 William L. Ashburn   Lawrence Ashburn born 28 September 1907 Sherman, Grayson County, Texas died 26 June 1967 Dallas, Dallas County, Texas son of William Lafayette Ashburn & Mary Eliza Currie Lawrence married Bernice Ruth Crumpton. Lawrence
was working for his older brother, Harrell, in the Ashburn's Ice Cream
Store in Ft. Worth, Texas soon after he and Bernice married. I am not
sure the circumstances, but I gleaned that he wanted some say-so in the
business operations, and it was clear that would not ever be possible.
He was always considered the 'baby brother' and the business was
being primed for his nephew, Harrell Ashburn Jr. So, in 1940, Lawrence
began looking for other opportunities for personal satisfaction and
advancement. A cafe came up for sale across the street from Polytech, a
junior college, in Ft. Worth. It was a good location, a thriving
business, and he thought he could make a go of it. He did whatever
was necessary to buy the business and set about running it. At the end
of the first week, he changed his mind. It occurred to him how
dependent he would be on the cook, and that scared him. He figured he
could cover the breakfast shift, but by lunch and supper, he would
be sunk if the cook didn't show up. Just what he had to do to get out
of the deal, I don't know, but whatever it took, he succeeded in doing
so. It was very soon thereafter that his older brother, Bill,
talked another brother, Martin, into letting Lawrence join him as a
junior partner in the Dallas operation of Ashburn's Ice Cream.
Martin was dying of cancer and needed someone to keep the business
afloat for his family. Lawrence moved his extended family to Dallas and
successfully ran and expanded the company in partnership with his
nephew, Martin Ashburn Jr., until his death in 1967. My
daddy, the baby of the family, ran the Dallas operation with his
nephew, Martin Jr. The Grayson plants were run by his older brothers,
Bill in Denison & Frank in Sherman ..... Lee Ann Ashburn
  Ashburn Family |