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Green, Ben

Ben Green

Biography

Mr. Ben Green was born about 1891 in San Marcos.  His father was a Methodist preacher, and his mother, Roxy, had a job picking cotton.  He had two older sisters, Kathleen and Debbie, and a younger brother, Charlie.  Green had four children with his first wife, Bertie Norwood.  His second wife, Annie Jones, had four children from a previous marriage.

Mr. Green worked for local businessman A.B. Rogers for many years, and identified himself as the hearse driver in this photograph from the San Marcos Public Library.

Craddock Oral Histories

Ben Green talks about his life in and around the San Marcos, Texas area in the early 1900s. A self-described handy man, pain mover and all-around hard worker, Green’s stories shine a light on the daily lives of Black and other minority people in the San Marcos area.  A well-known man around town, he talks about working for Mr. A.B. Rogers when he was a small boy -- and eventually became the hearse driver for Rogers' undertaker business.  He also talks about working for the San Marcos Baptist Academy as both a handyman and a summer school cook.

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PDF Transcript, May 3, 1974 (not yet available online)
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HTML Transcript,May 3, 1974

Full audio is available for this interview.  Request via Ask an Archivist.