So it was a process to get them over. On that shipload of animals, which left from Mombasa East Africa, went around the Southern tip of Africa up to New York, where they had to go into quarantine at Clifton, New Jersey for 30 days. And so I rode with… Read More
Interestingly, she was actively involved in the capture of our giraffes. She and her one of her closest friends in Brownsville, Mrs. Duffy, went to Africa on safari, and there was a animal dealership that was active then and still is International Animal Exchange. And they had a base camp… Read More
How did that work?… Read More
You dealt with animal dealers exclusively. You did most of it. You did a little of it. Read More
Was she involved in that process?… Read More
I always involved her from day one with planning. And what do you think about this and that and we got along, I think so well, because she felt part of the process instead of the one that was just expected to write the check. So you had indicated the… Read More
How did you acquire those?… Read More
As far as was she meddlesome, no, she was not meddlesome, but after the zoo was built, she loved to watch a Soap Opera that was on at lunchtime. And so she would have her lunch at home, watch her Soap Opera, and then she’d normally come to the zoo… Read More
And did she just step back after that or was she actively involved in going to find the animals or was she just writing checks?… Read More
Not at all. Gladys was not that kind of a person. Gladys was a very hands-on person involved. For instance, she started the Junior Service League in Brownsville, she and her sister, Camille, and they were extremely active in it in the early days until they could see that it… Read More
And it just so happened that there were about 30 acres across the street that they subsequently ended up obtaining when they decided to build the zoo. Gladys hired Warren Thomas, as a consultant when they started to get the idea that they wanted to build a zoo. And so… Read More
And so that’s how the endangered species concept got involved. It was Warren convincing the Earl C Sams Foundation that that was the route to go in order to do something meaningful for the zoo. So Gladys Porter makes the decision to build a zoo and she brings Warren Thomas… Read More
They were both in the farming and ranching business. And so they moved to Brownsville when they established the Foundation, the Earl C Sams Foundation, Gladys was the first president and they established their offices in Brownsville. And so they did many community service projects. They built a wing on… Read More
Then she started to see where they were being poached, decimated, saw them snared, the utilization of the animals and she really wasn’t comfortable with it. She wanted to be more involved. And so they had done many projects at the time in Brownsville with money that their Foundation, the… Read More
And then by 1917, they had a series of 15 or more stores. And Mr. Sams was the first manager of the satellite store when Mr. Penny established it. So he was number one employee, number one manager. He went on that, I think it was around 1917 that Mr. Read More
Micromanagement just didn’t care, wrote the checks. How did it all start? And tell us a little about that. Okay. In the mid ’60s, Gladys Porter traveled quite a bit. Her husband, Dean Porter, was an ardent hunter. And he started to go to Africa for hunting trips. And Gladys… Read More
How did the zoo come into being, did she have a vision?… Read More
Did you know her? How was she involved?… Read More
Can you give us a little capsule thoughts about who was Gladys Porter?… Read More
Correct?… Read More