The Johnson-Sims Feud: Romeo and Juliet, West Texas Style

4. Gladys and Ed

53 Chapter 4 Gladys and Ed “A pair of star-cross’d lovers . . . .” Romeo and Juliet Gladys was the princess of the Johnson ranch. She was the baby of the family and the only daughter. And she was the apple of her father’s eye. After three sons, Billy Johnson was ready for a daddy ’s little girl. He spoiled his daughter and let her have her way and shielded her from the anger of her mother. And ultimately she drove him to despair. Emmett Johnson was five-and-a-half-years-old when his baby sister was born. The oldest Johnson son was affable and even-tempered, kind and generous—as a boy and as a man. Joe was three-and-a-half when Gladys was born, and like Emmett he was a genial big brother. But Sid was only sixteen months older than Gladys. Close in age, they also shared such traits as willfulness, nerve, hot tempers, and ruthless determination to have their own way. They grew up as playmates, companions , confidants, and accomplices—in matters small and large. Billy Johnson taught all of his children to ride. Although fullskirted female attire of the 1890s demanded sidesaddles for equestriennes , Billy—a lifelong horseman—knew that stride riding was safer. Perhaps, too, the little girl wanted to ride like her brothers, and many western women shunned sidesaddles while riding. 54 Chapter 4 “Her father ordered her to wear a divided skirt of heavy serge and not to be bothered by what people would say . . .,” related Lois Lucie Curnette, a family friend. “Her first ride in this get-up was to Camp Springs where her father was to receive some cattle. A picnic was being held at Dripping Springs that day, and soon everyone in that end of the county was aware of her unladylike attire.”1 Gladys loved to ride, sometimes with her father or brothers, sometimes alone. Like her brothers, she was taught to shoot, and she always carried a gun. Gladys and her mother frequently squabbled. Perhaps, like many other mothers and daughters, they were too much alike to enjoy a harmonious relationship, or perhaps an annoyed Nannie tried to exert discipline over a spoiled daughter. When the exchange between Billy’s wife and little girl became too heated, he would tactfully intercede. “Let’s go riding in the pasture,” Billy would suggest, and daddy and daughter would set off on a cross-country ride. Both strongminded Johnson females had time to cool off, but Nannie doubtless would have appreciated more support from her husband.2 Gladys’s solitary rides across the big Johnson range may have been noticed by a couple of men, or her encounter with two men while riding may have been accidental. But according to family legend, while Gladys was alone on horseback she was accosted by two men. Without hesitation the girl produced her pistol and killed both men or wounded both men or drove them off. Gladys’s youngest daughter, Beverly, told the author that both men were shot, and that the incident was “covered up” by Billy Johnson. Wealthy and influential, Billy Johnson certainly was capable of covering up a violent incident for his daughter, as he would prove several years later. Such a cover-up would require legal help, and Johnson retained skillful lawyers to keep his land titles clear and tend to other legal matters. If Gladys, in early adolescence, successfully defended herself with a handgun against assailants, then was protected by her father with a cover-up, she would have absorbed a critical and formative lesson. In Gladys and Ed 55 future crises Gladys was quick to bring her gun into play, confident that her father would provide a legal safety net from the most serious of incidents. When Gladys was eleven, in 1902, her brother Joe died of blood poisoning. This fatal affliction was not uncommon on a ranch with rusty barbed wire everywhere. Joe was only fifteen, and his premature loss was merely the first of the tragedies that would bring torment to the Johnson family. As a girl Gladys rode with Sid, and perhaps her other brothers, to the nearby Ennis Creek School. Then she attended school in Snyder with her brothers. During school terms Nannie and her children lived in town on weekdays, returning to the ranch on weekends and holidays. Like all youngsters raised on a ranch but sent to...