Edgar Dean Clemmons, Sr. papers

Edgar Dean Clemmons was born in Tippecanoe City, OH (now known as Tipp City, OH) on November 27, 1916 in a house at the corner of Main street and First Street (the house was torn down long ago). Ed was the oldest child of Elmo R. Clemmons and Josie L. Helmer Clemmons, and would be followed by a sister, Virginia. Virginia was called “Ginny,” and she passed away at the age of 14 from a ruptured appendix. From that point on, Ed was an only child. Josie had trouble recovering from Ginny’s early death, but Ed and his mother were very close.

Josie divorced Elmo (not popular during that time period), but took him back into her home when he was dying from cirrhosis. She nursed Elmo through his final days (Elmo passed on in 1959 and Josie passed away in 1973).

Ed was baptized into the Methodist Episcopal Church on April 12, 1925 and his sister, Virginia, was baptized on the same day. However, Ed would spend virtually all of his life not attending church. He once said that the first time he went to church in decades was to see his son get married.

It wasn’t that Ed didn’t believe in God, but more that he didn’t necessarily accept organized religion. When question about his beliefs, he would simply answer with “You know what I believe.”

Ed graduated from Tippecanoe High School and spent the first part of his work career at Frigidaire Corporation, in Dayton, OH.  While many men were drafted into WWII, Ed joined the Navy to do his part for freedom. He was inducted on March 14, 1944 and was honorably discharged on January 18, 1946. Ed served as a Machinist Mate 2^nd Class, and stated that he was part of the occupying force. When questioned by his children, he said that after the fighting took place, his unit occupied the captured location and eliminated any remaining enemy. He rarely talked about the war, saying only it was a bad time. At one point, Ed said that the worst part was the smell – that after the planes had strafed the land, his unit would locate dead enemy soldiers by the smell of the decomposing bodies. The only other story he used to tell was about washing laundry and hanging it out on the clothesline in Guam. Ed said that when they went back to get the clothes, they were often covered in multicolored fungus that grew in the moist climate. While some ex-servicemen continued to wear their military colors and emblems, Ed never talked about being in the Navy unless asked a direct question.

When he returned from the war, he worked on the factory floor at National Cash Register (NCR) in Dayton, OH. When Ed was 58 years old, NCR moved their headquarters from Dayton, and he accepted a buy-out retirement package. Ed was not one to sit at home, and had a variety of part-time jobs, including working in mall security and delivering newspapers.

Ed was first married to Ruth, who was his spouse during WWII while he was deployed overseas. None of the remaining family is aware of Ruth’s maiden name. Ed and Ruth divorced shortly after his return from the war.

Ed began to date Marie Eunice Blakeney. Marie had been married to Glen Roy during the war, but the marriage didn’t survive.  At the same time Ed was recovering from his divorce, Marie was also single and the two of them began dating in September 1953. They eloped and were married on January 23, 1954.

Edgar Dean Clemmons, Sr. passed at the age of 89 on January 5, 2006 in Troy, Ohio, nearly three years after losing his wife Marie to lung cancer on April 18, 2003. His final years were spent in assisted living and a nursing home, where he battled Parkinson’s disease and other systemic illnesses. The cause of death was listed as pneumonia, congestive heart failure and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. He was survived by his son (Dean), his daughter (Cindy), three grandchildren and one great-granddaughter.  They were married for 49 years.

Note written by Cindy C. Parman (Daugther of  Edgar Dean Clemmons, Sr.)