Mrs. Murret. I never heard from him; no, sir.
Mr. Jenner. The only time he saw you was on that one Saturday?
Mrs. Murret. Yes.
Mr. Jenner. And when he was here on that Saturday, he told you he was going to be stationed at Keesler Field.
Mrs. Murret. That's right.
Mr. Jenner. Did he say anything about what his experiences had been in the Marines?
Mrs. Murret. He didn't say anything. It was a rush affair. He came up and rang the bell, and he was in uniform, and he said, "What do you think, the people on the bus thought I was a cadet, and here I am a big Marine." We took him out to lunch, and we left him off at the Custom House, like I said, and that was the end of that. But, maybe you might like to know this: before Lee went into the Marines, while he was in New Orleans and they were going to live on Exchange Alley, I think he tried to join the service then, a branch of the service. I don't know which branch or anything, but anyway, he must have gone to the induction station and they told him that he could sign up if his mother would sign. Now, he met her in town, I think, and he was all excited and he wanted to join the Marines or whatever it was he was going to join. I can't remember if it was the Marines, and he said, "If you will sign for me, I can go." And she said, "No; I am not going to sign for you," so he was very indignant about the whole thing, and he told her that she was stopping him from going in, so then that went around for a while, and then he came back and told her that if she would sign an affidavit, go to the lawyer's office and sign an affidavit, that he would be able to get in, so she went around to the lawyer's office with him, and I think it was in Mr. Sere's office—he has expired since then—and Mr. Sere told her, "Well, since you can't do anything with him, and if that's what he wants to do, well, go ahead and let him go." So the affidavit was signed for him to go in the service, so then the next step was that when he got over to the place—I don't know whether it was the auditorium or not that they sent him over with his suitcase—but the person who was in charge there wouldn't let him sign up, wouldn't let him go, and that was that.
Mr. Jenner. You mean they wouldn't take the affidavit? They wouldn't admit him on the affidavit?
Mrs. Murret. That's right, and so that upset him for a while, but he said very little about it. And then he met someone in this branch of the service who had taken a liking to him, and he used to go over there and converse with him about different things in the service and so forth. I don't know who he was or what they talked about or anything like that, though.
Mr. Jenner. Was Lee an industrious boy as a high school boy? He didn't seem to have worked much after school.