From 00:00:00 to 00:00:08 Hi, this is Erin, Jeff and Debbie's middle daughter. How did your parents choose your name? From 00:00:08 to 00:00:15 Well, that's simple. I have no idea. From 00:00:15 to 00:00:25 As far as I know, there's no Jeffries in either side, as Kelly will know because she's done the lineage, but I have no idea. From 00:00:25 to 00:00:50 My middle name was White, which was my mom's maiden name. Now my little brother, his name is Timms, and on the mom's side, the White side, going back to England, not on the Fred Stanley White side, but on the Nino Lauterbach White side, there's a guy named Jimmy Timms in England. From 00:00:50 to 00:00:56 We got pictures of Jimmy in the archives. So that's all I know. From 00:00:56 to 00:01:02 Those were different back then. I think they just looked at what was popular. From 00:01:02 to 00:01:15 Believe it or not, Debbie was a popular name in 1953. However, they originally going to name me Sandra, but then they went, "Oh, Sandy Hill." That would be kind of weird. From 00:01:15 to 00:01:28 So they changed it to Deborah, the D-E-B-O-R-A-H spelling, and then shortened with Debbie, which we all know is with the Y, which is very different. From 00:01:28 to 00:01:36 And then they gave me a family name of Lee, and that was my mother's middle name, and that was her grandfather's middle name. From 00:01:36 to 00:01:42 And so I think that's what, and it's spelled L-E-E. So that's the only thing we really know. From 00:01:42 to 00:01:48 It was not as an elaborate process as perhaps today is. Yeah. From 00:01:48 to 00:01:53 I don't think they had books of names. They didn't have Google top 50 names. From 00:01:53 to 00:01:55 No. They didn't have that. From 00:01:55 to 00:02:07 So it was kind of either lineage or we just liked the sound of it. Yeah. From 00:02:07 to 00:02:17 Please tell us the stories of your births. Well, I guess my birth has a lot of big points to it. From 00:02:17 to 00:02:30 I was born a little early in December of 1953, December 1st. I was born at St. Luke's Hospital in Denver, and immediately they knew something was wrong. From 00:02:30 to 00:02:49 Turns out it was the R-H negative factor. And so the pediatrician caught this, and he said to my dad, "We need to do a complete blood exchange for this." And so he typed my dad, and my dad's blood was going to work. From 00:02:49 to 00:02:58 So they gave me a complete blood exchange. They could tell that it was not going to be successful. From 00:02:58 to 00:03:08 And so the pediatrician then said to my dad, "Well, we could just let her go, which could be meaning I could either die. From 00:03:08 to 00:03:24 I could become some sort of disability." He said, "Or let's get you and get you over to Children's Hospital," which was up until recent years, right next door to St. Luke's in downtown Denver. From 00:03:24 to 00:03:36 And we'll get another match. So my dad got an orange crate from the kitchen, put me in a little, literally a wood orange crate box, got me in a taxi cab. From 00:03:36 to 00:03:39 Put you in some blankets. Well, yes, I had some blankets too. From 00:03:39 to 00:03:54 You weren't laying on it. But it wasn't like we had a NICU where you could have all the wires and things to help me keep breathing, and quickly got across the street to Children's Hospital and got another donor and did a blood exchange. From 00:03:54 to 00:04:00 And I believe I was in the hospital for about two weeks. Again, they didn't call it a neonatal intensive care unit back then. From 00:04:00 to 00:04:06 It was just something and then came home. And you can see little birth records. From 00:04:06 to 00:04:17 I have those little tags or sheets from the doctor that I was eating meat at three and four weeks old because they needed to kind of build up my system. From 00:04:17 to 00:04:22 So that's the story of my birth. And I'm again, I think there's that touching point with my dad. From 00:04:22 to 00:04:31 My mom really wasn't in on the decision because births were very different back then. And he had to solely make that decision. From 00:04:31 to 00:04:33 It was very touching. Yeah. From 00:04:33 to 00:04:40 And just can I have a little science here? Yes, you can absolutely say that the reasonings. From 00:04:40 to 00:04:47 I know you like to. Well, I do because your blood type was based off your father. From 00:04:47 to 00:04:52 He was O positive. Your mother was some AB negative or something. From 00:04:52 to 00:04:54 She was O. O negative. From 00:04:54 to 00:05:08 And so when you were born, when the placenta separates, there's an exchange and you picked up a bunch of your mother's blood and was immediately breaking down your red blood cells. From 00:05:08 to 00:05:20 And so they did use my recollection from your dad is they tried. I don't think they even transfused you at St. Luke's. From 00:05:20 to 00:05:29 You went over to children's and they did it there and they did use your dad because you were his type and you cross matched. From 00:05:29 to 00:05:34 They could do cross matching then because of all the stuff. I remember him telling me that there were two exchanges. From 00:05:34 