Berryman, John and Maggie

Lea County Families and Histories, "Then and Now", Vol II, 1984

Submitted by: Edward D. Berryman

     Lea County and Eunice, New Mexico have been very good to the John Green Berryman family. As I think of pioneering I think of my grandfather who moved his family from Nebraska to Coleman, Texas in 1883.My father married Maggie Salinda Bird at Robert Lee, Texas in 1901. Seven children were born to that union. Annie Azalea b: 4/7/1905 d: 8/27/1940; Benjamin Carrol b: 12/2/1907 d: 11/9/1982; Edward Doyle b: 6/3/1910, James Garvin b: 1/5/1913; Mamie Ruth b: 7/17/1917; Irene Bird b: 12/1/1920 and Leroy Truitt b: 4/30/1923. In 1925we moved from Robert Lee to Littlefield, Texas,  where four of us graduated from high school. I attended Business College in Lubbock, Texas in 1930, and the big news was the oil boom at Hobbs, New Mexico.

     After trading our home at Littlefield for land in Eunice, the family moved to Eunice in 1935, and bought the Eunice Hotel from Uncle Bud Marshall. In 1939 the 16 room hotel was moved across main street to the present location. We then built a two story front, managers home and second floor; also, six more rooms, four baths and installed electricity throughout.

     In 1940 my sister, Azalea Eubanks, who had taught school in Texas, and was postmistress of Eunice for some three years, passed on to be with Jesus. But she left us a beautiful, precious baby girl, Dorothy Irene Eubanks, b: 8/26/1940.

     In December 1940, I entered Aeronautical School in Dallas, Texas. In February 1941I went to work for North American Aviation in Grand Prairie, Texas. On April 4, 1941 I was called into service. After training at Camp Grant, Illinois, I was sent to Goodfellow Field in San Angelo, Texas. On October 4, 1941 I was told if I wanted to go back into defense work I would be discharged from the service. So I returned to Dallas and my job with American Aviation. By this time my fiancée was attending beauty college in Dallas. I had not seen her for almost a year. On December 13, 194, I was married to Ina Bell Rodgers, only six days after Pearl Harbor. I continued building B-52 airplanes and Ina Bell worked for the Office of Price Administration until September 1945 when we moved back to Eunice.

     In January 1946 my father, a great man of God, passed on to be with Jesus. That summer we finished building the second story on the Eunice Hotel, which completed the hotel as it stands today. For 46 years my mother was owner and operator of the Eunice Hotel.  She also owned the Manhatten Hotel in Snyder, Texas for 23 years, from 1951 to 1974. She was active in the First Baptist Church of Eunice, and taught a Sunday school class until she was 88 years old. On July 27th, 1981, at the age of 97, my precious and sweet mother passed on to be with Jesus.