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

5. E. C. Sims vs. Gladys Sims

75 Chapter 5 E. C. Sims vs. Gladys Sims “[Ed is] without ambition or purpose in life other than to be down drunk or with other women . . . .” Gladys Sims “[Gladys] being unrestrained acquired habits of extravagance and of following her own ideas as to worldly pleasures without restraint.” Ed Sims Gladys Sims was unhappy. She was unhappy with her husband, unhappy with her marriage, unhappy with herself. Gladys may have been physically mature when she married, but at fourteen she remained a girl, spoiled and headstrong and hot-tempered. At fourteen she did not yet know what she wanted out of life. Certainly she did not yet understand what she needed in a husband. But she was a wife at fourteen, a mother at sixteen. At an age when she should still have been at school and attending parties, Gladys was unready for the responsibilities of marriage and motherhood. Frustrated and impatient for reasons she did not comprehend, Gladys at this point was incapable of creating a happy home. 76 Chapter 5 With an unhappy, short-tempered wife, Ed Sims found himself in a perplexing situation. In a male-dominated society, many husbands made scant effort to coddle their wives. It is not known how hard Ed may have tried to please and pamper his young wife, but probably there was little he could have done to bring her happiness at this stage in her life. Ed later would swear that he “did all in his power . . . to render her life one of happiness . . . making special preparations for her comfort and welfare . . . .” Ed emphasized that “he continued at all times affectionate toward her . . . .”1 Ed did not find much response to all of the affection and special preparations he claimed to have lavished upon Gladys. She merely “was reasonably considerate” of Ed, despite his best efforts. A deeper problem, according to Ed, originated in her upbringing. Gladys, he explained, “was reared in her girl hood in a life of luxury, her parents being wealthy, and she being unrestrained acquired habits of extravagance and of following her own ideas as to worldly pleasures without restraint.”2 Ofcourse,EdknewbeforetheweddingthatGladyshadbeenreared by wealthy parents, so any habit of extravagance that she brought to their marriage should not have been a total surprise. Regarding “her own ideas as to worldly pleasures without restraint,”3 Gladys apparently engaged in extramarital affairs. But so did Ed. Despite the joy their little girls brought to their household, there was growing acrimony between Ed and Gladys. Ed found life at home tense and unpleasant, and at some point he began to seek relief from a bottle. Ed “habitually became intoxicated with whiskey, wines, and other malt liquors,” Gladys would accuse. According to her, Ed became a “profligate drunkard, . . . without ambition or purpose in life other than to be down drunk, or with other women than” his wife.4 On “several” occasions Gladys packed up her daughters and moved out of their Garza County ranch house into the splendid new home of her parents. After each of these separations Gladys returned to live with Ed. Soon, however, he would engage in “drinking, carousing and spreeing in a spinthrift [sic] and profligate manner,” and Gladys again E. C. Sims vs. Gladys Sims 77 T�� ��x����-ro�� J��ns�� r�n�� h�u��, ����� �� 1910 � c�n��e�� �lo�k�. Loca�e� ������ ���e� n���eas� � S�y���, ��i� ����n�i� h�u�� fa�e� eas�. P�ot� �� ��� �u�h��. 78 Chapter 5 would depart for the Johnson ranch. Nannie awaited, ready to add fuel to the fire with criticism of Ed. “Gran had a lot to do” with the trouble between Ed and Gladys, insisted Beverly Sims Benson.5 But Gladys made her own contribution to the estrangement. In August 1913 Gladys took her little girls for a visit to her Mellard relatives in Presidio County. Gladys, Trix, and Beverly were accompanied by one of Ed’s unmarried sisters. Ada McMeans was the only Sims daughter who had wed, although Dave had married in 1910. Sallie, who was five years older than Gladys, would marry in October 1913. Eva was twenty-one, but Belle and Georgia, at twelve and eight, were too young. So the “Miss Sims” who made the trip was either Eva or Sallie.6 R. T. Mellard had married Billy Johnson’s older stepsister, Sallie, in 1871, and the couple had nine children. Most of the Mellard family...