John Lester "J. L." Cruse, Jr.
September 7, 1916 - April 3, 1994
by Ray Houston

John Lester "J. L." Cruse, Jr. was born September 7, 1916, in Woodville, Texas, the son of John Lester Cruse and Myrtie B. Johnson. He lived his entire life at his home near Woodville, in Tyler County.

Many Region 6 members paid annual visits to J. L.’s country garden located about halfway between Livingston and Woodville, Texas.

The photo of J. L. to the left was taken in 1986. That is the way you were greeted as you entered his garden. He welcomed hundreds of guests to his garden wearing a straw hat, blue T-shirt, rope belt, and a most pleasant smile. We will always remember J. L. making conversation while leaning on the handle of his shovel.

On one of our yearly visits to the garden, J. L. told us to make ourselves at home in the garden. He was too weak to escort us, because he had taken a tranquilizer earlier that day to calm his nerves. J. L. was deathly afraid of snakes and had just seen one in the garden. My wife, Mary, wanted to borrow one of his tranquilizers when she heard the word "snake!"

J. L. registered his first daylilies in 1969 - Hemerocallis 'Lady Susan', H. 'Pink Moonlight', and 'Sea of Tranquillity'.  He registered many small, eyed, and banded daylilies. A good portion of J. L.’s daylilies were registered with the prefix "Gypsy" or "Little Gypsy." He had told us that he had Gypsy in his bloodline. H. 'Gypsy Maiden' (1971) was the beginning of a long line of sharply contrasting eyed cultivars.

J. L. died Easter Sunday morning, April 3, 1994.

J. L. Cruse, Jr.
By Maggie Sheffield and Rodger N. Croker
(Reprinted from Region 6 Daylily Newsletter, Spring 1990)

Raising cattle, broilers, and turkeys, operating a nursery, and hybridizing daylilies are all of a part of the versatility of J. L. Cruse, Jr. Tyler County has been the home of the Cruse family and the Johnsons, his mother's family, for many years. The Johnsons came to Tyler County in 1840 in a wagon caravan that originated in Molton, Alabama. By the time they reached Texas and the grueling trip was over, 21 members of the party had drowned and 72 had died of typhoid fever. Margaret Johnson and her brother Gus were living in the S. B. McAlister home at the time of the 1850 census, and it is supposed that the other family members perished during the arduous trip. Gus Johnson's son, Wallace, was the father of J. L.'s mother, Myrtie (Johnson) Cruse.

The roots of the Cruse side of this family are firmly implanted in Tyler County. Squire Aathan Cruse and his wife Piety Pruitt Cruse settled in the area in the early Spring of 1834. They moved to Texas from Rutherford County, Tennessee. Squire had convinced Piety to move to Texas many years earlier, but shortly before they were to leave, a nightmare frightened Piety and made her determined not to move because she believed the dream to be a warning. According to the family, Piety dreamed that she and her family were on a flatboat when a tree struck them and they were overturned. The children perished. Years passed and their family had grown to three girls and three boys. The vividness of the bad dream had faded with time so Piety finally gave in to Squire's entreaties to move to Texas. While crossing the Mississippi, their raft was struck by a log and the family was toppled into the water. John, the oldest son, saved his mother while his father searched fruitlessly for the other five children. In the following days the bodies were found and buried nearby. Sadly, the small family remnant trekked on to Texas where, after a brief time in Jasper County, they moved to Tyler County. Other children, William, Clementine, Ellender, Paulina, Anderson Pruitt, Squire James Franklin, and Thomas Jefferson, were born after they arrived in Texas. Squire James Franklin was the grandfather of J. L. Cruse.

Recently, J. L. built a new compact home beside the site of his former home of over 61 years near Woodville, Texas.

Nearly 30 years ago, J. L. visited the garden of Lucille Williamson near Roganville. Acquisitions from her and a few mail orders got him started in growing and hybridizing daylilies.

At 73 he has slowed down, more due to arthritis and two strokes he has suffered than to age. Though growing less, he is still pursuing his hybridizing interests.

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Revised: 01/21/2024
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