The Land and Its People, 1876-1981: Deaf Smith County, Texas Page: 244
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dent of the Evening Lions Club. Betty is a
past member of the Board of Directors of the
Hereford Camp Fire Council and an active
volunteer with that organization.
Johnnie Dupnik
Anna Marie Kuper was born at Happy,
Texas in 1920. She had one younger sister,
Marian, and two older brothers, Henry and
Walter. She attended grade school in Wyche,
Summerfield, St. Anthony's, and Dawn. She
then became a student at Hereford High,
which is now Stanton Jr. High. She was a
member of the ever popular and usually
winning girls basketball team. She also
played in the winning band and orchestra.
Band practice was before school and orchestra
practice was after school. School was from
eight thirty to four with an hour for lunch.
She graduated in 1938 with 52 graduating
students.
After graduating, she went to work in
Borger, Texas doing housework for two years.
With the coming of World War II, she came
back to Hereford to help her father with the
farming. The POW camp grew, with the
Kupers using some of the prisoners as farm
help.
After the war, Anna Marie met her future
husband, Johnnie Dupnik, of Panna Marie,
Texas. Johnnie is a nephew of Felix
Urbanczyk of Hereford. Johnnie began work
as a carpenter with Walters Construction
Company, building elevators.
Johnnie and Anna Marie were married at
St. Anthony's Church in August of 1947.
During the next five years the couple moved
around Texas and Oklahoma building elevaAnna
Marie and Rosemary Dupnik, Harold Barrett,
Johnnie Dupnik
tors. They returned to Hereford, rented a
home, and Johnnie began working with building
contractors in Hereford, including working
on the new St. Anthony's complex.
In 1953, the couples' daughter, Leona Elizabeth,
was born in Canyon, she died the same
day.
In 1957 the couple's daughter, Rose Mary,
was born. She attended school in Hereford.
She married Harold Barrett in 1976. The
couple have one son.
In 1969, Anna Marie found her lifetime
ambition. An opportunity to become a nurse
arose and she told her husband and daughter
that she was going to be a nurse. Later, she
found she was one of fifteen out of two
hundred applicants. She has now been a
licensed vocational nurse for eleven years.
Johnnie has been physically retired for ten
years.
Anna Marie is the last surviving member of
her family. Her mother died in 1966, Walter
died in December of 1972, her father died in
August of 1975, Henry died in May of 1977,
Marian died in July of 1977, and Bob Ellison,
a brother-in-law, died in February of 1978.
ANNA MARIE DUPNIKFrank Durkee
Billie Louise (Davis) Durkee is the second
of three daughters born to the Arthur H.
Davis'. Other daughters are Alberta Higgins
of Hereford and Kathryn Acton of Las Vegas,
Nevada. Her parents came to Hereford in
1917 from Ellis County. Mr. Davis died in
1967.
Billie started to school at the early age of
six, the first year this was permitted in the
state of Texas. While in school she was active
in Glee Club, F.H.A. and the Methodist
Church. She also served as pianist for the
Jesse Stanford Sunday School Class.
Graduating at the top of her class in 1946,
she was ready to set the world on fire. With
$30, the remainder of summer wages from
the Hereford Creamery, a scholarship, and a
footlocker, she headed for Chillicothe Business
College in Missouri and a career as a
secretary. Upon graduating she gained
immediate employment with the Amarillo
Hardware in Amarillo where she remained
for four years.
In 1946 she married a career military man,
Frank W. Durkee, from Lake Geneva, Wisconsin.
The next 27 years brought many
interesting experiences and varied assignments
for the Durkees. There were homes in
Texas, Arizona, California, Massachusetts,
Colorado, Florida, and Michigan. They also
spent six years in Germany. These tours
included visits to most European countries
and their home reflects many of these fond
memories. Of special note was a return trip
from Germany on the S.S. United States, the
flag ship of the United States Merchant
Marine.
After 34 years of military life and 21
different homes, the Durkees retired in 1973
in Amarillo. They have two daughters, Mrs.
