Interviewer(s): James Sell; Diane Austin. Houma, LA

Affiliation: University of Arizona

I met Merian Henry at Southdown Museum, where she volunteers. She recommended that I talk to her husband, Ed, as a person who spent his career working for Texaco. Ed has a strong interest in Cajun and family history, and is active in the local veterans group. He also recommended a number of other people to interview. Diane returned for a second interview in 2005. The interview was conducted as part of the study of the links between WWII and the offshore industry.

Ed Henry grew up in Montegut, in the area near the original Henry grant from the Spanish in the eighteenth century. His father was originally a trapper who went to work for the Texas Company in the 1930s as a boat captain. After serving in the U.S. Army in Burma during World War II, Ed began working for the Texas Company production department in 1946. He worked in production his entire career, mostly in the Bay Ste. Elaine field, retiring in 1980.