Interviewer(s): S. Wiltz. New Iberia, LA

Affiliation: University of Louisiana at Lafayette

Ed Lucas was born and raised in Texas. His father worked as a pump station operator for the Texas Pipeline. In 1943, at the age of 18, he was working as a welder in Houston when he went to work for Texas Pipeline in south Louisiana. They moved around the New Orleans area quite a bit, before settling in New Iberia in 1957. During his career with the Texas Pipeline he was essentially a welder, but later got into inspecting and supervising construction maintenance. He retired in 1985, as third in command in south Louisiana. During the interview he describes laying pipe offshore, and discusses safety, education, and natives and oilfield trash.

Juliet Lucas was born and raised in south Louisiana to two prominent families in the area. She met Ed Lucas while going to nursing school in New Orleans; they married in 1948, at which time she was not allowed to continue her studies. During their marriage they had four children. At the age of 46 she went back into nursing. They have a son who currently works as an oil traffic coordinator for the Shell Pipeline (which used to be the Texas Pipeline) and another who is a prominent teacher and counselor in New Iberia.