Rt. 66: Larry Posey, February 9, 2018
The “Trucking on Route 66” oral history project is a collaborative initiative of the Missouri State University Libraries and Ozarks Alive (OzarksAlive.com). This project is made possible in part by a grant from the Route 66 Corridor Preservation Program of the National Parks Service.
Interview with Larry Posey, former Vice President of Sales and Marketing at Campbell 66 Express trucking company and founder of Nixa Trucking, by MSU Dean of Library Services Tom Peters. Interview took place in Mr. Posey’s office at Nixa Trucking near Springfield, Missouri, on February 9, 2018.
Topics discussed include brief biographical sketch including living in Oklahoma and California, working for Campbell 66 as a billing clerk beginning in 1963 in Joplin Missouri, getting transferred to Kansas City and then to Omaha Nebraska to open a new terminal in 1976, becoming a regional manager in Springfield Missouri in 1978, promotion to vice president of marketing in 1983, documenting the history of Campbell 66, trucking authority, certificate of public convenience and necessity, deregulation of the trucking industry in 1980, trucking before regulation in 1935, Campbell 66’s niches, loading crew, company innovations including Camel Pouch trailers and computerized shipping tracking, shipping for General Motors, trucking lines that paralleled the railroad lines, less than carload and less than truckload freight, Campbell 66 buying Highway Express in the mid-1950s to expand their southern territory, buying TransAmerican Lines to expand their upper midwest territory, Campbell 66 starting as Campbell Fuel & Transfer doing local delivery, company founder Frank Campbell, traveling Route 66, relay driving, accommodations for drivers, emphasis on safety, team driving, freight interlining, fuel prices, female driver, ways for drivers to occupy their minds while driving including CB radio, possible future of driverless trucks, truck stops, leaving Campbell 66 for American Freightways in Harrison Arkansas, starting Nixa Trucking in the early 1990s, retiring in 2013 and continuing to work part-time, number of employees and promotion from within at Campbell 66, retaining good drivers, Nixa Trucking’s specialties, benefits of highway upgrades, weigh stations, overhead door innovation, motorized forklifts, freight on board, liability for freight, drivers’ sense of responsibility in accident situations, and times drivers prefer to drive.
Ron Chernow: 2018 National Book Festival
Ron Chernow discusses Grant at the 2018 Library of Congress National Book Festival in Washington, D.C.
Speaker Biography: Ron Chernow is the prize-winning author of six previous books and the recipient of the 2015 National Humanities Medal. His first book, The House of Morgan, won the National Book Award. Washington: A Life won the Pulitzer Prize for Biography, and Alexander Hamilton—the inspiration for the megahit Broadway musical—won the American History Book Prize. A past president of PEN America, Chernow has been the recipient of eight honorary doctorates. His recent book is Grant (Penguin), a biography of the 18th president. He resides in Brooklyn, New York.
For transcript and more information, visit
African American Experience Lecture Series - Lea Vandervelde
The fourth African-American Experience Lecture, The Legacy of Slavery and Freedom in St. Louis before the Civil War, presented by Lea Vandervelde on September 15, 2016.
Lea Vandervelde discusses her most recent book, Redemption Songs: Suing for Freedom before Dred Scott, a groundbreaking study of more than 300 freedom suits in St. Louis. Through the careful evaluation of 12 cases, the book offers insights into the practice of slavery and the lives of those enslaved in Missouri. VanderVelde, who previously taught at Yale Law School, the University of Pennsylvania, and the University of Vienna, is the principal investigator for the Law of Antebellum Frontier project at the Stanford Spatial History Lab.
The African American Lecture series explores the history of black Americans in Missouri from the earliest period of statehood to the present.
This lecture series offers the Mizzou and Columbia community opportunities to gain a new understanding of present-day Missouri by learning about the history of African Americans within the state. This series is a collaboration between the Division of Inclusion, Diversity, and Equity, and the State Historical Society of Missouri's Center for Missouri Studies.