Harry

Harry Schneider’s link to the Yallalee-Fuller clan is this: he was Chris Yallalee’s grandfather on his Mom’s side, and Bill Yallalee’s father-in-law. Harry passed away July 6, 2011. We put this Power Point presentation together for his memorial service to be held July 30th in El Paso,Texas, his home town.

If you don’t have PowerPoint on your PC you can download the free PowerPoint Viewer from Microsoft by clicking here.

Harry’s Story

(Written by Cookie Schneider Laffler)

Harry was born June 25, 1924, in Five Points General Hospital in El Paso, the fourth of six children. As it happened, the next day was his brother Richard’s birthday, and Harry’s parents told Richard that Harry was his birthday present. Needless to say, a little brother was not what Richard had in mind for his birthday gift!

For Harry’s eighth birthday, his Grandpa Schneider gave him a horse, Nellie, and Harry and the horse became inseparable. The horse lived in a corral at Grandpa Schneider’s, along with a cow and assorted other farm animals. Because of his Grandpa’s farm, Harry was raised on fresh milk and homemade butter. Eventually Nellie gave birth to a colt named Patchie, which Harry got to raise and train.

Harry’s Mom, Dovie Schneider, had visions of Harry as a musician, and made him take lessons in both piano and violin. But as some point, probably when she heard him sing, she gave up on the musical ambitions, much to Harry’s pleasure.

Harry’s grandfather worked for a man named Campbell, who was an engineer building railroads in New Mexico. His grandmother cooked meals for the workers, and Harry’s Mom, Dovie, often helped. Once the railroads were finished, Campbell, who never married, retired to California.

Harry graduated from Crockett Elementary School in 1938, and the family moved from their house on Myrtle Street to a farm in the Upper Valley. Several years later, Campbell contacted Dovie and said he would like to come visit. She invited him to dinner, and he said that would be great, as it was his birthday. So Homan called all the kids together and they threw a little party for Campbell’s birthday. After that, he came to El Paso every year for his birthday, which he celebrated with the Schneider family. When he died, he left six houses and an empty lot on Wyoming Street to Dovie. He had used them as rental houses, and the Schneiders continued to do so.

Harry attended El Paso High School, where he was active in theatre and Future Farmers. He took Junior ROTC classes as well. His last two years, he was a “Rah Rah Boy,” or yell leader. By looking through his high school yearbooks, you can easily see he was popular, especially with the ladies. He graduated in 1942, but was too young to enlist to serve in World War II. So he continued working that summer and the next fall at Schneider’s Market. Help was scarce, since Harry’s brothers Ned and Richard had already enlisted, and most young men were gone to the war.

Harry’s good friends, Jack Wotipka and Joe Drennan, were also too young to enlist right out of high school, so they waited until they were all old enough and went down together to sign up for the Naval Air Corps. When Harry and Jack returned to the recruiting station to turn in their paperwork, they were informed that enlistments had been closed and their paperwork couldn’t be processed. But Joe was not to be deterred; he took his paperwork down and somehow convinced them to accept him, to send him and his paperwork on, and he went into the Naval Air Corps.

Harry and Jack had to take the alternate route, volunteering to be drafted. So they went to the Draft Board and asked to be drafted, planning to do their basic training and then request a transfer to the Air Corps. In 1943 Harry entered the Army, and did his basic training at Fort Bliss with specialized training in Anti-Air Craft. He was then transferred to Camp Hulen, Texas, and assigned to Headquarters Battery. While there, because of his previous JROTC training, he was considered the “fair-haired boy.” He got away with anything . . . while others were on a 10-mile hike, he was overseeing the crew in charge of cutting the grass.

It was while at Camp Hulen that Harry first made contact with his future wife, Ruth Westphal. Seems Harry was kind of sad because his high school sweetheart, Marian, wasn’t much of a letter writer. One of his new army buddies had seen Harry’s photo of Sarah Lou Davis, and wanted her address, so he gave Harry three women’s addresses in exchange for Sarah Lou’s. From the list, Harry decided to write to Ruth in Detroit. She turned out to be a faithful correspondent with our men in uniform, writing him often.

Eventually Harry was recommended for Officer Training School but was not accepted, so his superior officers said they would make him a supply sergeant. He trained for the position under a 40-year old supply sergeant. He was told the current sergeant was too old to go to Europe, so Harry was preparing to head overseas. But when the time came, the sergeant was determined to go, which meant Harry would be going as a PFC rather than as Supply Sergeant. He didn’t like that option, so he reapplied to the Air Corps. He was sent to Nashville for tests, then to Miami for more tests, and finally his dream came true, and he was accepted to the Air Corps as an Air Cadet.

