Part #6--Claude H. Thorp(e) factoids
February 13, 2005
I'm picking up my father story that I started a couple of months ago with various factoids that I picked up about him from my mother or on my own:
- His name was Claude Herbert Thorp(e) and I believe he was born in Millerton, New York.
- He had several brothers and sisters. Only names I remember my mother talking about are Durward, Cyrus and Grant.
- He was in the Merchant Marine during WWII and then joined the Navy to escape something.
- He took off the "e" in Thorpe because of some legal problems in the Navy.
- His first wife's name was Elsie and she lived in New York City.
- My mom and my dad met while he was in the Navy and stationed on the East Coast someplace.
- He had a tattoo on one of his arms.
- He had, at least, two other sons, Claude Jr., Eugene and a daughter, Karen.
- He had a pretty successful business in St. Paul, Minnesota, a construction company.
- From there, he moved to Punta Gorda, Florida and from there to Gainesville, Florida.
- He was an operator.