Ollie Wilburn Hargis Giles was born in San Marcos on Aug. 5, 1933, the only child to parents L.C. Hargis and Enola Hollins (daughter of George Mose and Etta Lee Hollins). Though born during the Great Depression, Giles would say that she had a happy childhood surrounded by a family and community who loved her and whom she also loved.
“We always had plenty,” Giles recounted in a 2010 interview with Jim Cullen of the Hays County Historical Commission. She described the neighborhood — now the Dunbar community — as one that was supportive and thriving and supportive. “There was always something going on for children. We played together, rolled tires together,” she said. “We were always good neighbors. Here in San Marcos, we all got along.”
For a time, Giles lived with her grandparents, who were well-known and active members of their community. George “Old Mose'' Hollins drove delivery trucks for the Southern Grocery Store in San Marcos. His wife, Etta Lee, ran a restaurant and a home laundry service with three women as her employees. When her mother remarried in 1941, she and her new husband relocated to California, moving 8-year-old Giles into a very different world.
