This is just the beginning! Our collection holds over 300 years of history, including rare newspapers, obituaries, marriage records, birth records, and so much more—most of which you won’t find anywhere else!
Odessa recollections of a town and its families
A longtime Odessa resident recalls The city owned building once First State Bank and the Rio Theater across the alley. She describes merchants on Fourth Grant and Jackson, her grandmother Dana Rabb, the family ranch, Dona Rabb Addition cemetery, early fire chief Bert Rabb, and a 1940s 50s Odessa childhood with shops, theaters, hotels, and growing up under Murray Fly. She notes house construction in the 1940s and family ties to North Sam Houston and Hart constructions.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
First State Bank
Rio Theater
Fourth
Grant
Sharp’s Drug
J.B. Simpson
J.B
Jackson
Dana Rabb
Grandmother Rabb
Judkins
Odessa
Dona Rabb
Bert Rabb
Lee
Piggly Wiggly Grocery Store
Mr. Pipkin
Hart
Woolworth
Wackers
Holcombs
Rio
Texas
Lyric
New Rio
Scott
Plaza
Ector
Elliott
Club Café
Texas Café
Elliott Coffee Shop
Drillers Club
Barneys
North Grant
South Grant
West Second
North Elementary
Murray Fly
East Elementary
South Elementary
Odessa High
Crockett Junior High
Odessa College
Santa Rita
Casa Grande
Ridgecrest