Pat Hampton grew up in Austin and went to the University of Texas but never graduated. She moved to Houston, to follow a love she had for a man she met at the university. After several months, the love affair abruptly ended when she found out he was married. She got a job at Hughes Oil Tool Company as a secretary to the Vice President.

From there, she met Royce and was captured by his free spirit and attitude that he could succeed in anything. He was top heavy in hard work and had a convincing smile to make you believe what he said or did. Royce was ten years older than her and she married him in the hopes to have a family and live his exciting life.

Pat's mother and father had always hoped she would marry a Texas boy, but Royce was not what they had envisioned. They accepted Pat's choice and supported her in a long marriage which was like a roller coaster ride in money and luck. The loss of their child brought her senses to reality and she continues to this day in supporting Royce in his dreams, yet she also now has a dream of her own.

Royce MacLeod born in Baytown, Texas in 1925, his middle name was Wildcat. He was given that name by his father, because he was born the night his dad's first oil well came in. His dad went on to become a famous wildcat-er in the hey-day of Texas oil lease shenanigans in the 1920's.

Royce grew up the first 15 years of his life following and living with his dad in every major oil field in Texas and Louisiana. Then in 1940, his dad was killed in an oil rig accident, and his mother was left with nothing. Royce started from that very day in learning "the business angle" and to be rich someday and give his mother all the things she should have had, but did not because of his father's squandering.

In 1943, Royce joined the U.S. Marines, and was sent to school to learn artillery, but the war was over in 1945 so he was never sent overseas. He mustered out of the Corp in 1946, and headed to Venezuela to work in the oil fields, he met a man there named Keller, he and Royce would become business partners in a dozen oil and gas ventures over the next two decades.

Royce was married in 1954 to Linda which lasted about three years, then May was his wife for five years, they had a son. Royce met Pat Hampton in 1960; she was working for Hughes Oil Tool Supply Company in Houston when Royce was buying drill bits for a big deal in Mexico. Pat flew down for the weekend in Tampico, and somehow she flew back to Houston married to Royce. Pat was dedicated to Royce and his dreams of bringing in the big one someday; she too had the drilling bug and worked hard to see that Royce had what he needed to keep the operation(s) over the years going.

Pat was pregnant in 1966, but lost the baby when the truck taking her to Abilene, Texas broke down and complications developed with having the baby. From that point, Pat was slow to recover and returned home to her parent's ranch outside Austin, Texas where she lived for the next two years while Royce was working offshore on the oil rigs in California. Royce showed up in August of 1969 with a lease he had purchased in California for and oil well in Arizona. Royce convinced Pat to pack-up and help him manage the operation. It was a long shot, but wells to the north had come in and Royce knew there was a dome under this one. When Jim Bronson showed up for those two weeks during that hot summer, Pat was reminded of being young and foot-loose.

Unfortunately the money ran out and Mac Keller showed up to buy the lease option, but when the well did blow-in three months later, Royce still retained a big enough percentage that Pat and he became millionaires.

Royce was broke two years later and Pat decided to return home again. Royce is currently in Australia chasing his dream of drilling the earth for the quest which brings men's hearts to a rapid pace. Pat earned her real estate license and works in Austin, as a partner with a real estate developer. She was smart enough to rat-hole her share of the well and invest in several housing projects and shopping centers. Royce and her are still married, and speak on the phone occasionally.

Mac Keller was a small time oil lease hustler from Louisiana; rich one minute then broke the next. He has made deals with Royce in the past, and they never pan out, but "today is the day".

Six years after this story, he was shot and killed in a dispute over a woman in a Texas Honky-Tonk. The woman's boyfriend was the shooter, and oil rig roust-about, on a well Keller had just taken over, the owner of that well was then broke and had lost everything.

Keller's body was sent home to Louisiana, where a cousin claimed his body.