Jock Ewing

The Culver Secret

When Jock first heard it, he refused to go in on the deal. He told Sam he couldn't do it, couldn't put Jonas in a sanatorium, what with his former wife's condition... Sam said for him to think about it—it wouldn't be but for a month or so—and afterward they'd set Jonas up to live like a king for the rest of his life. When Jock got back to Southfork that night, Aaron handed him the estimates of how much it was going to cost to replenish the cattle. Looking at the man's lowered head, seeing Ellie's pained expression at her father's pride lying so vulnerably on the table, Jock just smiled and slapped Aaron on the back, assuring him that it was no problem. The next day, against his better judgment, Jock went to Sam and agreed to the partnership. Years later, in 1982, Sam's second wife, Donna Culver, discovered Sam's journals that told what happened:

“March 1st—Today I got a court order to have Jonas committed to Signal Mountain Sanatorium and had myself appointed custodian of his estate.”

“March 27th—Today, as custodian of Jonas's estate, I sold to Ewing/Culver all but 40 acres of Jonas's land. The money is in an account in his name and he'll get a 25% royalty from all producing wells. Next week I'll release him from the sanatorium. Neither Jock nor I wanted to do things this way, but the old codger left us no option. Anyway, now he'll be a rich man despite himself.”

“April 12th—Lord, oh, Lord, what have we done? Jonas killed himself today.”

Jock was to carry this secret heavy on his heart for the rest of his life.

Section 40

On the domestic front, things were progressing nicely until Jock started drilling on Section 40 and hit oil. Aaron was unspeakably angry and, for a moment, Jock saw that same mad gleam in his eyes that Digger Barnes had had so many years before. Jock explained that the land was obviously barren, useless, worthless—hell, they were building practically a highway along it from Braddock—and after all the money he had spent... Southworth raged, reducing Miss Ellie to tears and then to anger, directed at Jock. Unable to stand Ellie's distress for long, Jock reluctantly gave in and ordered the wells capped.

The Birth of J.R.

As if rewarding Jock, Miss Ellie gave him the most precious gift imaginable: a healthy, robust son named John Ross Ewing, Jr. Jock was on cloud nine over this child, as was Aaron. The two of them, walking together around the ranch one evening, discussed whether this boy, nicknamed J.R., would be an oilman or a rancher. Jock was certain the kid was oil but good-naturedly went along with Aaron's fantasy that he was going to be a rancher. Something then bonded the two men; it was more than respect, more than friendship. It was more a silent pact of trust of one generation with the next. Jock was to preserve both options for his son; he understood that. That evening Aaron gave Jock one of his most prized possessions, an 1892 six-shot Colt, double-action service revolver. It was his way of welcoming Jock to the Southworth family.

Garrison and War

Two years later Miss Ellie presented Jock with a second son, Garrison, and Jock smiled even more broadly, envisioning the expanding executive offices of Ewing Oil.

After the bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941, Jock enlisted in the Army Air Corps and, as a colonel, was stationed overseas. After two agonizingly long years in London, Jock had an affair with a young nurse from Texas, Margaret Hunter, that was abruptly ended when Jock was shipped off to France.

Postwar Years

When Jock returned to the States in 1945, he couldn't live with his conscience and he told Miss Ellie about the affair, frightened that she would leave him, or, rather, throw him off of Southfork. He was forgiven by her and was amazed, not for the last time, by this extraordinary woman's depth of compassion and ability to understand. What neither of them knew at the time was that Margaret Hunter had returned to Texas carrying Jock's child.

The late 1940s brought another gift to the family, son Bobby, and the Ewing family line was ensured—Aaron passed away, but he had lived to see all of his grandsons.

By necessity, Jock had to struggle with managing the ranch and its finances, which drove him to distraction, since he absolutely abhorred bookwork and didn't know beans about ranching. It wasn't until 1950 that he found a foreman, Hutch McKinney, whom he felt he could trust with the running of Southfork. Now he could concentrate on Ewing Oil's expansion with a plethora of new wells in Kilgore, Midland, and Odessa and also, once again in his life, have some free time for himself.

