As the month of April — also Lineman Appreciation Month — winds down, the story of Lewis Ansley highlights the danger tied to the job. Ansley, who worked for Tri-County Electric Cooperative, died in 1949 while serving the community.
Ansley was born in Azle in 1915. He graduated from Azle High School in 1933 and went straight to work as a lineman. According to an article written by Bob Buckel for the Tri-County Electric Cooperative Co-op News, Ansley began working for Tri-County Electric Cooperative in 1939 as a groundman — an entry-level position that was responsible for all the labor and support tasks on the ground. He moved up in the ranks from second-class lineman to first-class lineman, and he became a line foreman in 1944.
He married Gertie in 1941, and the couple had three children they raised in Azle: their two sons, Roe and Monte, and their daughter, Rex. Ansley played a major role in keeping power flowing to the dairy farms’ co-op lines, which kept him from getting drafted into World War II.
