G. Robert Vincent Voice Library
Lansing Auto Town Gallery

Sue Ellen Houghtalling Brown discusses her's father's career at the REO Motor Car Company and Diamond REO Trucks, Inc., and her life in a REO family

Sue Ellen Houghtalling Brown talks about her life in a REO Motor Car Company/Diamond-Reo Trucks, Inc. family and her father's career with the company. Brown describes a worker family Christmas party at the elaborate, company owned, REO Clubhouse in Lansing, MI and discusses her father's job as a sales and distribution manager for REO, and his jobs after the REO bankruptcy in 1975. She also gives a detailed, first-hand account of the massive January 1980 fire at the plant and of taking photos of the blaze before police or firefighters had even arrived. She says that she later hid her uncensored photos and negatives because she was afraid they would be confiscated by the authorities. The interviewers are Shirley Bradley and Lisa Fine. Recorded as part of the "REO Memories" oral history project.

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