He was sent to Southwest Missouri State Teachers College in Springfield, Missouri, for training. He was enrolled in physics, geography, math, and other classes to prepare him for service as a pilot. This was a six-month course . . . but in the fifth month – one month before he would have begun flight training in the L-5, on April 1, 1944 – the army informed the students in Harry’s program that they had already established air superiority and didn’t need any more pilots, and the training ended. Harry was sent back to ground forces.

When Harry and the others were told they would not be pilots, the officers considered canceling all leave, fearing they would go AWOL. But they relented, and Harry and friends when to a bar near the college. That night, Harry was the only one who didn’t get back to base on time . . . he was one minute late. As punishment, he had to walk off 12 tours. Several of the trainees were shipped out to various duties during the week. The next weekend they were again granted leave, and again, Harry was late returning to base – this time, 30 seconds. But his CO was at the gate, and he signed Harry in on time.

Most members of the training unit were sent to a Mechanized Tank Division in Missouri, and they were shipped overseas together. But Harry and a few others were sent to a “casual camp” in Illinois until they could be assigned to a new training unit. Stationed at Camp Ellis, Illinois, Harry spent his time in KP in the general mess and on guard duty, waiting for a call to duty. Unhappy with the assignment, he volunteered for permanent KP in the Officers’ Mess, which was a better place to work and meant he no longer had to stand guard duty. He worked 24 hours on, 24 off, but got to eat the good food of the Officers’ Mess, and that made it a good assignment.

One day he was driving for the Transport Officer, his First Sergeant, and they were loading troops on a train. The First Sergeant asked Harry where he was from and Harry said El Paso. The Sergeant said he was sending a group of troops to William Beaumont Hospital in El Paso for training, and Daddy jumped at the chance. But when the First Sergeant tried to do the paperwork, he discovered that the Beaumont slots were already filled. He asked him if he’d like to attend a school – Harry didn’t ask what kind, he just asked where. The school was in Denver and Harry jumped at the chance to get out of Camp Ellis. Thus he became a Medical Technician.

However, Harry’s pen pal Ruth was not happy about the transfer. Camp Ellis was not that far from Detroit, and she had hoped to meet Harry in person, since they had been writing for several months by this time. So Harry promised her that when he got back to Camp Ellis, he would use his very first three-day pass to visit her in Detroit.

Denver was a good time for Harry during the summer of 1944, because several of the girls he knew in high school (Jonelle, Sarah Lou Davis, Betty Price and others) were attending college in Boulder, and they would come up to Denver on weekends, or Harry and his army buddies would use their weekend passes to visit the ladies in Boulder. The school offered training to be a Medical Technician, and Harry excelled in his training and was soon certified to be in charge of a hospital ward.

While there Harry was finally offered a long-awaited furlough, and he headed for home. While there he rekindled his romance with his high school sweetheart, Marian. But when he went back to Illinois after his furlough, she again didn’t write. So Harry worked, training Medical Technicians.

At that point, he and the other members of his training class were  sent back to Camp Ellis to work in the hospital there. They served as teachers, training others to be Medical Technicians. He soon received a three-day pass, and set out for Detroit. He and a buddy were hitch-hiking to get to a train station. He hadn’t told Ruth he was coming, because he didn’t know when he would get to Detroit. His buddy was heading to Champagne, Illinois, to attend a Notre Dame football game. They were picked up by some folks who were also heading to the Notre Dame game, and after listening to the talk, Harry decided he’d rather attend the football game than go meet a woman in Detroit.

After the game he felt so guilty that when he got his next pass, which was just a two-day pass, he determined to go to Detroit. He hitched to a train station in Peoria, caught a train to Chicago, then Detroit, arriving about 4 p.m. Saturday afternoon. He had called Ruth from Chicago to tell her he was coming, and she broke a date to make time to meet with him. Harry had an army buddy, Dewey Sears, who was home in Detroit on leave and he arranged to have Dewey pick Ruth up and deliver her to him at the station. Harry and Ruth spent a few hours together, then Harry headed back to Camp Ellis, arriving just in time for reveille Monday morning.

