Maybe the schoolyard bully boasted, “My Dad can whip your Dad.” To which our children responded, “But not our Mother. She was born in the jail.”
They boasted true. Maxine was born in the jailhouse. Their Uncle Glenn was also later born in the jail.
Maxine and Glenn’s mother, Ila Smith, lived on a Texas Hill Country ranch. And when time came to give birth, she came to Llano. No hospital, but her father Dan McDonald was the Sheriff of Llano County. Pop and Mom McDonald lived on the first floor of the four-story jailhouse.
Sheriff Dan was a peace officer who didn’t wear a gun. Story goes that the merchant called the Sheriff for help with a rowdy, well inebriated customer.
Dan came and suggested, “Why don’t you come back with me and sleep it off down at the jailhouse. And Mom will cook you a good breakfast in the morning.”
When the Rowdy answered, “Dan, you can’t make me go to jail. I’m bigger. Meaner. And you ain’t even packing a gun.”
“Oh, but I’ve got several guns back at the jailhouse. And if I have to go to the trouble to get one, I might have to use it. Why don’t you come on back with me now.”
Rowdy chose to sleep that night at the jailhouse. And that true story tells you why a schoolyard bully never messed with those kids whose mother was born in the jail.
Photo from Friends of the Llano Red Top Jail
