Person:Benjamin Murphy (2)

!BIRTH: Resurrection Memorial Cemetery Records

!DEATH: Resurrection Memorial Cemetery Records

!BURIAL: Resurrection Memorial Cemetery Records; Section 6, Block 39, Lot 5, Space 7

!SSDI: 444-09-0737, Listed as Ben Murphy

From Patricia Anne Murphy: "To begin with, Ben was the third and youngest child in a family of three. His two older sisters were about twelve and ten years older than he, and he was often refered to as "spoiled". He certainly acted the part. Ben was never able to exert any self-discipline, and never seemed to learn how to make the 'system' work. He must have had a brilliant mind, especially for mathematical games and graphics, but wouldn't or couldn't apply it. When his father died, Ben was working part-time for an oil company and most of the time playing sandlot baseball. One of those teams was in Corpus Christi, Texas. The depression got the sandlot league, of course, and Ben drifted into oilfield work, often unemployed, and occasional jobs as a warehouseman or stocker in retail stores. A lot of that was caused by the depression, of course, but he never seemed to understand that, and was deeply ashamed of his lack of success. I think a good part of his income was actually derived from gambling; he was a championship checkers player, and some kind of 'pool' or other such game as well. By the time I can remember for myself, He was working mainly for the Pettee Hardware Company, in downtown Oklahoma City. Later, When I was in my teens ( about the forties ), Ben worked for several long periods for the school book distributor that supplied books for purchase by students statewide. In those days, the schools didn't provide any books or materials for students, and it was a major expense for large families such as ours. Dad ran the warehousing and shipping department, and designed one of the first perpetual-inventory systems, but was never paid more than a minimum salary; again, because of his nasty disposition, and also because he was a high school dropout in an age when college graduates were begging for work. He would work for the school book depository for a while, then become angry and discouraged, and go back to Pettee's hardware for a few months; then repeat the sequence."

!EMPLOYMENT: W. J. Pettee & Co.Hardware / Farm Store, 107-109 West Reno, Oklahoma City, OK (1946)

1. ↑ Census; US; 1910; KS; Montgomery
   1B.

   ED 160, Cherryvale, 2nd Ward, Page 1B, 801 East Main, Family 18

   Age 7

2. ↑ Census; US; 1930; OK; Oklahoma
   8B.

   ED 30, Oklahoma City, Ward I, Block 1200, 1138 N.W. 40th, Family 232

   Age 26, Laborer, Oil Field