After that meeting, Harry spent all his leave time with Ruth. When Christmas rolled around, he used his 3-day pass to go to Detroit. When it was time to return to base, he just didn’t want to go . . . so he went AWOL for a day. When he finally got back to the base, he told his First Sergeant that he had lost his wallet. The First Sergeant didn’t buy it, but he let it slide, reminding Harry that he should have called if he had a problem. The next weekend was New Years, and half the unit was given a three-day pass. Harry was not in that group. So he approached his First Sergeant and said he deserved a pass – that it was owed to him – for all the times he didn’t get a pass in the past. He was given another three-day pass for New Year’s, and he again went to Detroit. He hadn’t told Ruth he was coming, and she had committed to babysitting for her boss. So Harry and Ruth spent New Year’s Eve, 1944, babysitting. Again Harry didn’t return to base on time, but he did call, saying only that he would be a day late. That was accepted without question.

Just before he shipped out, Harry proposed to Ruth, but she said no. She told him to wait and see how he felt when he came back from overseas.

Harry and his Army buddies operated a hospital in Northeastern France close to Rennes, where the Allied Headquarters in France was located. They ran this hospital for about four months until Germany surrendered, and the War in Europe was over. They packed up and waited in Marseilles for a ship to take them through the Mediterranean to the South Pacific to help fight Japan. They were to board the ship on August 7, 1945, but on August 6^th the Allies dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima. That attack put a hold on their orders, and the bombing of Nagasaki on August 9 ended the war.

The troops were told that since they were ready to ship out and the ship was ready to go, that they would be sent back to the United States in two days. Harry was ecstatic. He went to see his fellow El Pasoan, Virgil Taylor, who was working in a nearby hospital, to see if he was leaving on the same ship. Virgil said they had received no word about going home. The next day, Harry was told there was a hold on their orders, some kind of problem, and that a different unit was taking the ship and heading home. It turned out to be Virgil’s unit.

So Harry was stuck in France. It took 25 to 30 points to get rotated home, and Harry didn’t have the points. You got points for being married, for having children, for your age, and for your time in Europe. Harry was unmarried, no kids, and he was only 23 years old. He had barely arrived in Europe when victory was declared there. So, he had to hang around and watch others get sent home. Because he was still there, he was transferred to Aix, France. It was a nice town close to Marseilles, and Harry and his unit spent nine months caring for sick GI’s until they were well enough to be shipped home. It was a good hospital with good quarters and a good NCO Club, so it wasn’t an awful duty station. The only problem was that they all wanted to go home. They finally got all their wounded GI’s shipped home and closed the hospital, and then Harry, Gene Lane, Harry Kanatzer and other members of the company were shuffled into various positions, from company clerk to Acting First Sergeant to whatever needed doing. One of Harry’s jobs while company clerk was processing leave for nurses, sending them to Switzerland or the French Riviera or other vacation spots. So Harry sent all his friends who came through on nice trips, but was never able to schedule one for himself.

Eventually he and Harry Kanatzer and Gene Lane applied to Biarritz University and were accepted as students there. Harry registered for two sales classes and Spanish. They attended class three hours a day, five days a week. They lived in a hotel, had maid service, and ate at the hotel cafeteria. The food was fantastic. The college offered lots to do, including plays, golf, bicycle riding, guest lecturers, much like an American college. After approximately four months there, Harry finally got shipped to Belgium and processed to return to the States.

He took a ship to New York, then caught a train to San Antonio. He was playing poker with other returning GI’s when the train made a stop, and he thought the station looked familiar. Turns out they were in Springfield, Missouri, where Harry had been stationed earlier. He jumped off the train and went in search of a pay phone so he could call Sweeney, a girl he had dated while he was stationed there. While searching for a phone, he passed a lovely lady necking with a GI behind a baggage cart. Something seemed familiar about the woman, and when he looked closer, it was Sweeney!

He got back on the train and continued on to San Antonio, where he received his honorable discharge. Although he had been the first cadet in his enlistment group to make PFC, and had served in numerous capacities, he was still a PFC when he finished his military service. He got his discharge about 10 a.m., and bought a plane ticket for El Paso. His plane landed about midnight, and his entire family was at the airport to welcome him home, because he was the last of his family to make it back.

