DORIS LEDBETTER

Not much ever happens in Pecos, Texas.  I mean like nobody hardly ever says " I think I'll move to Pecos where the action  is".  So when the Ledbetter family came to town in  1943 it really started a buzz.  Some said Big Daddy Ledbetter was a draft Dodger but mostly folks just agreed he was lazy white trash what needed a place to call home and Pecos was as good as any.

Travis Ledbetter was the name he went by and all I ever knew his wife by was Dumplings.  The Ledbetters had one darling little girl named Doris.  Not only was Doris a talented little tot...she was a cute little thing and was only 6 years old when this sweet church going family rolled into town.

Travis, who had never farmed a day in his life, promptly went out and bought a 60 acre cantaloupe farm.  Now Pecos may well be the cantaloupe capitol of the world.  All I really know is Travis began to raise some of the finest fruit Pecos had ever seen.  He sold his melons at every crossroads and vegetable stand in west Texas.....and thats where he met Rose and thats where the whole mess started.

Rose was a wealthy widow that owned a chain of grocery stores in and around El Paso.  Rose became Travis's best customer and Travis became known as Rose's "Melon Man".  The Rose and Travis story has grown into another story for another day but the last time we heard from the loving couple they were living in Mexico City running several massage parlors.

But what about Doris and Dumplings.  In "44 Doris was voted "Little Miss Cantaloupe" of Pecos and then went on to the Nationals in Austin where she won "Little Miss TEXAS Cantaloupe" and received a full scholarship to the college of her choice ........to be awarded in 1955 or receive $10,000 cash immediately.  Dumplings screamed "show me the money", sold the cantaloupe farm and she and Doris headed for the beach in sunny southern California.

Dumplings and Doris liked the beach so much they bought a little beach front property in some sandy hole called Malibou.  Dumplings fooled around with her real estate and soon parlayed her holdings to include the ground that LAX sits on today.  Doris moved on up north and got involved in something called a"start up company in a place called Silicon Valley". She still remembered those days in Pecos and raising all that fruit called cantaloupe and she still had that dirt under her now well manicured nails.  So what did she do......cashed in all her money..went to her boss and said she would like to buy some APPLE.

Doris, not being the brightest light on the tree, thought she was buying into a fruit orchard......like a cantaloupe farm.  I will leave to your imagination the rest of the story.  Dumplings married a retired methodist pastor and lives in DeFuniak Springs, Florida.  Doris......she's still just as sweet and fine as the day she won "Little Miss Cantaloupe" , married to a brain surgeon, has 3 children and lives wherever she pleases.

SFOX...4/3/13