Changes

==Background==

==Background==

An only child, Reese was born to Arvil Lloyd Reese (1911-1980) and the former Mary Louise Pearce (1910-1990) in the defunct community of Hasse in Comanche County near [[Abilene, Texas|Abilene]], [[Texas]]. The Reese family moved repeatedly during Jim's childhood as Arvil searched for employment amid the [[Great Depression]]. Arvil worked for the Texas Department of Highways for a time, having been assigned to place finich concrete on bridges. He also held various jobs in the oil industry and was during the end of his working years a Butane dealer in Gustine in Comanche County. During his boyhood, Jim Reese attended eighteen different schools and resided in such locations as Sidney in Comanche County, Bronte in Coke County, and Monahans, Brady, [[Corpus Christi]], and Odessa, Texas, as well as McAlester, [[Oklahoma]].<ref>Billy Hathorn, "Mayor Jim Reese of Odessa and the Republican Party in the Permian Basin", ''The West Texas Historical Association Year Book'', Vol. LXXXVII (October 2011), p. 127.</ref>

An only child, Reese was born to Arvil Lloyd Reese (1911-1980) and the former Mary Louise Pearce (1910-1990) in the defunct community of Hasse in Comanche County near [[Abilene]], [[Texas]]. The Reese family moved repeatedly during Jim's childhood as Arvil searched for employment amid the [[Great Depression]]. Arvil worked for the Texas Department of Highways for a time, having been assigned to place finich concrete on bridges. He also held various jobs in the oil industry and was during the end of his working years a Butane dealer in Gustine in Comanche County. During his boyhood, Jim Reese attended eighteen different schools and resided in such locations as Sidney in Comanche County, Bronte in Coke County, and Monahans, Brady, [[Corpus Christi]], and Odessa, Texas, as well as McAlester, [[Oklahoma]].<ref>Billy Hathorn, "Mayor Jim Reese of Odessa and the Republican Party in the Permian Basin", ''The West Texas Historical Association Year Book'', Vol. LXXXVII (October 2011), p. 127.</ref>

Reese's first remembrance of Odessa dates to 1938, when he was eight years of age. Arvil Reese had hired a driver with a pick-up truck to bring the family of three to Odessa. Young Jim saw flares from the oil fields and smelled sour gas: "I had heard of hell but didn't expect to get there that soon," he quipped. He slept on hay in the back of the pickup that first night, thirty years before his election as mayor. Reese recalls that in the late 1930s there was no paving in Odessa past Grant and Eighth streets. For several weeks the family lived in a tourist cabin in Goldsmith in Ector County, where they survived a [[tornado]]. It was while the Reeses were residing in Brady further east in McCulloch County that Arvil was financially able to purchase the family's first vehicle, a [[Model T]]. The car had been used to haul chickens in the back seat, but "we were happy finally to have transportation," Reese recalled.<ref>Reese, p. 127.</ref>

Reese's first remembrance of Odessa dates to 1938, when he was eight years of age. Arvil Reese had hired a driver with a pick-up truck to bring the family of three to Odessa. Young Jim saw flares from the oil fields and smelled sour gas: "I had heard of hell but didn't expect to get there that soon," he quipped. He slept on hay in the back of the pickup that first night, thirty years before his election as mayor. Reese recalls that in the late 1930s there was no paving in Odessa past Grant and Eighth streets. For several weeks the family lived in a tourist cabin in Goldsmith in Ector County, where they survived a [[tornado]]. It was while the Reeses were residing in Brady further east in McCulloch County that Arvil was financially able to purchase the family's first vehicle, a [[Model T]]. The car had been used to haul chickens in the back seat, but "we were happy finally to have transportation," Reese recalled.<ref>Reese, p. 127.</ref>