Elmer L Mcdaniel

Elmer McDaniel (dad of three boys) and Irma McDaniel (mother of four girls) were both born in Winnsboro, Louisiana, she in 1930 and he in 1932. Their parents were Lula Price McDaniel and Calvin McDaniel.

They were extremely poor sharecroppers who worked on poor farmland. They had a difficult time surviving from one crop season to the next. They planted cotton, sugar cane, and corn and worked hard in the fields from dawn to dusk. They endured many hardships from the hot weather and the cold in the winter. The wind often whistled in the frame house through the clapboard walls. Often during the year, they experienced rainstorms, tornados, and blistering heat.

Lula had a vegetable garden and did a lot of canning of green beans, peas, tomatoes, okra, and other vegetables during the season, but these jars of food didn't last too long. Elmer and Irma experienced sadness when their pet calf was slaughtered for food and so were their little pigs.

Often when their dad went off to look for work, their mother had to fend for them as best she could - getting help from the church folks, getting fruit that often was not that fresh. The pastor’s wife would make them sandwiches for school (bread and mayonnaise). Irma and Elmer loved to walk to the country church down the road, and they sang Christian songs often for their grandmother who asked them to sing for her.

Elmer and Irma attended a small country school until Elmer was 12 years old. Lula's sister had moved to California and encouraged Lula to come as there was work for Calvin. Elmer had a wild dog for a pet. He trained him, and the dog would only respond to Elmer. He had to give the dog up to a friend who later wrote to Elmer that the dog had been run over by a car which caused Elmer much grief. When his parents decided to move, the owner of Calvin's farm, an important state representative, offered him the farm. He enjoyed a friendship with Calvin and hoped he would stay on, but Calvin and Lula held firm, and with only a trunk packed with a few belongings, the family headed to California by train on the Sunset Limited!

They moved in with their relatives and Calvin found work in the Barbara Ann Bakery in Boyle Heights, a suburb near Los Angeles, populated by poor whites and Latinos. Elmer and Irma attended their first city school and rode the public bus to get there, a brand-new experience for them. They were ridiculed for their southern accents and were often picked on as they worked hard to assimilate into the California school culture.

During World War II, they moved to the war project housing development in Channel Heights, San Pedro, and lived there. Calvin got work as a pipe fitter in the shipyard, and Lula became a waitress in a cafeteria. Elmer and Irma attended Dana and San Pedro High School. Elmer got a paper route delivering the San Pedro New Pilot by foot in Channel Heights. He walked up the elevated steps of the apartments and placed the paper in the door slot for letters and paper etc. for three years. Eventually, he acquired enough paper-starts, to win a bicycle for himself. Standing beside his new bicycle, the News Pilot photographed him and placed his picture in the paper.

Both he and Irma worked hard to lose their accents - and did so fairly well. Irma made friends and was accepted by the girls at Dana. Her dad opened a charge account for her in San Pedro, so she could dress like the other girls. Elmer continued his route on into high school. But when the boys teased him so much about having a paper route, he quit much to the disappointment of his father who felt Elmer needed the route to help purchase his own clothing and other personal needs. Elmer also mowed lawns and during the Christmas holidays he and a friend worked in a Christmas Tree lot selling trees.

The family had no car and Calvin often rode the bus into San Pedro to purchase groceries for the family. Elmer was always interested in cars - and in high school he purchased a used Ford Model A car, and began learning how to work on it, due to a few shop classes where he learned basic mechanical skills. His dad was not in favor of him having a car. But Elmer drove his car without a license and drove his dad to shop for groceries as neither parent could drive.

As time passed, the family struggled with poor income to survive. Irma and her mother worked for a time in the fish cannery on Terminal Island. Calvin joined the union and worked to help build houses in the Dapplegray area in PV by carrying hod.

Elmer was a good student and got good grades. He often helped Irma with her homework. When he was accidentally placed in an advanced course in English, he did well in the 11th grade, but he didn't complete an essay and his teacher told him if he didn’t, she would fail him. She failed him.

With that hurt, and the desire to leave home, Elmer and a pal decided to join the marines. Elmer scored high on the entrance exam - in the 90's -- his friend backed out. Elmer was sent to boot camp and due to his high scores, he was trained to become a telephone communicator. During boot camp the Korean War broke out, and he was sent to South Korea.

