I was born July 8,1943 in Gilmer, Texas at the Raglan Fenlaw Hospital. I was the first of my parents kids to be born in a hospital. The others were born at home with a midwife present. My parents are Joseph Wilburn Tefteller and Tessie Lillian Lindsey Tefteller. Our family consisted of seven boys and four girls and mom and dad. My oldest sibling died at six weeks old so I never knew her. I grew up in a small community about eight miles outside the town of Gilmer, Texas. My dad was what I would call a self-made man. He had to quit school early in his life to help at home. He was a dairy farmer and a gardener and grew just about everything at one time or another. Beside the dairy, he also raised chickens and turkeys on a large scale for selling. He also worked in a grocery store, at a service station, and sold insurance at different times. My mom was a stay at home wife and mother who worked from before sunrise to after sundown daily. Besides all the inside work she also worked in the garden and helped with the animals. My parents were the traditional couple with him making the living and her taking care of the home and family. They were very hard working industrious people.