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Boom: A Journal of California
  • Californians
Leon Patterson: An Athlete Dying Young
Vigorous vulnerability in the Central Valley
Gerald W. Haslam
Boom: A Journal of California, Vol. 3 No. 2, Summer 2013; (pp. 9-16) DOI: 10.1525/boom.2013.3.2.9
Gerald W. Haslam
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Abstract

A handsome blond, Leon Patterson looked like a picture of the California dream; more than a few of us yearned to be him. He was, however, the product of the California reality: poverty, toil, and grit. His family had struggled west from Arkansas searching for opportunities in the shadow of the Great Depression. The Pattersons were part of the larger, second wave of “Okies, Arkies, and Texies” who migrated during the 1940s. The Great Central Valley, at 15,000,000 acres about the size of Egypt, held the promise of at least seasonal work, even for unskilled laborers—especially at its larger southern end, called the San Joaquin Valley by locals. By World War II, the Valley had become one of the state’s economic engines, sustained by agribusiness, oil, and abundant cheap labor.

Keywords:
  • track and field
  • Bright's Disease
  • social class
  • Arkansas
  • migration
  • © 2013 by the Regents of the University of California
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Vol. 3 No. 2, Summer 2013

Boom: A Journal of California: 3 (2)
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Leon Patterson: An Athlete Dying Young
Vigorous vulnerability in the Central Valley
Gerald W. Haslam
Boom: A Journal of California, Vol. 3 No. 2, Summer 2013; (pp. 9-16) DOI: 10.1525/boom.2013.3.2.9
Gerald W. Haslam
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Leon Patterson: An Athlete Dying Young
Vigorous vulnerability in the Central Valley
Gerald W. Haslam
Boom: A Journal of California, Vol. 3 No. 2, Summer 2013; (pp. 9-16) DOI: 10.1525/boom.2013.3.2.9
Gerald W. Haslam
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Search for this author on this site
  • View author's works on this site
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