Once settled in at home, all Harry could think about was getting back to Detroit to propose to Ruth before she married someone else. None of his pre-service clothes fit, and it was difficult to purchase clothing right after the war. But he borrowed a suit from his brother Ned and caught a train to Detroit. He proposed, Ruth said yes, and Harry’s mother threw a fit. She was not happy about her son marrying a woman she had never met, and was concerned because Ruth was an only child and her mother was a widow. She felt like Harry would be “stuck” with Ruth’s mother. Harry’s friend Poproski had taken Harry to a jeweler to get a ring, and it wasn’t much, but Harry was engaged.

He returned to El Paso and began looking for work. He had to be able to support a wife. At first he tried clerking for a trucking company, but decided that wasn’t for him. His Uncle Irving Gourley was working for Bush and Long Potato Chip Company, and he hooked Harry up with Bill Appleton, who had a distributing company. Harry began driving the Southern New Mexico route, strictly on commission. He would visit small stores in Alamogordo, Tularosa, Hondo, Ruidoso, Carlsbad and other small towns along the way, stocking their shelves with whatever cookies, chips, and candies  Bill had been able to get in the post-war economy. He was hugely successful in this, making between $110 and $130 each week. The average income at the time was closer to $40 a week, which is what his brother Richard was making working at the bank. So, Harry was ready to take the next step.

Bert and Jan Davis were preparing to move out of their apartment, so Harry took over their lease and made plans to get married in October of 1946, followed by a short honeymoon in Denver. Bill Appleton gave him only one week off to get married, and personally covered Harry’s route for him while he was gone.

Harry drove straight through to Detroit for the wedding. Saturday morning he and Ruth were going to pick up the wedding cake when he ran a red light and wrecked his car. The wedding went on as planned, but because of the accident, the honeymoon never happened. A man who had worked with Ruth’s father (who died when she was 16) ran an auto shop and he repaired the car for them. By the time the repairs were complete, they had to head back to El Paso, skipping Denver. They got back to El Paso Saturday afternoon, and Harry’s parents had prepared a wedding party for them, inviting all Harry’s high school friends.

Harry’s high school sweetheart, Marian, was planning to attend the party with Jack Wotipka. Jack called and warned Harry that Marian was planning to bring all Harry’s personal belongings back to him, items he had left in her care during the war, such as his yell leader sweater and tennis rackets. Harry was a little worried because he hadn’t told Ruth about Marian, so he quickly filled her in. When Marian arrived, items in hand, she was warmly welcomed, and she and Ruth had no issues.

Shortly after they were married, Harry’s parents took their five rental houses and gave one to each of their children, which was a great gift. Harry and Ruth were now home-owners. This mortgage-free home enabled them to save money, and eventually move to a bigger house without incurring too much debt.

Susan Elizabeth, aka Suzy, came on the scene nine months to the day after the wedding. Harry continued to work for Bill Appleton for about two years, but came to realize that while the income was good, the job had no future. It would never get any better. He began looking for another job, interviewing with Jack Shehan at Atlas Building Products. While it only paid $45 a week, a huge pay cut, Harry thought it would be a better job because he would no longer work weekends, and could have time with his young family. He told Jack that he would take the job for six weeks, but if at the end of that time Jack didn’t think he was worth more than $45 a week, they would part ways. Jack agreed. Harry soon discovered that he was expected to work Saturdays, which made him angry, but he hung in there.

After six weeks, Harry was anxious to see what kind of raise Jack had in mind. Saturday was pay day, and Jack left at noon. When Harry got his check that afternoon, there was no raise, and Harry was furious. When Jack came to work Monday morning, Harry’s resignation and one-week’s notice were on Jack’s desk. Jack saw it and panicked, came out and apologized to Harry for forgetting the raise, told payroll to increase his salary to $65 a week immediately. Raises came regularly after that, and Harry never again had to ask for more money.

During this time, Phillip George was born, about two years after Suzy. His birth caused serious damage to Ruth’s reproductive organs, and her doctor suggested a hysterectomy. Ruth put it off a little too long, and the birth of Dianne Lee followed two years later. Again, the doctor suggested a hysterectomy, and again Ruth delayed. Next thing she knew, she was pregnant again, and LouAnn, better known as Cookie, was born in 1953. This time the doctors performed the hysterectomy before Ruth left the hospital, so there were no more children in the future.

Eventually Jack retired from Atlas, and Harry Frank, the owner, hired his own younger brother to be the sales manager. Harry wasn’t happy about that, feeling he should have gotten the position. Atlas began losing market share after that, and things were not going well. About this time Joe Yarbrough was growing as a home builder, and had decided to build homes using cinderblock, but was having trouble getting the masonry work done right. Atlas sent Harry out to boss a crew, so Joe would be happy with the Atlas product. All went well on the job, and Joe planted the seed in Harry’s mind that he should be a masonry contractor.