Not since he was a child had Jock been able to pursue the interests that he adored: hunting and fishing. He had made two good friends in the oil industry who had tastes similar to his own, Marvin "Punk" Anderson and Lucas Wade. And when the boys were old enough, he took them along to Landowne Reserve, near Caddo Lake on the Louisiana side, where he taught them all about tracking and wilderness survival.

The McKinney Affair

In 1952, on Election Day, as the rest of the Ewing family sat around the new Southfork television set watching the returns as Eisenhower beat Stevenson, Jock slammed the ranch books shut, took off his glasses, muttered something to Miss Ellie, and stormed his way into town. He found foreman Hutch McKinney drinking in the Wild Bronc Saloon and he fired him on the spot for padding the feed and supply bills. A fight ensued. After Jock beat the living daylights out of McKinney, he told him that no one could steal from Southfork Ranch and get away with it and if he so much as tried to steal one more thing, he'd kill him.

Later that night, Jock found McKinney back at the bunkhouse and threw him out of it. That was that; Jock Ewing was back running the ranch as well as Ewing Oil. It wouldn't be until the late 1960s, when Ray Krebbs was old enough, that Jock would have a foreman whom he trusted.

His Sons

As the years went by, the differences between Jock's sons became apparent. The eldest, J.R., pleased Jock since he clearly had the makings of an oil baron—in fact, since he was five years old. And the youngest, Bobby—whom Jock unabashedly spoiled—was taken with both ranching and Ewing Oil. But it was the middle son, Gary, who proved to be such a disappointment to Jock. Although Gary had an affinity for ranching, Jock thought he had too much ranch air in his head. His whole attitude frustrated Jock. It was as if the boy were in another world—he loved to paint, for land's sake—so Jock left Gary's upbringing largely to Miss Ellie.

In later years, as Jock grew enamored with ranching and left more and more of the responsibility for running Ewing Oil to J.R. and Bobby, he drew very close to Ray Krebbs, who seemed to be just the kind of son Gary should have been. It was a shock—but somehow not nearly the kind of shock one would have thought—when, in 1980, Jock learned that Ray was his son, by Margaret Hunter Krebbs.

Retirement and Warning Signs

By 1978 Jock had largely retired from Ewing Oil, although he remained Chairman of the Board. For the next three years he would periodically step in when the going got tough for J.R. and Bobby, between whom the leadership fluctuated, but for the most part he concentrated on ranching.

In the fall of 1978 Jock suffered a massive coronary that landed him in the intensive care unit at Dallas Memorial Hospital and necessitated a heart bypass operation in order to save his life. It was a warning signal to him and his family of his advancing years. Before, no one, not even Jock himself, had even contemplated the notion that one day he might not be able to do everything he had always done. He had to slow down, and the family took this too much to heart. They patronized him, coddled him—particularly Miss Ellie—and if ever there was a man whose pride wouldn't allow such a thing, it was Jock.

Julie Grey

It was only natural, then, that when the lovely former Ewing Oil employee, Julie Grey, returned to Dallas and was seeking companionship that Jock would be attracted to her, and she to him. To his family, he was an invalid. To Julie, he was the tall, powerful, handsome man he always was. But the two were careful to keep the relationship within the bounds of friendship, though passion was lurking dangerously close. But whether or not it would have progressed to anything more, neither had a chance to find out, as Julie was murdered by two of J.R.'s business associates.

Legacy and Death

In a nightmarish chain of events, Assistant District Attorney Cliff Barnes—Digger’s son—built a case against Jock, accusing him of murder. The evidence at the trial was overwhelmingly against Jock. McKinney had been shot with Jock’s gun (the one Ellie’s father had given him), he had been killed the night that witnesses heard Jock threaten him, and evidence was presented that testified to Jock’s sometimes volatile temper. But, in the end, Jock was cleared. On his deathbed, Jock’s old friend and enemy, Digger Barnes, confessed to killing McKinney himself.

