MERCURE, CLARENCE PRESTON, JR. AND HELEN LUCILLE (PULLEN)

by Clarence P. Mercure

Entry F291 from the History of Hooker County Nebraska
with permission of the Hooker County Historical Society

Clarence P.Jr. and Helen L. Mercure January 1980 at Scottsbluff, Nebr.

Clarence Preston Mercure, Jr. was born
1921 at Mullen, Nebraska, the son
of Clarence Preston Mercure, Sr. and Sarah
Josephine (Josiassen) Mercure. He attended
school at Mullen and graduated from Hooker
County High School in 1937, at the age of 16.
He worked for his brother (half-brother)
Darwin in the Ford garage at Mullen for a
year after graduation. He then attended
Grand Island Business College from 1938 to
1940. He worked in a Civil Service job in
Washington, D.C. from December, 1940 to
September, 1941. He then took a job as area
clerk for six or seven counties with the Soil
Conservation Service at McCook, Nebraska.

He was turned down for military service
after World War II started. He continued his
job at McCook until July, 1943. He had
developed very severe, long-lasting head-
aches on this job, thought they were caused
by eye-strain, and decided to try something
else. However the Job Service, which con-
trolled all jobs during the war, tried to put
him in several other office jobs, and wouldn't
consider him for anything else.

Since he had been saving for college for
three years, anyway, and since the Job
Service didn't help any, he decided to try
college. He enrolled at the University of
Nebraska, College of Engineering, in the fall
of 1943. He attended the University for
almost two years, staying in the upper 10` of
his class. However the headaches got so bad
in the spring of 1945 that he was only getting
to classes about three days a week and was
forced to quit college.

One doctor suggested outdoor work. In
April, 1945 he took an engineering and
surveying job with the Soil Conservation
Service at Stanton, Nebraska. Then in
January, 1948 he transferred out west to
Oshkosh, Nebraska, near Lake McConaughy.
On July 7, 1961 Clarence married Helen
Lucille (Pullen) Acker. Helen, born
1927, was the oldest of the four daughters
of John M. and Iola (Speer) Pullen of
Oshkosh, Nebraska. Helen's grandparents
were Nebraskans too, her father's parents
being early settlers in the Bayard area; and
her grandmother Richardson, on her moth-
er's side of the family, lived at Hay Springs,
Nebraska. Helen had four children by her
first marriage: Karen, Barbara, Robert and
James. A daughter, Brenda Jo Mercure, was
born to Clarence and Helen on 1962.

Clarence's job consisted mostly of topogra-
phic surveying, surveying and figuring irriga-
tion land leveling jobs, and surveying in
concrete-lined ditches and irrigation pipe-
lines. About 1962, on his own time with a
borrowed transit, he ran a Polaris "North
Star" survey and calculated and laid out the
bearings to four TV broadcasting stations for
the first TV receiving antennas built for
Oshkosh. In 1968 a local doctor finally
diagnosed his headaches - they were allergy
headaches. The Mayo Clinic and various
other doctors hadn't ever found the cause. In
1970 the doctors grounded him from outdoor
work, and he took disability retirement from
the Soil Conservation Service.

In 1972 he started a bookkeeping and tax
business at Oshkosh, and he is still busier
than he wants to be. His wife, Helen, helps
him in the business year-round, and they hire
a couple women part-time during the busy
part of the year.

All five of the children are married.
Clarence and Helen have 11 grandchildren
now, and they try to find as much time as they
can to visit with the children and grandchild-
ren. In what spare time they have, Helen
follows her hobbies of embroidery; and
Clarence (known as "Red" in the Oshkosh
area) follows his hobby of photography and
still dabbles some in collecting petrified wood
and agate and lapidary work. He also finds
time to manage his investments in stocks and
bonds.