Lowery, Elvin “Buddy”

Interview 274a: In this interview with Jonathan Gerland and Richard Donovan, Elvin “Buddy” Lowery reminisces about his life. Mr. Lowery was born the youngest of 11 children in Smyrna, Nacogdoches County. His family moved to Huntington, Angelina County when he was a child, and he graduated from Huntington High School, where he played basketball and baseball. After high school Mr. Lowery played basketball and attended Panola Junior College and Stephen F. Austin State University. He then went on to play basketball for the ABA New York Tuck Tapers and the NBA Detroit Pistons. While in New York, Mr. Lowery spent his off time as a model, even trying out to be the Marlboro Man and appeared as a contestant on The Price is Right. After one season in the NBA, he returned to Huntington where he joined his brother Lester in the sawmill business. Eventually he and his brothers and nephews would own three sawmills and three chipmills and would be founders of Huntington State Bank. Mr. Lowery discusses his childhood on a farm, hunting hogs, picking cotton, rounding up cattle in the woods, hand-making railroad ties, delivering loads of ties to the docks in Beaumont, raising exotic wildlife, and running a bank with his family.