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LEROY
ALEXIS MAKINSON My father was born July 14,1904
at a farm near Nevada, The Farm at Nevada Mo.
An 800 acre stock farm.
Leroy joined the Navy on August
11,1923 at the age of 19 and was assigned to the Hospital Corps and after
finishing four months schooling was transferred to the Naval Hospital at Mare
Island Ca. Lee stayed in the Navy until July 21, 1926 at which time he received
a medical discharge due to Rheumatic fever contracted
In 1928 my father married my
mother; she was a protestant and he a catholic. His mother was catholic.
My father and mother moved in with his mother, Anna, in Omaha. Within
three months of their marriage in September 1928, Anna died of a stroke. Leroy Alexis Makinson - picture
taken in 1939 at age 35.
LEROY D. MAKINSON My earliest recollections are
when my parents lived at a house in the 600 block of South 1st St in Council
Bluffs, Iowa. The year would have been about 1932. I remember my brother and I
on the porch with my mother waving goodbye to father as he went down the street
on the way to his work. He was a shoe salesman at Kelley's Shoe Store on
Broadway Street in Council Bluffs. The author of the web site in the
year 1948
Later we lived on North
32nd Street across from the 32nd Street School, where I later spent one semester
in the 7th grade. My sister, Elaine, was born in this house in 1933. The doctor
came to make the delivery while my brother and I played outside on the sidewalk
in front of the house. Dad later came out and invited us to see the new arrival
at our house. That same year (1933), I remember Christmas for the
first time. My brother and I received toy guns and not much else since this was
1933-34 in the midst of the great depression. When spring came, Mother gave us
our daily spoonful of cod liver fish oil. I can still see the spoonful of
yellow smelly oil as Mother shoved it in my face and said, "open
wide". I think the taste was so unique that I grew to like it and looked
forward to hearing her say, "open wide". I managed to reach maturity and
finish high school. I went to work on the railroad as a machinist helper and a
year later in 1948 I enlisted in the new U.S. Air Force which had been separated
from the Army the prior year. They had the new "jet" airplanes and
I wanted to see these new aircraft. I was later trained to be
a jet airplane mechanic. I served four years, and at the end of the
period the government had approved a new GI bill for schooling of veterans of
the Korean War. By this means, I was able to go to school and earn an engineering degree
from Iowa State College. I spent my working years as an
engineer in the aluminum industry July 25, 2000 |
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while in service. He was a
basketball player on several naval teams and won the West Coast championship
one-year. After discharge from the Navy, Dad went back to Omaha where his mother
was living at 621 N. 41st St. When he first got out of the Navy, he went to work
a as a Male Nurse in the Mental Hospital in Council Bluffs. He learned to
sell shoes from one of his brothers, probably Warren. Harold was already married
and living in Nebraska near Grand Island. Dad worked at shoe stores in Omaha and
in Council Bluffs. He managed a shoe store in Council Bluffs called Kelley's
Shoes.
My
parents had four children. I was the first followed by my brother Frank and then
Elaine and Joyce. Father took a job with J.C. Penney as manager of a shoe
department in Rockford, Illinois in 1935 and the family moved to Rockford
where we stayed until my father died on a cold January 1,1942. The fall of the
year 1941 the local school system ran out of money and shut down all
schools for three months. It was just after the depression and times were still
difficult. During December of 1941 Dad became sick about the time of the Pearl
Harbor bombing attack. Dad lingered for three weeks, going to work some days and
staying home other days. He had some dental work done and we believe he
contracted a staff infection The doctor came to the house on new
years eve and stayed with him for a while and then left. I doubt that we
had the money for a hospital stay in those days, and insurance for
hospitalization was unheard of in 1941. Dad died the next morning about 10
o'clock. My mother moved back to her home in Council Bluffs, Iowa a few
weeks later and raised her four children there. The author of this web site was
the oldest child and was twelve years old at that time.