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Note: See Notes Some thoughts and memories of Roy William Bogard.
After having lost everything to his brothers alcoholism, once he got a job, he stuck with it through thick and thin. Roy had lost touch with reality so much over the years, that when the first Mall in Tarrant County opened (Seminary South) Finger Furniture Company offered him $1200. a month plus commission to go to work for them. This was at a time when Roy was making $55. a week. He said that anybody that paid that kind of wages would not be in business long, and turned down the offer.
Roy had been with Greines Furniture Co. for about 50 years. The Greines brothers had told him when he retired that they would give him a pension. Should have gotten that in writing, they reneged and put him out to pasture while he was in the hospital recovering from a debilitating ailment. To add insult to injury, Roy had a box of several old coins, three gold, and an antique pocket watch in the safe at the furniture store. But, when Ward went to retrieve it for his dad, the Greines brothers said it was not in the safe and refused to let Ward look for it. When he told his father, Roy called the Greines brothers up and they hung up on him. Being as though they were respected lawyers in the Ft. Worth community, they dared him or Ward to take them to court, saying they would financially ruin him or both him and his son.
Roy had some country in him until the day he died. He kept chickens out back of his house on Loving Ave., always had fresh eggs. Sometimes, he would wring the neck of a chicken or cut its head off letting it fly all over the place before plucking its feathers and letting Mary cook it. He always had a garden except a few years when he had bought Ward, Jr. and myself a horse, in the late 1940's. He loved fresh okra. He arose every morning about 4:00 A.M. , bathed, shaved, put on the coffee and helped start breakfast. Always, biscuits, bacon or sausage, and eggs. In the evening it was navy beans and cornbread with some meat, and fresh green onions.
In the summertime, he would put up an old iron frame bed in the backyard. You have to remember this was before air conditioning. In those days there wasn't as many city lights therefore you could see billions of stars, and the yard would be full of lightning bugs, mosquitoes too.
Roy would quite often tell people he had not been in downtown Fort Worth since Leonard Brothers put in escalators. (This was about 1950)
Roy would tell the story of when before he married Mary, that being a Methodist he had become a square dance caller. Mary being a devout Baptist and believing dancing was sinful, went to one of the dances after they were married and got out on the middle of the dance floor, jumped around, up and down, hooted and hollered, embarrassing him so bad that he never went back. He once described her as acting like a crazy person.
Although I was close to my father, my grandfather was probably my closest friend. When he died it hit me as hard as losing my father.
Roy never talked much about his family. Practically everything about his parents, aunts and uncles I have found since beginning this trek into the family tree. I had heard about his having had a sister that committed suicide and a sister that died of TB. but even these stories came from my father or grandmother.
I once had a chance to buy 70 acres of land in Keller on what is Hwy 114 for $35,000. The bank that I tried to get a loan with had previously granted me a 100% loan on Roy W. Bogards' tentative agreement to endorse the loan. When presented with the opportunity to make a loan on the 70 acres they said they would if Roy would endorse it. I drove my grandfather out to see it, and he said he did not think civilization would make it out to that area in my lifetime. Unable to secure financing, the bank officer turned over the information on the availability of the land to the president of the bank, who shared it with one of the bank directors, who in turn purchased the land and in less than one year sold of one corner fronting on 114 (about 1/2 acre) to a major oil company for $250,000.00. My grandfather felt bad about not endorsing the purchase from that date until his death.
When my grandfather died,he left very little in money or material things. As far as money was concerned, the little he left, became a real sore spot between my father (Ward) and the First Baptist Church of Ft. Worth. The two Ritchie brothers had contacted my grandmother (Mary) without my fathers knowledge and had convinced her that donating all that she had to the church,(All accounts controlled by the brothers, and they alone) in my grandfathers memory. My grandmother had written the check and was about to deliver it to the church when my father found out and put a stop to it. One of the Ritchie brothers threatened legal action if my father did not deliver on my grandmothers oral agreement to give the money to them. My father in turn threatened legal action if they ever tried anything like that again, especially due to the fact that Roy died without a will, thereby leaving 1/2 of everything to his son Ward. That meant 1/2 of the money was not my grandmothers to do with and the Ritchie brothers were urging her to give away something that was not hers to give. Considering the Ritchie brothers usurped the authority from the elders of the church several years earlier and dismissing my grandfather as head of the church finance committee and appointing themselves as the committee, it is understandable why my grandfather had not attended church in the last few years of his life. And, had he known that the Ritchie brothers had tried to manipulate my grandmother out of the few hundred dollars they had left, he would have turned over in his grave.
Another story told me by my grandfather. He contracted small pox and was sent to the county pest farm. He recovered because he had had Cow Pox when he was a kid. He took me to the place where the pest farm had been. To my suprise, it was where the Juvenile Detention Center stands today. I was advised by my boss and some other county officials to keep that knowledge to mysellf.
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