Pat Terry of Amarillo and Mrs. Connie
Fagan of Dallas and four grandchildren.
BILLIE DURKEE
Edward Anton Dziuk
Pope John XXIII awarded the Papal Medal
of Honor to Ed Dziuk, Sr. on June 6, 1963
recognizing him for his work among the
people of the Labor Camp south of Hereford.
He was cited as "Being a zealous promoter of
Catholic principles of social justice and charity,
especially as applying to the numerous
migrant and resident agricultural workers."
Ed speaks the language of the MexicanAmerican
and for this reason was most helpful
to Fr. Raymond Gillis, S.A. who founded
the San Jose Mission in 1949.
Edward Anton Dziuk, the son of Anton and
Susan Kniejski Dziuk, was born in Panna
Maria, Texas, on September 8, 1904. In 1931
he married Irene Rose Urbanczyk in White
Deer, Texas. Irene was born in a half-dugout
home in Rhineland, Texas on July 14, 1910
and with her parents (Felix and Rosalia
Opelia Urbanczyk) came to White Deer in
1911.
After their marriage, they lived in Panna
Maria for a year, then moved to Panhandle
and six years later, in 1938, to their farm
home south of Hereford. Both are third generation
of the oldest Polish settlement in theU.S. and speak the language. Ed translated
letters for Fr. Ken Cienik when he was at St.
Anthony's Church in 1979-80.
Of their seven children, Ed. Jr. lives in
Hereford; Alfred in Berkeley, Cal.; David,Mr. and Mrs. Edward Dziuk Sr.
Hereford; Ann Rose Hunt, Suquamish,
Wash.; and Jim, Wichita, Kansas. William
and Bob are deceased. Their 10 grandchildren
are Stephen, Chris, Becky, Diedra,
Dzann, Jerry, Karen, Arthur, Kenneth, and
Stacey, all named Dziuk.
Irene is active in St. Anthony's Women's
Organization and the Christian Mothers. Ed
is a 3rd and 4th Degree Knight of Columbus.
He recently received a plague from the local
American Association of Retired Persons for
being president for four terms.
After Bob's death in 1974, Ed came out of
retirement to farm again. He has been a
farmer all his life and has always raised
registered Red Polled cattle; that's his first
love. He enjoys keeping an orchard and garden
which keeps Irene busy canning
when
she isn't busy tending her flower garden.
The children were in 4-H Clubs during
their school years, and showed Hampshire
hogs in the area stock shows.
-MRS. EDWARD DZIUK,SR.
Oscar E. Easley
Oscar Easley came to Hereford from
Hardeman County in 1920, when he was 18
years old. He traveled in a covered wagon,
over roads unpaved and some ungraded; the
road from Estelline to Turkey was a wagon
trail. It took ten days and nights by wagon in
1920. Recently in 1981 Oscar flew over the
route in 55 minutes.
Oscar's father had deeded to Oscar and his
sister a section of land 6 miles southeast of
Hereford, and it was Oscar's job to break out
the land and plant it to dry land farming. This
he did, living alone in the big house on the
place and running cattle. He did fairly well
with his crops, kaffir, maize, and a little
wheat, the first two years. In 1923 he had a
whopping big crop, but it rained so much he
could not harvest it.
After this discouraging crop year Oscar
moved into town; he'd found batching and
working alone on the farm was too tough for
a young man. He rented the farm out and
went to work selling Fords, then Chevrolets,
then Case farm machinery. In 1927 he went
with Marland Oil, as wholesale agent. Marland
sold to Continental in 1929, and he
stayed with Continental until 1948.
In 1927 Oscar met the beautiful Miss
Grace Skelton, who came in October, 1920,
from Frost, Texas, to teach school. Giving up
teaching, she served as City Clerk six years. It
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Deaf Smith County Historical Society. The Land and Its People, 1876-1981: Deaf Smith County, Texas, book, 1982; Deaf Smith County, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth16010/m1/248/: accessed April 26, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Deaf Smith County Library.