After that ordeal, Jock wanted to get back the rhythm of his life: riding, roping, jogging, talking with his family at the big breakfasts and dinners, spending time with the little grandson whom J.R. had presented him with, playing games of backgammon with Ellie at night—but it was not to be. The reason this time, like so many times before, was Gary. Ellie had blamed Jock for driving Gary away from the ranch, away from her, in the past. This time, in the fall of 1980, it was worse (though it was actually J.R., not Jock, who did any forcing). She was infuriated by Jock’s deep affection for and camaraderie with his newfound son Ray and by the fact that, once again, J.R. and Bobby were at odds. Ellie felt that Jock had abdicated his role as father and was simply ignoring the other boys, their boys, in favor of Ray.

Matters between the couple took another turn for the worse when Jock entered into a partnership with Punk Anderson and Lucas Wade for the Takapa development project, a plan to convert swampland on the East Texas–Louisiana border into a resort. Miss Ellie, not knowing that Jock was one of its developers, was fighting the project with the Daughters of the Alamo on behalf of the state’s environmental groups. When she found out that Jock was involved, she exploded. Their misunderstanding was so bad that Jock moved off Southfork, and Ellie began divorce proceedings in 1981. Only the personal and political savvy of Bobby resolved the Takapa issue amicably, and Jock and Ellie were reunited in an even stronger way than before. They celebrated with a lengthy second honeymoon in Europe.

Upon their return, Jock was summoned by the State Department to Washington, D.C., where he was asked to lead a drilling venture in South America. Jock accepted the assignment, working down there for several weeks in some of the thickest, most deadly jungle territory in the world. If the terrain didn’t worry him, the political unrest did. However, he successfully completed his assignment, and a jubilant Ewing family expected him to return to Dallas in time for the 1981 Ewing Barbecue.

Then came the shocking news: the helicopter that was to have taken Jock to the South American airport had been caught in a storm and was reported lost. J.R., Bobby, and Ray flew down immediately to search for Jock, and on the bottom of a jungle lake in the middle of nowhere they found Jock’s medallion—proof that he had gone down in the crash. The boys returned home with the confirmation. Their daddy, Ellie’s husband, was dead.

Jock Ewing’s death affected not only his family, but also hundreds of Ewing Oil employees, and the oil market itself. It was unthinkable that Jock was no longer there to control those Ewing boys, J.R. and Bobby. For control he did. He once said to Bobby, “I’m not trying to influence you, I’m tellin’ you what I want you to do.” Jock Ewing was a man who knew what was right, knew how to handle people, and tried to pass his wisdom on to his sons. The extent to which he succeeded is debatable.

Jock left many things behind him as remembrances. His Lincoln Continental with the license plate "EWING 1” is still parked at Southfork; and his corner table at the Cattleman’s Club, his seat at the Jaycees, and his personal box at the Dallas Cowboys can only be filled by one of his sons. He also left a legend with a group of men at the Colverton oil field. They still remember their millionaire boss, with his bare hands, fighting the devastating fire there in 1960. And perhaps, in a way Jock would not have liked, he will also be remembered by the terms of the will he left, the cause of feud after feud within the family over the control and activities of Ewing Oil.

But the end of Jock Ewing’s story was best summed up by Miss Ellie at the 1982 Oil Baron’s Ball. The Texas Independents had set up the Jock Ewing Memorial Scholarships—which each year are awarded to four young oilmen in the making—at Southern Methodist University.

“Jock Ewing was a great man, measured in the only true value of a man—not in money or power, but in friends. As I look around, I see so many of you that called Jock friend. And he was my husband, but more than that he was my best friend. I know how much you all miss him, but in a way he'll always be alive in your memories, and in his family. And now, through the scholarships at SMU, I know how proud he’d be if he knew what you had done for him, and perhaps he does. For him, and for me, I thank you.

My life will never be the same without him, but Jock, of all men, believed that, whatever happened, you have to be ready to face tomorrow. And so we will. But I’ll always know that my sons had the finest father and I was married to the finest man that God ever put on this earth.”