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Note: 1. Ike, as he was known to family and friends, was a quiet man who worked 6-7 days per week nearly all of his adult life. His only son was unable to tell much about his father's life and mannerisms saying only that "he worked all the time, and that he was good with his hands, but never took the time to teach me about such things." Ike passed away in the Dallas VA hospital while his 22-year old son was overseas during WWII. His wife, Joyce, lived another 47-years and did not remarry. Little is known about Ike, his friends or his family relationships other than he managed to keep working during the Depression. He held several different machinery maintenance jobs during the Depression years. Ike and his family lived at 2314 Dathe Street, just south of downtown Dallas from 1923 to 1944, except for short term jobs that took them to Ft. Worth and Waco during that time. Before he died, he had managed to pay off the mortgage on his Dallas home, such that his widow never had a house payment for the rest of her life. 2. His WWI discharge papers describe his character as being "excellent" and that he had served in France. His sense of humor shows through in his choice of old papers to keep from his WWI service--a menu from an Army mess in Rotterdam, 1919, where the mess officer writes that "all men are reminded not to wipe their nose on the napkins." His Army service records show that he first joined the National Guard at Texarkans and was then enlisted into the National Army just prior to his being sent overseas as a Corporal with the 114th Supply Tank, 39th Division in France & Holland. 3. Ike was educated to about an 8th grade level. After marrying in 1920, his first job was in Atlanta, Texas; next he moved to work in Calvert, Texas about 1922; then Dallas by 1924. All these jobs were likely in ice or refrigeration plants. Photographs exist that show Ike working with the tools in an early machine shop probably about 1915. The machine shop was most likely in Texarkana where, by 1912, he and other Shields' brothers were working with or for Joe Johnson, an uncle. Ike was a Mason.
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