RAGS-TO-RICHES STORY ENDS

Press, Volume CVII, Issue 31381, 29 May 1967, Page 13

RAGS-TO-RICHES STORY ENDS

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter—Copyright) MUENSTER (Texas), May 28. The rap of an auctioneer’s gavel has ended the rags-to-riches story of Ernest and Margaret Medders.

An 18-hour auction of the expensive possessions of the high-living, big • spending couple netted an estimated $500,000 that will help pay some of their debts which total nearly S 3 million. Mr Medders, aged 55, and illiterate, came to Texas with his wife six years ago from Memphis, Tennessee, where he was an unemployed mechanic's helper, and Mrs Medders was a nurse. They have 10 children. With the aid of loans, including about $1,940,000 from a religious group, the couple founded a huge farm and built a "party barn" where

they held lavish feasts and spent money wildly. The debts mounted and finally the creditors had the couple declared bankrupt Abou: 5000 persons attended the auction which finished in the party barn on Friday. Included in the sale were two blocks of land on the 1400acre ranch. One 330-acre block, with 18 oil wells, went for $3OO an acre. Another, of 439 acres, brought $175 an acre. A prize-winning herd of 104 Red Angus cattle realised $55,4f 5, and a Dallas house brought $31,750.