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Alvin M. Owsley
Alvin M. Owsley
1888-1967
- Denton Beginnings
- Virginia Military Institute
- Training for War
- The Great War
- American Legion
- Diplomatic Career
- Ball Family
- Orator
- Bibliographical Sources
Denton Beginnings
Denton County Courthouse
The small, rural town of Denton, Texas, provided an enriching environment for the raising of a family.
Alvin Clark Owsley and Sallie Blount Owsley, Alvin's parents, at their home on West Oak Street in Denton Texas.
Alvin Clark Owsley, a teacher and attorney, and his wife, Sallie Blount Owsley, taught their five daughters and three sons to regard religion, work, and education of primary importance to their
development.
Alvin M. Owsley and friends pose in Denton, Texas in the early 1900s.
Alvin Mansfield Owsley, born on June 11, 1888, was the first born male and destined to be his father's favorite. Alvin's religious instruction was supervised by his father, who taught a Sunday School class in Denton. The young Owsley was also kept busy completing chores on the family farm, located on the west end of town. Owsley's education was nurtured at the Terrill School, a private educational institution in Denton, operated by the former president of North Texas State Normal College, Mentor B. Terrill, and his wife. Alvin also attended North Texas State Normal College in Denton in 1904. Denton, in particular, and the north central Texas area, in general , remained special places to Alvin throughout his life.
The Alvin C. and Sallie Blount Owsley home on West Oak Street in Denton, Texas, was built in 1893.
Alvin returned to Denton many times in his later years, speaking on the campus of North Texas State Normal College and visiting his relatives. He made his permanent home in the booming city of Dallas, only thirty miles south of Denton.
Virginia Military Institute
A member of the Virginia Military Institute class of 1909, Alvin M. Owsley graduated as first captain of his class, one of the highest honors of the institution.
In 1906 Alvin Clark Owsley sent his son, Alvin Mansfield, to Virginia Military Institute in Lexington, Virginia. The institute reinforced the discipline and work ethic that had been part of Alvin's life from an early age, but had lapsed a bit during his years at Terrill School and North Texas State Normal College. After adjusting to his first-year "Rat" status at VMI, Alvin found the structured cadet life one to his liking.
Alvin Owsley enjoyed his years at the Virginia Military Institute.
This is evidenced by his selection in 1909 as First Captain of his class, one of the highest honors at the institute. One of Alvin's highlights during his stay at VMI was his participation, as Captain of Company A, in the Washington inaugural parade of President William Howard Taft in 1909.
Training for War
Given his military training at VMI, it was only natural that Alvin Owsley answered his country's call in 1917 and enlisted in the army. A promising career in law, bolstered by his election as Denton County district attorney in 1916, would be put on hold while he served his country overseas. Owsley trained at First Officers' Training Camp at Leon Springs, Texas, and then upon receiving his commission as a major of infantry, was assigned to the 36th Division stationed at Camp Bowie in Fort Worth. As senior instructor, it was Owsley's task to prepare the recruits for combat. It was a task that he took seriously. By the time Owsley left for France in July 1918, his men were prepared. These men proved their mettle in the Meuse-Argonne sector on the French front in the fall of 1918.
The Great War
Alvin Owsley arrived at the port of Brest on July 20, 1918. Soon after his stationing at Bar-sur-Aube with the 142nd Infantry, he was advanced to the rank of lieutenant colonel and adjutant of the 36th Division, nicknamed the "Lone Star Division." As adjutant, Owsley participated in the Meuse-Argonne offensive in the fall of 1918. Alvin's brother, Clark, first lieutenant in the Army, distinguished himself as well in the campaign. Lieutenant Colonel W. L. Culberson wrote about the two brothers to their father in Denton. He stated that "...the magnificent service of your two boys in a combat division on the front in France display a striking example of that exalted American patriotism that is a guarantee of freedom and happiness for the generations yet to come...."
Alvin M. Owsley celebrated his return home in 1919 from fighting in France with the American Expeditionary Force.
American Legion
Alvin Owsley was an active participant in the American Legion from its inception. Owsley attended a caucus of veterans in Paris in March 1919, formed to consider the establishment of a veterans' organization. Although the caucus established nothing concrete, it did give the delegates a forum to argue and debate issues and prepare for a more substantial caucus in St. Louis in May. In 1920 Alvin left his post as an assistant attorney general before the Court of Criminal Appeals in Texas to become assistant director of the American Legion's Americanism Commission. The very next year Owsley was thrust into the directorship of the commission, due to a debilitating injury suffered by then director Henry Ryan. Owsley continued and improved the "education for citizenship" program of the commission, joining with the National Education Association in sponsoring American Education Week. Owsley became the principal speaker for the commission, earning the attention of the populace and the approval of Legion members. In October 1922, Owsley was elected National Commander of the American Legion at the Legion's national convention in New Orleans. At age 34, he was the youngest commander to date and the first commander from the South.
Actors Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks hosted National Commander Owsley on a tour of Pickford-Fairbanks studios in Hollywood in December 1922.
