Dodd, Jimmie A., 1917-1984.

James Andrew Dodd was born in Houston, Texas on July 20, 1917 to Ellen Belle Horan and Earle Bartholomew Dodd.

After graduating from high school, he worked as a mascot for the Missouri Pacific Railroad, and began taking photographs as a hobby in 1935. He later became a professional photographer when he received a $250 loan from King Ranch president Robert Kleberg, Jr. to purchase a used Auto Graphlex camera. Mr. Kleberg allowed Jimmie to work off the loan by taking photographs at the King Ranch. As a friend and employee of the Klebergs, Dodd was able to meet and photograph famous visitors to the ranch, such as Nelson Rockefeller, Zachary Scott, Joan Crawford, and Jack Dempsey, among others. From the 1930's through the 1950's, he photographed the Kleberg family, King Ranch employees, and the daily activities of ranching life.In addition to his work for the Klebergs and the King Ranch, Dodd ran a photographic studio in Kingsville, Texas, and documented the social, cultural, political, civic, and economic life of South Texas. Besides providing a steady income, his photographs appeared in local newspapers such as the Kingsville Alert, The Alice Daily Echo, and the Corpus Christi Caller-Times. He captured images from the Texas City Disaster, the opening of Houston's Shamrock Hotel, PGA tour events in Texas, the Missouri Pacific Railroad of South Texas, and the Kingsville Naval Air Station. Dodd also worked as a photographer for the Kingsville Police Department, documenting crime scenes, automobile accidents, and the seamier side of life in a small Texas town. In the 1960's, Dodd limited the focus of his business to studio photography. He died of heart failure on January 27, 1984, in Kerrville. He sold the Dodd Studio negatives to the Briscoe Center for American History at the University of Texas at Austin in 1983.

From the description of Dodd, Jimmie A., photograph collection, 1937-1966. (University of Texas Libraries). WorldCat record id: 651971867