Oral History Transcript - Nicki Harle - February 5, 2008

Interview with Nicki Stallman Harle

 

Interviewer: Barbara Thibodeaux

Date of Interview: February 5, 2008

Location: Texas Midwest Community Network, Baird, TX

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Interviewee:   Nicki Stallman Harle – A 1971 speech communications graduate from Texas State University, Mrs. Harle is Executive Director of the Texas Midwest Community Network.  She lives in Baird, Texas.  For a time, she served as Director of Alumni Affairs at Texas State University (formerly SWT).  As a student, she escorted President Lyndon Johnson during a campus visit.

 

Topic:              Campus visit by Lyndon Johnson

 

 

BARBARA THIBODEAUX:  This recording is part of the LBJ Centennial Celebration Oral History Project sponsored by Texas State University.  Today is February 5, 2008.  My name is Barbara Thibodeaux.  I am interviewing Nicki Harle by telephone at her place of business in Baird, Texas.

 

[Mrs. Harle recounts escorting Lyndon Johnson on a visit to Southwest Texas, now Texas State University.]

 

NICKI HARLE: Having been given the responsibility and when we traveled around the campus that day we did a lot of walking.  But we went places like buildings that he remembered as a student which was like Old Main, some of the oldest buildings on campus.  He just really wanted to take a personal tour and just look around.  When we went into the commons, that’s what it was called, it’s the cafeteria, that’s where so many of the students were at the time.  It was right close to the lunch hour, and I remember inviting him over to different tables where people, students that I knew, where I could introduce him.  At that time there were tables of organizations and we had their tables claimed, like for different fraternities, and we would sit at different tables, or different service organizations had their tables up.  I tried to get him around to meet different segments of the community, of the student population.  It was kind of fun to stand back and watch how the students actually reacted to his presence.  Some were really eager to shake his hand just to be able to say that they had shaken the President’s hand and others stood back just kind of like leery, not in fear, but you know, didn’t know how to approach him.  And he was very friendly, very approachable so it was self-imposed. (laughs) They were just cautious, I guess you’d say. 

 

                        That is my only recollection really because it wasn’t like all day.  I think it was like four or five hours that I had the opportunity to walk around campus and introduce some of the people.  I remember him as being very friendly and smiling and as a student at that time, I was just so impressed with being in his presence.  When I think about it later, I think he was kind of flirtatious with some of the girls.  He was just a cutie, I guess you’d say.  It’s funny, when you are a student you don’t really think in terms of what this man has actually been through in his life and the responsibilities he had as president – the situation with Vietnam and some of the really major national issues.  You don’t think about that when you are a student.  You’re just really thinking about this is a famous person that you’re in the presence of.  But that’s kind of what I recollect and I don’t know if that’s something that will help you in anything your doing, but if that covers what you want, that is what I remember.

 

THIBODEAUX: Yes it does.  Do you remember any other students that were selected to escort him around campus?

 

HARLE:            I was the only one that day that I remember.  I don’t know if there were any other times that he may have been assigned to do that.  That was just my responsibility on that particular day.

 

THIBODEAUX: I appreciate the information.  That was a good story.

 

HARLE:            You think so?

 

THIBODEAUX: It goes along with other good stories – kind of put them together of how President Johnson spent a lot of time on campus.

 

HARLE:            There was one other encounter on campus with him that came about.  I want to say a year later.  After I had graduated, Dr. Jones recruited me to serve as the Alumni Director there and the first homecoming that I worked as Alumni Director he came back to the campus for that homecoming [1972].  I didn’t have enough time to spend with him that day.  I just remember seeing him on the quad up around Old Main and I remember pinning his name tag on him or something like that.  It was sort of a vague recollection, but he seemed to remember having met me a few months prior to that as a student guide.  So that was kind of nice, being recognized, but he was very nice about that.  Those are my only two things, times that I remember seeing him on campus.

 

THIBODEAUX:             Well thank you very much for that.  (end of interview)