Mrs. Oswald. I don't know.
Mr. Rankin. Do you know whether or not you or your husband received any financial assistance for the trip to Texas at that time?
Mrs. Oswald. I don't know exactly where Lee got the money, but he said that his brother Robert had given him the money. But the money for the trip from the Soviet Union to New York was given to us by the American Embassy in Moscow.
Mr. Rankin. Do you recall what time of the day you left on the flight to Texas?
Mrs. Oswald. I think that by about 5 p.m. we were already in Texas.
Mr. Rankin. Did you go to Dallas or Fort Worth at that time?
Mrs. Oswald. In Dallas we were met by the brother, Robert, he lived in Fort Worth, and he took us from Dallas to Fort Worth and we stopped at the house.
Mr. Rankin. Who else stayed at Robert's house at that time besides your family?
Mrs. Oswald. His family and no one else.
Mr. Rankin. What did his family consist of at that time?
Mrs. Oswald. He and his wife and two children, a boy and a girl.
Mr. Rankin. How long did you stay at Robert's?
Mrs. Oswald. About 1 to 1½ months—perhaps longer, but no longer than 2 months.
Mr. Rankin. Were your relations and your husband's with Robert pleasant at that time?
Mrs. Oswald. Yes, they were very good. His brother's relationship to us was very good.
Mr. Rankin. Would you briefly describe what you did during that time when you were at Robert's?
Mrs. Oswald. The first time we got there we were, of course, resting for about a week, and I was busy, of course, with my little girl who was then very little. And in my free time, of course, I helped in the household.
Mr. Rankin. Did your husband do anything around the house or did he seek work right away?
Mrs. Oswald. For about a week he was merely talking and took a trip to the library. That is it.
Mr. Rankin. Then did he seek work in Fort Worth?
Mrs. Oswald. Yes.
Mr. Rankin. And when did he find his first job there?
Mrs. Oswald. While we were with Robert. It seems it was at the end of the second month that Lee found work. But at this time I don't remember the date exactly but his mother who lived in Fort Worth at that time rented a room and she proposed that we spend some time with her, that we live with her for some time.
Mr. Rankin. Did you discuss with your husband this proposal of your mother-in-law to have you live with her?
Mrs. Oswald. Well, she made the proposal to my husband, not to me. Of course, I found out about it.
Mr. Rankin. Did you and he have any discussion about it after you found out about it?
Mrs. Oswald. Yes, of course.
Mr. Rankin. You recall that discussion?
Mrs. Oswald. No. I only remember the fact.
Mr. Rankin. Did he find work after you left Robert's then?
Mrs. Oswald. Yes.
Mr. Rankin. You did move to be with your mother-in-law, lived with her for a time?
Mrs. Oswald. Yes, about 3 weeks. And then after 3 weeks Lee did not want to live with her any more and he rented an apartment.
Mr. Rankin. Do you know the reason why he did not want to live there any more?
Mrs. Oswald. It seemed peculiar to me and didn't want to believe it but he did not love his mother, she was not quite a normal woman. Now, I know this for sure.
Mr. Rankin. Did he tell you that at the time?
Mrs. Oswald. He talked about it but since he spoke in English to his mother, I didn't understand it. There were quite a few scenes when he would return from work he didn't want to talk to her. Perhaps she thought I was the reason for the fact that Lee did not want to talk to her. And, of course, for a mother this is painful and I told him that he should be more attentive to his mother but he did not change. I think that one of the reasons for this was that she talked a great deal about how much she had done to enable Lee to return from Russia, and Lee felt that he had done most of—the greatest effort in that respect and didn't want to discuss it.
Mr. Rankin. Where did he find work at that time?
Mrs. Oswald. Of course, if I had been told now I would have remembered it because I have learned some English but at that time I didn't know, but Lee told me that it wasn't far from Mercedes Street where we lived, and it was really common labor connected with some kind of metal work, something for buildings.
Mr. Rankin. Did he ever say whether he enjoyed that work?
Mrs. Oswald. He didn't like it.
Mr. Rankin. Do you recall how long he stayed at that job?
Mrs. Oswald. I don't know but it seemed to me that he worked there for about 3 or 4 months. Perhaps longer. Dates are one of my problems.
Mr. Rankin. Do you know whether he left that job voluntarily or was discharged?
Mrs. Oswald. He told me that he had been discharged but I don't know why.
Mr. Rankin. When you left the mother-in-law's house where did you go?
Mrs. Oswald. I have already said that we moved to Mercedes Street.
Mr. Rankin. Did you have an apartment there?
Mrs. Oswald. Yes, we rented an apartment in a duplex.
Mr. Rankin. Do you recall the address on Mercedes Street?
Mrs. Oswald. No, I don't remember the exact number.
Mr. Rankin. Will you describe the apartment, how many rooms it had?
Mrs. Oswald. Living room, kitchen, bath, and one bedroom.
Mr. Rankin. This was the first time since you had come to this country then that you had an opportunity to have a home of your own, is that right?
Mrs. Oswald. No, we had our own home in Russia.
Mr. Rankin. Did your husband work a full day at that time on this job?
Mrs. Oswald. Yes, sometimes he even worked on Saturdays.
Mr. Rankin. What did you do when he came home, did he help you with housework?
Mrs. Oswald. Yes. He frequently went to a library. He read a great deal.
Mr. Rankin. Do you recall any of the books that he read at that time?
Mrs. Oswald. No. I only know that they were books more of a historical nature rather than fiction or literature.
Mr. Rankin. In your story in Russian you relate the fact that he read a great deal of the time. Could you describe to the Commission just how that was? Did he go off by himself to read or how did he handle that?
Mrs. Oswald. He would bring a book from a library, sit in the living room and read. I was busy with housework, and that is the way it happened.
Mr. Rankin. Did you have differences between you about the time that he spent reading rather than devoting it to you or the other members of the family?
Mrs. Oswald. No. We did have quarrels about his relationship to his mother, the fact that he didn't want to change his relationship to his mother. I know that he read so much that when we lived in New Orleans he used to read sometimes all night long and in order not to disturb me he would be sitting in the bathroom for several hours reading.
Mr. Rankin. Did your quarrels start at that time when you were at Mercedes Street the first time.
Mrs. Oswald. Yes, we didn't