-one years old.<br />
You got nothing but a gristle back there, so it can't hurt you," you know. But<br />
it is hard on your back, you're leaning over all day long cutting that stuff.<br />
Q: Where did you stay in Joliet?<br />
A: Well, we lived down on Ohio Street with some people. Just a roomer, you<br />
know. It was a room in someone's home. I stayed there for a couple <strong>of</strong> weeks<br />
or so and then I moved up to what is called Riley Hill which was sort <strong>of</strong> a<br />
little area in an unincorporated section between Lockport and Joliet. But<br />
it was right across the road from the coke plant, which made it very convenient.<br />
So I had no transportational cost.<br />
Q: And you spent two summers at this same job, then?<br />
A: Two summers there.<br />
Q: So the second time you returned, they knew you already.<br />
A: Oh, they knew me already, I had no problems then. I had<br />
no problems.<br />
Q: And then you say you worked in Chicago another summer?<br />
A: Yes, I worked for a chemical corporation. Just laboring work for a<br />
company called Emulsol Corporation.<br />
Q: And what did you do there?<br />
A: They had eggs that they powdered and we were packing them in drums for :
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