Harry got along okay with his bosses, but he wasn’t happy working for Harry Frank’s little brother. He talked to Harry Frank, and was given a six-month leave of absence in 1960 to pursue being an independent contractor. A stucco contractor had died and Harry bought a bunch of his equipment and went to work providing masonry for Joe Yarbrough’s homes. Because of his years with Atlas, Harry had many good contacts with builders and had no trouble turning a profit. In fact, he was able to bid higher than others because of his reputation for quality work.

In 1955, about the same time Harry’s family moved into a cinderblock home in the lower valley, Harry’s parents bought a cabin in Ruidoso, and the family spent time there every summer. Harry and Ruth both loved it there, and after Harry had been in business for a year they began shopping for a cabin of their own. They looked at several, but ended up getting a great buy on a cabin right across the stream from Harry’s parents. Ruth had inherited about $3,000 from an uncle, and Harry pulled $8,000 out of the business and they paid cash for the cabin. It had a master bedroom, bath, kitchen, large living room, and a dormitory. Harry and his Dad worked on remodeling the cabin, splitting the dormitory area into three bedrooms and putting up paneling and making other improvements. Frank Gilcrist brought his family up, and they did the rewiring, bringing the electricity up to code.

The housing market began slowing down, but commercial work was booming. However, Harry found he couldn’t handle the bigger jobs without a good supervisor. He tried a few men he knew who were masons, but none worked out as a boss. Finally he hired Sam Marusich away from Atlas Building Products, and the business really took off. They did several big jobs, including the Church of Jesus Christ LDS on Sumac, Clint High School, and Farah Manufacturing. He was instrumental in forming the Association of Builders and Contractors, which broke the construction unions in El Paso.

In the Seventies the federal government instituted several programs to promote minority business owners, one of which included taking bricklayers and setting them up as contractors. The problem was these guys would low bid a job, then go broke trying to complete it. The bonding company would pay Harry to come finish it, but the profit just wasn’t there. So Harry decided it was time to quit. He bought out Sam’s share of the business, but Phillip wanted to keep it going. So Harry backed away, leaving Phil in charge while he and Ruth traveled in their motor home.

They went all over the United States, visiting family as well as several of Harry’s old army buddies. They also attended the Calgary Stampede in Canada, and went on a motor home tour of the British Isles.

A big job came up, a housing project in the lower valley, and a builder called Harry to come in. Harry talked to him, and gave him a price to do the job. The contractor accepted his price but wanted a guaranteed finish date, with financial penalties for each day past the deadline. Harry refused to guarantee the date, and after much negotiation, the contractor agreed to leave the completion date open. Harry sent Phil down to sign the contract, but the contractor had left the completion date in the contract. When Phil returned with the contract, Harry blew his stack. He told Phil that the job was his baby, that there was no way he could complete it by the date specified. However, Phil rose to the challenge, and actually finished the job a day ahead of schedule. Shortly thereafter Harry realized Phil was ready to handle the company, and he fully retired, leaving Schneider Masonry behind.

Throughout his career, Harry had accepted many challenges. Perhaps the biggest was in 1965, when he, working with Hal Howard, designed a new home for the family. It was only a couple of blocks from their cinderblock home, and still in the same pecan orchard once owned by the Porche family. This was good news to the kids. Earlier Harry and Ruth had gotten the neighbors together to build a neighborhood pool. The Porche family donated the land and the pool became a popular gathering spot. The neighborhood often had big parties for the Fourth of July and other holidays at the pool, with everyone contributing to the fun. Fortunately, the new home was in the same neighborhood, so they got to keep their pool membership.

By the early eighties, Harry was semi-retired. Phil ran the business while Harry and Ruth traveled the country in their motor home. When he fully retired they moved to Silver City, New Mexico, for several years, eventually moving to Tucson, Arizona. They enjoyed their years in Tucson until Ruth passed away in December, 1998.

Harry moved down to Green Valley, Arizona, and was introduced to Dotti Filipowicz in the spring of 2003 and they married September 1^st of that year. They spent almost eight years dancing, swimming, and golfing together before Harry’s cancer took him from us. Words cannot express     how deeply grateful we are to Dotti for taking such good care of our Daddy. We will all miss him.