Rio Grande Valley Oral Histories

Identifier

HCHC_Gause, Virginia Haynie_2026-06-06

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Creation Date

6-6-2026

Description

This oral history transcript (dated December 18, 2024) features Virginia Haynie Gause, a longtime librarian and contributor to arts and culture in the Rio Grande Valley. Interviewed by Logan Dovalina for the Rio Grande Valley Legacy Anthology, Vol. 1, Gause (b. November 28, 1949, Prattville, Alabama) recounts her early life in a small Southern town, where she was raised primarily by her mother Nellie Ruth Hand and grandparents Alti Myra Wade and Harper Felton Wade. She describes a childhood rich in reading, public library visits, creative classroom experiences (including rhythm bands, scarf dancing, and the Three Arts Club), overcoming a speech impediment, and memorable teachers who fostered her love of learning during the era of school desegregation.

The interview traces her educational journey through elementary and high school in Alabama, her work as a teenager at the local public library under the mentorship of George and Frankie Johnson, and her undergraduate studies at the University of Montevallo (initially in home economics before switching to library science). She also discusses her graduate work at George Peabody College for Teachers (Vanderbilt University), where she met her future husband, George Rupert Gause Jr., while working in university libraries. Throughout, Gause reflects on 1960s Southern life, cultural influences (music, fashion, the Kennedy assassination, and LBJ’s Great Society), sewing her own clothes, family stories, and the personal foundations that led her and George to the Rio Grande Valley in 1973 to begin their careers at Pan American University (now The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley).

This first part of a planned two-part oral history offers valuable insights into mid-20th-century Southern upbringing, mentorship, libraries as community anchors, women’s educational pathways in the 1960s–70s, and the early experiences that shaped Gause’s decades of contributions to academic librarianship and cultural preservation in South Texas.

Format

.MP4, 96 kbps

Length

02:03:26

Language

English

Notes

Part of the Hidalgo County Historical Commission, RGV Legacy Anthology Collection.

Interview with Virginia Haynie Gause

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