At the Chosen Reservoir the winter was severe - often freezing at 30 degrees below zero, and the men were not equipped with adequate clothing. At one point his jeep was ambushed, and he fell down a ravine and twisted his knee. He was given temporary treatment at a field hospital and sent back into duty to continue the advance with his unit to the Yalu River near the Manchurian Border. General McArthur disobeyed President Truman's order to stop and he pushed on.

At the Border the unit of 15,000 men met the Chinese of 120,000 men. At this epic battle there were 12,000 casualties, as the division backed up to the Korean coastline. There were 45,000 Chinese casualties. This battle honors the men who are called "The Chosen Few." Elmer was part of this group, as he continued doing telephone communications in the war. Today, he receives the magazine titled, "The Chosen Few," for those few remaining survivors of the Chosen Reservoir Battle.

Sometime later, his knee swelled badly, and he was sent to San Diego Naval hospital for three months. He declined knee surgery (because of the chance of “stiff leg”), and was left with a 30 percent disability, he retains today, with a bit of a limp. When he returned home, he found his sister Irma married to Jimmy Dooros, and Trish, her first child had been born.

While in Korea, he met a San Pedro friend from high school, he is still in contact with, Jim Johnston, now living in Torrance. While in the service, they went to Japan on leave and enjoyed fun together there. They reconnected after many years, when Jim read about Bonnie's death, in the San Pedro paper.

Elmer served well in the Marines and rose to the rank of Sergeant. He became an expert rifleman and was placed on a traveling rifle and pistol team, competing with other army, and navy teams, The Long Beach Police team, and The Los Angeles Police Department team. Elmer's team won many honors.

During the last two years of his service of four years, he was sent to Bridgeport, CA from Camp Pendleton to help train troops for cold weather warfare, and there he learned to love the Reno, Nevada area. He served well at Bridgeport, and his Commanding Officer wanted him to re-up and join him in Japan as Elmer had expressed a liking for Japan - people were courteous, clean, and neat etc. but Elmer declined. He wanted civilian life, a wife, a home, and a family.

In San Pedro, after much persistence, Elmer was hired by the Pacific Bell Telephone company in Los Angeles, due to his experience in the marines, and he began working as a installer in homes, climbing telephone poles, and hooking up lines. He lived at home for a time, sleeping on the couch in a small apartment his family rented on l5th street in San Pedro. He went back to San Pedro High night school, enrolled in classes, and received a GED diploma as a high school graduate.

After a few years, he met Bonnie through a friend. They dated and agreed to marry when she turned twenty. She did not want to marry in her teens. They went to Las Vegas and were married.
She earned more money at her job at Douglas Aircraft than Elmer did, but with his diligence and competence, his sincerity to make a good life for Bonnie and himself, he rose through the ranks at the telephone company and eventually became a district level manager with over 30 people on his staff.

He and Bonnie purchased their first home in Torrance on 224th Street in Carson. Mike was 1½ and while Bonnie was giving birth to Ron; Elmer moved into their home on his own, setting up the household as well as possible. Elmer was a good handy man, self-taught, and he made good use of his skills in working on his homes that followed later.

From Torrance, the family moved to Palos Verdes. He was then sent to San Francisco for a three-year assignment in general administration. He returned to Los Angeles and worked as a traffic senior engineer and traveled by plane to Washington DC, Tulsa, Colorado, and Ohio for various meetings. In Palos Verdes he and Bonnie purchased a home on Rocking Horse Road.

They lived in Palos Verdes for nearly ten years. Mike, Ron, and Dave grew up there and completed most of their elementary schooling. Elmer worked hard and enjoyed these years. One of his projects was building a “dune-buggy” which his older son Mike helped with on weekends. The family purchased off-road motorcycles and took several trips camping and riding motorcycles.

Elmer could see his career coming to a close and took a transfer to Reno Nevada. Elmer was dissatisfied with the “fast lane” of Southern California. He was certain moving the family to a more rural setting would be a certain benefit. Fishing, hiking, and camping would be in his backyard.

He had always wanted a ranch (or Ranchito). He purchased property in a ranch neighborhood and built his dreamhouse. A beautiful four-bedroom four car garage custom home with all the latest amenities. David finished High School in Nevada, Mike began working, and Ron began going to college.

Before too long, it was announced that the Bell System was breaking up (due to monopoly violations), and instead of moving to New York, Elmer accepted retirement after 28 years of service. Elmer was just 50 years old. Elmer began studying for his real estate license as he always felt he understood the housing business, and this would be a great second career.

