In Their Shoes: In Their Shoes

18: A Photo Album

18: 7/Photo 7/lhum The youngest ofsix children, Grace was born in 1923 andgrew up during the Depression. Her father was sixty-three and her mother thirty when she was born. 179 Above. Ruth Shanks, a native of Texas, was not quite sixteen when she married Harry H. Halsell, then forty-eight. Right. Harry H. Halsell in 1882, during the years he was building herds and trailing them to northern markets. At sixteen, Grace represented her hometown as «Miss Lubbock)} in a 1936 Stamford, Texas, rodeo. She participated in a contestfor women riders who were judged for speed and control oftheir horses. Grace, not among the winners, was then a junior in high school and the youngest participant. Grace as a senior in high school. Above. Grace wrote some ofthe first newspapers stories about hotel magnate Conrad Hilton. Her stories appeared in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram in the mid1940s . Left. Gable-and Grace. On a 1946 trip to Hollywood, when she was amusements editor for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Grace chatted with movie star Clark Gable. Fort Worth: Grace was the first woman to ride in a B-36. Hong Kong: Grace interviewed Chinese who carry as much as 300 pounds on a bamboo pole. After interviewing one person, Grace asked to try carrying his load. Here she's shown with two baskets filted with tea-cakes. Other coolies with whom she talked carried wood, water and lead. The trick, she says, is in the balance. Atop Mt. Daruma: With two Japanese students, Amaki-san and Aoki-san, Grace climbed Mt. Daruma on February 3, 1956. They ate a picnic lunch, sang songs and viewed Mt. Fuji in the distance. Hong Kong: Grace wanted to learn how difficult it was to pull a rickshaw, so she turned the tables and put the rickshaw puller, Lau Kwei, in the back seatto the delight ofthe Chinese onlookers. Kwei, fifty-seven, told Grace he had been pulling a rickshaw for over thirty years but never earned enough money to buy his own rickshaw. He had to rent one. On a junk: In late 1950, Grace lived offthe coast ofChina on a Chinese junk with a family ofnineteen, none ofwhom had ever lived on land. Washington, D.G.: With Lyndon Baines Johnson in his office. Korea: Grace was a passenger in a U. S. Air Force plane in 1955. On an oil rig: For two years, Grace worked as public relations director for Champlin Oil and Refining Company, with holdingsfrom Canada to Mexico. Here she)s being hoisted to the mast top ofan oil-drilling rig on a remote site in Wyoming. Writing for Champlin)s publication, she wanted toget a feel ofthe work done on rigs that tower more than 150feet. Above. Grace in her Washington, D.C., apartment with Dr. Jack Kenney, who prescribed a medication which, taken in conjunction with exposure ofher skin to strong sun, turned her skin black. Dr. Kenney is a lightskinned black dermatologist . Left. Lima, Peru: For three years, Grace wrote a daily column,«Lima Today,)) for the Spanish-language newspaper La Prensa. Here she interviews a Peruvian farmer who grew tall cotton. Peru is noted for its fine cotton. Grace as Bessie Yellowhair. Fishing from a small boat offthe coast ofwestern Mexico north ofPuerto Vallarta, Grace landed this big sailfish with the rod she is holding. The fish is longer than the rod. Grace in Mexico) her