By Nelson Page (learned in conversation with Jesse Page on June 30, 1996):

Richard's father was a well-driller who was killed in an accident when his overalls got caught in the drilling equipment. This happened about the time Richard was born, and his mother died when he was 8 months old. Richard was raised by his grandfather, Franklin Lafayette Dunn.

There was no nearby high school for Richard to attend. Grandpa Dunn bought a Ford roadster for Richard to drive school. When Richard got home from school, he would read until Grandpa Dunn came in from the fields, cared for the animals, and fixed supper. Then he would join Grandpa for supper.

Richard took a job at a mill in Albemarle but was unable to do the work. Grandpa Dunn asked for the job. The man in charge questioned whether someone his age could manage it, but Grandpa asked for and was given two weeks to show what he could do. The job required unloading bales of cotton and feeding them into a piece of machinery. Grandpa Dunn held the job until a rule was passed excluding from employment people over a certain age who did not live in mill housing.