Reno was not the Shangri-La Elmer expected. Trouble followed his boys as it did many who endured the 60’s and 70’s.

Elmer had kept in touch with a business associate who worked with him at the phone company. Jean Smith had the Midas touch. Elmer rekindled the relationship and moved back to Southern California (Monterey Park) to start a limousine company (Transwest Limousine). The business included three stretch limousines. Elmer and Bonnie worked in the office while his son David learned the city by chauffeuring. Their clientele list included carrying guests to wedding parties, and proms, making airport drop-offs, and pick-ups, and carrying stars of Hollywood to movie premiers. It didn’t take long to find this was not the business for him – he sold his share and escaped.

Bonnie's only living relative, her aunt, lived in Sun City, and Bonnie wanted to be near her. She and Elmer moved to nearby Temecula; a growing community filled with an enterprising middle-class population. In Temecula, Elmer built three houses in the Meadowview community, and sold them. With his son Mike's help, he bought, remodeled, and sold over a dozen homes in Sun City. He also opened a real estate office, and he and Bonnie continued to live a comfortable life, owning three homes of their own, and living well until Bonnie developed Pancreatic cancer at 66 years old. Elmer decided to sell the real estate brokerage and begin his retirement; however, saddened by his wife’s tragic passing.

Elmer and Bonnie had met Evelyn through the years at various social functions. When Sal (Evelyns son) and Trish married, Bonnie and Elmer’s youngest son, David, was ring bearer at their wedding, and their reception was held in Evelyn and Mike's home. A few months later sadly, Irma passed away at the age of forty-one.

Through the years, thinking of the security of Bonnie and his three boys, Elmer bought and sold homes, advancing his economic growth, and profiting each time a home was sold for another. His knowledge of real estate improved, and after retirement (from AT&T) he acquired a broker's license and worked on.

As the years passed, Evelyn's husband, Mike passed, and two other husbands passed. When Bonnie passed away from pancreatic cancer, Elmer tried to carry on for nearly two years. When Evelyn's third husband Joe passed away from Cancer, I (Evelyn) was so impressed with Elmer's unique and special handwriting, on Elmer's sympathy card to me, I mustered up my courage to call Elmer and ask how he was coping with the loss of his dear wife.

As we met and talked, there were many family and San Pedro memories we could share. I knew Elmer's mother had met her through Trish. She was often in my home for a visit and one Christmas time she joined us as Elmer and Bonnie were living in Reno. I knew Irma's girls through the years when Sal and Trish were married. So, Elmer and I were not complete strangers. We were comfortable together, sharing our grief and trying to go on as best we could. We were married in 2004. We often visit loved ones at Green Hills Cemetery in San Pedro. When we visit Elmer always leaves Bonnie a fresh silk floral arrangement, so that her crypt is new looking.

In early retirement, Elmer sold the “big house” and moved into the house he lived in today with his wife Evelyn. They began traveling to Alaska, Florida, and to the Midwest. Several trips took place as Elmer loved to drive. Evelyn continued teaching and writing in these “honeymoon years.” Elmers’s sons moved on - with Mike pursuing different careers, while David became an ultrasound technician. David traveled about before settling in northern California where he stayed close to long-time high school friends. Ron found his wife Tiffany and began a career with the local water company – before branching out on his own. Mike and Ron live in the Temecula area.

Recent years have been less exciting for Evelyn and Elmer. The family has continued to get together for all the holidays (Christmas, Thanksgiving, Easter, and others). Ailments restricted travel; but was always a welcome excuse to go to Pala and gamble and eat. These activities have even lessened in the last year.

Elmer has three sons (Mike, Ron, and Dave) three grandchildren (Dane, Kade, and Baily) and three great grandchildren (Allie, Mason, and Walker).

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Elmer's sister Irma had four daughters - Trish, Dianne, Jan, and Jaime.

Sal and Trish met in Junior High school at Dodson, and after Sal served in the army they married. Irma was present at the wedding, but she had stomach cancer and died shortly thereafter at the age of 41. Sal and Trish had one daughter, Desarae, but there were troubled times that led to a divorce. Dianne married John Auten soon after Sal and Trish married. They had two children, Dee-Ann, and Phillip.

When Irma passed on it was hard for Jimmy to raise the 2 younger girls and they were left a lot to fend for themselves. Grandma Lula was a good steady rock for them through their teen years. Later, Sal married Jamie, and they are still married.

Very sadly, Jan and Trish passed in the last few years.