Individual Details

Military

When the US became involved in WW II Edgar rejoined the Navy and was sent to Norfolk Naval Operating Base. Mom stayed in Oklahoma City from 1941 - 1943 and lived with Edgar's sister, Francis, while her husband was stationed in the Pacific with the Army. Mom watched the children and Francis worked. Mom made several trips to Virginia and moved to Williamsburg in 1943. Edgar was then transferred to the Boston Naval Yard. Their oldest daughter, Patricia Marie, was born while they lived in Williamsburg.

Edgar was made Chief Gunnersmate in December 1942 after only 4 years and 10 months in the Navy. He was 27 and the youngest Chief Gunner in the Navy at that time. During WW II he served at Norfolk Naval Operations in Officer's Training, Boston Naval Yard, supervised the construction of Camp Perry Rifle Range, and in 1944 was sent to Pearl Harbor as part of Admiral Nimitz's staff. In 1945 he went to Manila with Nimitz. In 1946 he was assigned to the newly commissioned USS Witek, a destroyer, as an assistant to the Gunnery Officer. The Witek was stationed at the Navy underwater lab in New London, Connecticut.

In 1949 he was assigned to the Naval ROTC at the University of Texas at Austin as a Gunnery Instructor. Pat and Edgar joined Hyde Park Baptist Church that year. They bought a house at 1217 Alegria for $8, 800, which Edgar still owns. Penelope Francine, their third child, was born in Seton Hospital, June 18 (Father's Day), 1950.

When his tour at UT was up, Edgar turned down an assignment of consulate duty in Buenos Aires, Argentina, because he could only take two children. David would have had to go to a boarding school.

In 1953 Edgar was reassigned to the USS Wood and then the USS Healy. The family lived in Norfolk, Virginia. Edgar spent many days away from his family in the Mediterranean during those uncertain days of the Suez Crisis. There were many weeks when Mother did not know where he was.

In 1957 he was reassigned to the NROTC at Yale University where he taught Gunnery. The family moved to Hamden, Conn. They lived in a two-story house out in the country with a fireplace and basement. There was a clay tennis court and garden. The rent on that house was $200 a month, a lot of money in 1957.

In 1959, Edgar retired from the Navy and four of us returned to Texas