During his year as national commander, Owsley traveled more than 61,000 miles to deliver over 600 speeches in order to promote his four-point program of veteran rehabilitation in the nation, hospitalization, adjusted compensation, and Americanization. His travels took him to every state, as well as Cuba, Panama, and Western Europe. Owsley was successful in promoting the Legion agenda, the only exception being the failure to persuade Congress to pass legislation concerning adjusted compensation.
In August 1923, National Commander of the American Legion Alvin M. Owsley received one of Frances's highest honors, the Legion of Honor medal, at ceremonies in Dusseldorf, Germany. Owsley received the medal from General Degoutte, commander of the French and Belgian occupying forces.
Owsley remained a devoted Legionnaire to the end of his days. In 1957-58, he represented the Legion at the trial of American soldier William Girard in Tokyo. In 1964, Owsley served as host for the Legion's national convention in his hometown of Dallas.
Diplomatic Career
Minister Owsley with his staff in Romania, legation secretary Julius Holmes on the left and military attache Lieutenant Colonel F. W. Whitley on the right.
For six years Alvin Owsley served his country as a diplomat in Western Europe, performing the duties of Minister to Romania (1933-1935), Minister to the Irish Free State (1935-1937), and Minister to Denmark (1937-1939). Unsettled Europe of the 1930s was both an interesting and threatening station from which to serve. Alvin, his wife Lucy, and children Alvin, Lucy, and David experienced a lifetime of memories in six short years, from the strange yet fascinating customs of Romania to the more familiar practices found in Ireland and Denmark.
Owsley family in Ireland
Ministers to foreign governments were not only expected to perform the typical governmental duties, but were also kept busy with numerous social obligations as well. Whether hosting diplomatic dinners in their residence in Bucharest, or planning large garden parties for the socially prominent at Phoenix Park in Dublin or Solyst in Copenhagen, Lucy Owsley performed her duties with charm, grace, and efficiency.
Solyst, near Copenhagen, was the diplomatic residence of the Owsleys in Denmark.
Although they enjoyed their life overseas, the tumult in Europe, approaching a final crisis by 1939, and the tumult at home in America, following Franklin Roosevelt's announcement for a third term as president, brought the diplomatic experience to a close for the Owsleys.
Ball Family
The families of Frank C. Ball and Edmund B. Ball pose in front of a railroad car in the early 1900s.
Perhaps the best introduction to Frank C. Ball family is an anecdote from Marion Adam's Alvin M. Owsley of Texas, published in 1971. When Alvin approached Lucy's father, Frank C. Ball, to ask for his approval of their marriage, he stated, "you are a business man: I am a lawyer." Frank nodded. "You are rich; I am poor. You're a Republican. I'm a Democrat." Ball pulled at his moustach and responded, "I've known some honest lawyers, and I was poor longer than I've been rich. But now--about this Democrat business--I'm not quite so sure." Frank then welcomed Alvin into the family.
Lucy Ball outside the family home at Minnetrista, Muncie, Indiana, in the early 1900s.
The history of the five Ball brothers, their early business in Buffalo, and their fabulous success in Muncie, Indiana, with the establishment of the Ball Brothers Glass Manufacturing Company, is well known. Frank C. Ball, an inventor and president of the company for over sixty years, was a shrewd businessman and a civic leader in Muncie. Frank and Elizabeth Brady Ball had five children, three daughters and two sons. Lucy Ball, the eldest daughter, was born in Muncie and grew up with her uncles, aunts, nieces, and nephews all nearby. She was educated in schools in Muncie, Indianapolis, Washington, D. C., New York, and Chicago. In 1920 she attended the national convention of the American Legion with her brother, Arthur. The next year she accompanied Arthur on a tour of Great War battlefields in France. In 1922 she attended the national convention in New Orleans, where she witnessed the election of Alvin Owsley as national commander. Lucy and Alvin married in Minnetrista, the Frank C. Ball family home, in Muncie in 1925. Alvin Owsley, in his later years, served as a Vice President for Ball Company operations in Texas.
Orator
Alvin Owsley addresses a crowd on Armistice Day in 1922 in Lincoln, Nebraska.
Alvin M. Owsley was recognized throughout America as an outstanding orator. Many who heard him speak, compared him favorably with William Jennings Bryan. Owsley was always in demand as a speaker, and he lent his oratorical gifts to many political campaigns, including those of Franklin D. Roosevelt, Wendell Willkie, and Thomas Dewey. Tom McHale, a Legion friend of Commander Owsley, stated that he had "heard Bryan and others, but Owsley could hold any group spellbound, and his voice--sitting in the back row you could have heard him whisper. I've seen him walk into a group and make an informal speech, holding them transfixed for an hour. He seemed to forget himself, and the words just flowed." The words of Americanism, and the power, charm, wit, and enthusiasm of the patriot speaking them; this is the legacy of Alvin M. Owsley.
Bibliographical Sources
Adams, Marion S. Alvin M. Owsley of Texas: Apostle of Americanism. Waco: Texian Press, 1971.
Good, Uvieja Zenolyn. "Alvin M. Owsley: Evangelist of Amerianism." Ph.D. dissertation, Indianan University, 1972.
Owsley, Alvin M. Paper. University of North Texas Archives, Denton, Texas.