to 00:05:44 But yeah, they may have just transfused your dad twice because you were. You were an itty little six pound baby and your dad was a two hundred and ten pound dude. From 00:05:44 to 00:05:51 So he could give up a bunch of pints. But it's still a really interesting story. From 00:05:51 to 00:05:58 And the orange crate's interesting, but it wasn't like you were just a naked mole rat and an orange crate. From 00:05:58 to 00:06:01 Although Bridget would like that naked mole rat. I know. From 00:06:01 to 00:06:03 Okay. And you? From 00:06:03 to 00:06:19 Me? Well, Amon will we're living in Evanston, Wyoming and dad was out exploring for petroleum all through Southwest Wyoming a little bit into Utah. From 00:06:19 to 00:06:33 And he was out in the field a lot. But I believe he got home in time for the birth and was a little bitty little bitty hospital in Evanston. From 00:06:33 to 00:06:39 And I was born and it was May. The choke cherries were going crazy. From 00:06:39 to 00:06:47 And so he brought my mom a big bouquet of choke cherries. And you know, our moms both smoked at those days. From 00:06:47 to 00:06:54 Everybody smoked. So neither one of us was a big whopper like they have, you know, everybody has now. From 00:06:54 to 00:07:08 But the legend of Evanston Hospital was the nurses all thought I had nice ears. So that's all I remember. From 00:07:08 to 00:07:15 Not nearly as colorful. What's your first memory? From 00:07:15 to 00:07:30 Whoa, golly, you're you're tasking our brains here first memory. I don't know if it's my first memory, but it actually was at my grandmother Gladys Hills house in her front yard. From 00:07:30 to 00:07:37 And we all had gone over there the whole family, my brothers Dave, Brad, my mom and dad were climbing in her tree. From 00:07:37 to 00:07:45 And all of a sudden my dad comes out and he uncovers something from a blanket and it was a little puppy dog. From 00:07:45 to 00:07:53 And it was a little beagle puppy dog. And oh my gosh, we were so excited. From 00:07:53 to 00:08:04 And I was probably three, four, maybe three, I think three. And here's this just little bundle tri-colored puppy dog. From 00:08:04 to 00:08:12 And we were overjoyed with him. I mean, Aaron, it's kind of like how you wanted to just maul and hug those little babies. From 00:08:12 to 00:08:21 We were doing that with that little puppy dog. So I'd say that's really one of my very earliest memories. From 00:08:21 to 00:08:33 So my early memory is probably, I was like two and a half, maybe pushing towards three. And we lived in Evanston and dad was gone a lot. From 00:08:33 to 00:08:44 But I had a coon skin cap, listened to Davy Crockett on my little record player, probably got that from the carousels. From 00:08:44 to 00:09:01 And I had a side by side, quirk gun, double barreled shotgun. And I would go out in the sagebrush behind our house and I would cock it, stick it in the dirt, get dirt plugs in the barrels, and then I would go hunting for whatever I was hunting for. From 00:09:01 to 00:09:09 And then I would shoot him. But I distinctly remember too, I had all these little singles, little 45s on this red record player. From 00:09:09 to 00:09:17 And I had Davy Crockett's song, and Yellow Rosa Texas, and all these little songs that I could sing. From 00:09:17 to 00:09:27 And I have early memories of my dad teaching me dinosaur names when I was very little talker. From 00:09:27 to 00:09:39 So that's kind of the earliest tell kindergarten or so. Did you have a nickname growing up? From 00:09:39 to 00:09:49 What was the origin of your nickname and who calls you by this name? My nickname really didn't happen until high school. From 00:09:49 to 00:10:00 And so I went to George Washington, which was the Patriots. And I kind of got this nickname, the Jolly Green Giant. From 00:10:00 to 00:10:11 I was tall and we had Patriots were green. So it really wasn't used that often. From 00:10:11 to 00:10:21 But I guess if I had one, that would have been the nickname. Although your dad in college used to call me Big Red. From 00:10:21 to 00:10:28 That was his nickname that he gave me. Probably really our freshman, a little longer than that. From 00:10:28 to 00:10:32 But no, I didn't have any other nickname like that. Nothing when I was little. From 00:10:32 to 00:10:40 We didn't have names like Ebes and low burrito and Cal Bell or any of that stuff. Yeah, I didn't have any nick names either. From 00:10:40 to 00:10:47 Really, the only person that ever didn't call me Jeff or Jeffrey was Uncle Jim Caras. He called me Jeffer. From 00:10:47 to 00:10:51 I have no idea why. But no, no nick names. From 00:10:51 to 00:10:55 My brother didn't have any nick names. He was Timmy or Tins. From 00:10:55 to 00:10:58 But yeah, no nick names. Yeah. From 00:10:58 to 00:11:05 And the only person that called me Deborah was my dad. And when he called me Deborah, I listened. From 00:11:05 to 00:11:12 I thought, uh-oh. But otherwise, I was always Debbie to my family. I've never been a Deb. From 00:11:12 to 00:11:16 Deb, I don't know who's Deb. So it's just always been Debbie. From 00:11:16 to 00:11:45 [ Silence ]