Chapter 05: Pride in the New Laboratory Facility; Key Supporters in the Legislature
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Identifier
PickleJJ_01_20150315_C05
Publication Date
3-15-2005
Publisher
The Making Cancer History® Voices Oral History Collection, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
City
Houston, Texas
Interview Session
James Jarell “Jake” Pickle and Clifford Drummond, Oral History Interview, March 15, 2005
Topics Covered
The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center - The Finances and Business of MD Anderson; The Finances and Business of MD Anderson; MD Anderson History; MD Anderson Snapshot; The Business of MD Anderson; The Institution and Finances; Portraits; On Texas and Texans; Research; MD Anderson and Government
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.
Disciplines
History of Science, Technology, and Medicine | Oncology | Oral History
Transcript
James Jarell “Jake” Pickle
Well, we’ve got a nice facility there now. They’ve got paved roads down into it, and it goes right to the camp area. It’s easily accessible. They made vistas and they can hold meetings down there. But they’re going to put up a new building, it’s going to be sort of a new administration building that can bring in more people, hold people. The present administration building down there now can hold about 100, 150 people. That’s about all you can get in there.
Clifford Drummond
Max, max about 120, I think.
James Jarell “Jake” Pickle
120. But to crowd them in, but now we’re going to enlarge that and have another kind of double purpose of it. So it’s going and they tell me they’re in better shape financially... and mind now, that they’re raising -- lot of this money is national money coming in for research at the MD Anderson clinic. And they’re showing results and they’re getting good results down there. And I’m very proud of it. And I’m about as surprised as anybody. I thought to myself, World Health Organization! The World Health Organization! I was going to be the subject of the World Health Organization.
Lesley Williams Brunet
When did they name the building after Miss Trickle?
Earl Walborg
That was in the late 80s?
James Jarell “Jake” Pickle
Some time ago. It wasn’t at first. But it was kind of, I want to say natural if they would, I was a congressman, I was keeping money for them, the administration building purposes. I was helping them endorsing grants and getting more money put in like that. And I was a live, active congressman. More than that, more than that I had contact with the governor, Connelly, and Johnson.
Lesley Williams Brunet
I have to tell you, I called another archivist as I drove over here and said, “Who was Houston’s congressman back in the days?” and we couldn’t remember. We knew what you had done for so long, so that says a lot right there. But in the early days, like in the 40s, you would think they would stand out but we couldn’t remember offhand. We’ll have to--
James Jarell “Jake” Pickle
Well, I had a district word -- it was identifiable. Certain boundaries, certain areas. Houston was the big city of Houston, and they had 10 congressman.
Lesley Williams Brunet
But we don’t even know who the congressman was for the Texas Medical Center.
Clifford Drummond
Would Bill Archer have had that area?
James Jarell “Jake” Pickle
Bill Archer?
Clifford Drummond
He had River Oaks, but I don’t know if he came down to the Medical.
James Jarell “Jake” Pickle
Bill Archer was friendly but he didn’t have that area.
Clifford Drummond
Barbara was--
James Jarell “Jake” Pickle
Maybe I'll come to it.
Clifford Drummond
But the thing about Mr. Pickle’s district is is not only was Austin and counties to the west of us, it went all the way to Katy. So it was within ten miles of Houston. And at one point, that district also went south almost to Victoria. It went down through Ganedo in Jackson County.
James Jarell “Jake” Pickle
Port O’Connor. I had Port O’Connor on the gulf coast, and Banco and Butternup up in the goat country.
Clifford Drummond
And how can you forget Danevang?
James Jarell “Jake” Pickle
And who?
Clifford Drummond
Danevang.
James Jarell “Jake” Pickle
Oh yes, Danevang.
Clifford Drummond
Every Danish person in Texas lives in Danevang. It is all Danish, all-time.
James Jarell “Jake” Pickle
All Danish?
Clifford Drummond
D-A-N-E-V-A-N-G. It’s in Wharton County.
Lesley Williams Brunet
Never heard of it.
Clifford Drummond
It’s right next to the coast. But so, his district went all the way down really 290 and 71, and including counties south of, between, and north of those highways. And frankly, in those days back in the 80s, Mr. Pickle sometimes -- not often -- but sometimes engendered a little jealousy on the part of other members of the Texas delegation because he was so proactive in going after things, and he because he represented Austin where all the state-wide associations were headquartered. Well, all those state-wide associations would line up to go talk to Pickle about whatever legislation was in their interest or that they had an interest in. And Pickle would take them all on and say, “Sure, I'll be glad t help.”
James Jarell “Jake” Pickle
If you go get me a (inaudible)--
Clifford Drummond
Well, I’m going to go get you out in a minute. But, you know, Mr. Pickle was good about obviously, he would go to Fort Worth or Lubbock or wherever the other congressman was that this group might have been from and they would all work together going forward from there. Sometimes, some of the members would, you know, kind of notice. But when it came to looking out for the interest of one, the University of Texas, and any of parts, not just UT-Austin, or looking out for the interest of all of central Texas, Pickle was very much in that tradition of the way Johnson had done it and the way Thornberry had done it. And then I think it’s probably fair to say, although he wouldn’t want me to say it, that he took it a level beyond all of that. And you know, that’s not something we’ve had since then, but it was certainly true in Mr. Pickle’s time. So he wouldn’t let go of things. He was about as determined as R. Lee Clark most likely was.
James Jarell “Jake” Pickle
He’s going to get me in deeper than I should be.
Lesley Williams Brunet
You were my congressman for years; I already knew this.
James Jarell “Jake” Pickle
At that time, I had Katy, Texas. Katy was in my district. Moreover, Katy was in my district and was in the Harris County area. Can you imagine the kind of district I had? But we blew hot and cold. We had just the Austin area, and then we went all the way down, we had Port O’Connor and--
Clifford Drummond
Edna.
James Jarell “Jake” Pickle
Edna.
Clifford Drummond
Ganedo.
James Jarell “Jake” Pickle
Ganedo. But, and then as Austin grew so fast, they began to pull my district in smaller, more people, but smaller district. So we grew over the years. Every district grew, though, by Lord. Well, listen -- let me tell you, maybe I can find some old correspondence or some -- maybe you can find some people in Smithville you can talk to. Dude Allen could help you a lot on this one. Dude Allen died recently. He knew everything about Smithville.
Earl Walborg
He was a very good friend of mine.
James Jarell “Jake” Pickle
And Dude was a great gentleman, great person. And his son, Randy, worked for us up there. And we were very dear friends. And he had -- Slade, or Glade?
Earl Walborg
Shade.
James Jarell “Jake” Pickle
Shade, Shade. It was a railroad town and he was a railroad man and somebody else... and today? What we got to do down there, we got to do something to put down there for the friends of the park. We’ve got to do something to bring a lot of people in to help pay money to be a $50, $100 payment, pay it right to the friends of the park. Because that little extra money can help in a lot of ways down there. They need it at the beginning as planning money. But I can’t remember very much of it. I wish I could. Maybe I can help you later on recall something. I won’t be bashful. As you can tell, I won’t be bashful.
Lesley Williams Brunet
That’s good. That’s good.
Recommended Citation
Pickle, James "Jake" Jerell; Drummond, Clifford; Brunet, Lesley W.; and Walborg, Earl PhD, "Chapter 05: Pride in the New Laboratory Facility; Key Supporters in the Legislature" (2005). Interview Chapters. 330.
https://openworks.mdanderson.org/mchv_interviewchapters/330
Conditions Governing Access
Open
