Lone Star ReviewsMichelle Newby, NBCC,
Contributing Editor
Texas ReadsGlenn Dromgoole
>> archiveDisturbing story of abuse begins in Texas
A well-intentioned program that put intellectually disabled men to work on a turkey farm in Texas won a national award in 1968 but eventually became the source of a scandal that rocked Iowa and the nation.
Dan Barry tells the disturbing story in The Boys in the Bunkhouse: Servitude and Salvation in the Heartland (Harper, $26.99 hardcover). The story revolves around thirty-two men, most of them former residents of the Texas State School network, who lived in an old schoolhouse in a small Iowa town and worked at a turkey processing plant for sixty-five dollars a month for thirty-five years.
When Iowa authorities finally intervened in 2009, they found the men living in roach-and-rat-infested squalor and suffering from numerous neglected physical ailments, including one man with a broken kneecap.
Ten of the men were former residents of the Mexia State School, seven were from the Abilene State School, and others were from Austin, Lufkin, Richmond, and other campuses. They started working on a turkey farm in Goldthwaite, Texas, but in a few years were contracted to a turkey processing plant in Iowa, still under the supervision of the Texas operation known as Henry’s Turkey Service.
“The Henry’s boys,” as they became known around the small Iowa town of Atalissa, became an accepted part of the community, singing in church, riding in parades, dancing at town gatherings. In the early years, the townspeople were invited to Christmas parties at the old school, but as the years went by the parties ended and conditions quietly deteriorated.
Iowa authorities brushed off several early efforts to call attention to the situation, including one social worker’s report in 1974 detailing twenty specific complaints and concluding, “Once the resident becomes an employee of Henry’s Turkey Service, he for all practical purposes loses most basic human rights.”
Barry, a New York Times reporter and columnist, relates the story in a dispassionate style from a variety of viewpoints, always keeping the thirty-two men at the center of the narrative. The case eventually went to trial in federal court as a civil matter, with a stunning verdict. At the end of the book, Barry summarizes the status of the men, telling when they were born, at what state school they resided, and where they are today. About half returned to Texas to live in group homes or with family. About half chose to stay in Iowa — under much better conditions.
PBS and the Times produced a Point of View documentary two years ago about “The Men of Atalissa” that can be viewed online.
Glenn Dromgoole is co-author of 101 Essential Texas Books. Contact him at g.dromgoole@suddenlink.net.
>> Check out his previous Texas Reads columns in Lone Star Literary Life
Texas Teen Book Festival sets October 2016 lineup
Young Adult Book Festival Will Feature Award-Winning Authors Sabaa Tahir, Ally Carter, Jeffery Self, and More
AUSTIN— The Texas Teen Book Festival announced today the 2016 lineup, featuring Sabaa Tahir, Ally Carter, Jeffery Self, Traci Chee, John Corey Whaley, and more. TTBF takes place on Saturday, October 1 at St. Edward’s University.
“Your TTBF Programming Committee has been chomping at the bit to let you in on the outstanding list of bestselling YA authors who will be attending the festival this year, but we were sworn to secrecy,” said Shawn Mauser, TTBF Festival Director. “Well, now the secret-keeping is over, and we are beyond excited to announce our full lineup, right here and right now. Mark your calendars for Saturday, October 1 and start reading. TTBF 2016 is coming.” >>READ MORE
Lone Star Literary Life reveals our 2016 Texas Readers’ Favorite Bookstores TOP FIVE!
Texas readers have spoken! More than 1,000 of Lone Star Literary Life’s readers have cast ballots in our statewide contest to recognize Texas’s favorite bookstores. Their selections are as diverse as the state itself, and honorees include big indies, small indies, chain stores, used bookstores, and new bookstores in every far-flung corner of the state.
From the shadows of Houston’s skyscrapers to the winds whistling down the plains, from the Piney Woods of East Texas to the beachside burbs on the coast, Texas bookshops are connecting with their communities, and we are thrilled to have the opportunity to showcase Texas’s Top Ten Favorite Bookstores. Today, we unveil the full results of your votes! >>READ MORE
LONE STAR LISTENS interviews >> archive
Kay Ellington, Editor and Publisher
6.19.16 Terry Jennings, the Outlaw Country era, family, and “writing a book that I had promised my dad I would write”
Terry Jennings was born when his father, Waylon Jennings, was nineteen years old. Today he is the CEO and founder of Korban Music Group LLC, a music management and publishing company. He has also worked for booking agencies, publishing companies, and as a talent scout for major labels, including RCA Records.
He got his start in the music industry at fifteen by being a roadie for his famous father, and has written a firsthand account of a unique father-and-son relationship. On Thursday afternoon before Father’s Day Sunday, he shared his thoughts with us via email about his famous father, how he wrote this book, and what the next generation of musical Jenningses are up to.
LONE STAR LITERARY LIFE: The recollections in your memoir are so vivid. What was your process in pulling together your stories for Waylon: Tales of an Outlaw Dad? Did you keep a journal when you were growing up, and when you were touring with your father?
TERRY JENNINGS: God blessed me with a very vivid and long memory. It’s like a detailed autobiographical memory of my life; Dad would many times ask me for details of past events, dates, scores of football games, etc. After Dad died I started writing a book that I had promised my dad I would write. I just felt it was something I had to do. “Dad had told me I was practically the only person who was with him from the beginning that wasn’t afraid to tell the truth.” I spent a long time trying to put a square peg in a round hole, but once I yielded all my stories to the Lord everything fell into place. That’s what I call a miracle from God. >>READ MORE
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
2016 Kids’ Summer Reading: Check it out!
sponsored by Blue Wilow Bookshop
From read-to-me books to early readers, chapter books to middle readers to young adult, you’ll find these terrific new titles at your neighborhood bookstore. >>READ MORE
Texas’s only statewide, weekly calendar of book events
Bookish Texas event highlights 6.19.2016
>> GO this week Michelle Newby, Contributing Editor
News Briefs 6.19.16
Texas Book Festival 2016 leads off with Bush mother and daughter, Ha Jin, Arce, Cronin, Hollandsworth, Myles, Semple, Witliff, and more
The Texas Book Festival has announced sixteen of the authors who will participate in this year’s Texas Book Festival, happening November 5 and 6 in and around the State Capitol grounds in Austin. (The festival’s full 2016 lineup will be announced in early September; the festival, in its 21st year, plans to bring more than 250 acclaimed authors to the capital.) >>READ MORE
WHERE IN TEXAS?
Don’t miss a reading or a good read! Sign up for our FREE weekly
e-newsletter
NOW ON TOUR: FICTION
THE DARKNESS THAT COULD BE FELT
by C. Wayne Dawson
Visit with Wayne through June 22, 2016
6/19 The Crazy Booksellers
6/20 It’s a Jenn World
6/20 Reading By Moonlight — REVIEW
6/21 My Book Fix Blog
6/22 A Novel Reality
6/22 Forgotten Winds — REVIEW
RECENTLY ON TOUR: FICTION
THE DO-RIGHT
by Lisa Sandlin
Lone Star Literary Life Facts and FAQs
• Event and resource list policies
Lone Star Literary Archives
• Lone Star Listens Interviews
Leave a Reply