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Home Town New Orleans, LA and Detroit, MI.
Last Address Elmore John Leonard, Jr. Born: 11-Oct-1925 Birthplace: New Orleans, LA Died: 20-Aug-2013 Location of death: Bloomfield Township, MI
Date of Passing Aug 20, 2013
Location of Interment Holy Cross Catholic Cemetery - Detroit, Michigan
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SK3 Elmore John Leonard, Jr. Seabee, U.S. Navy 1943-1946
Elmore Leonard Born: 11-Oct-1925
Birthplace: New Orleans, LA
Died: 20-Aug-2013
Location of death: Bloomfield Township, MI
In 1943, at the age of 17, Leonard graduated from The University of Detroit High School, and tried to join the Marines, but was rejected because of poor vision. He was subsequently drafted and assigned to the Seabees, the fighting construction battalion of the United States Navy. He served for a little more than a year and a half in the Admiralty Islands and the Philippines before returning home in January of 1946. He was assigned to a ship for six and a half months and was discharged from the Navy in June of that year.
Elmore Leonard was the author of numerous westerns and hard-boiled crime novels. Leonard grew up in Detroit and served in the US Navy before attending the University of Michigan. Friends called him "Dutch", a nickname that somehow stuck on Leonard from childhood, named for a pitcher with the Washington Senators, Emil "Dutch" Leonard. He married in 1949, and eventually fathered five children. He began supporting his increasingly large family by writing advertising copy, mostly for Chevrolet. In his spare time he wrote Westerns, but they did not bring in enough money to live on. In 1951, Leonard was ready to quit the ad business and concentrate on writing full-time, but his agent talked him out of it. After the success of the Paul Newman's dramatization of Leonard's Hombre, he finally quit his day job. See bio.
Funeral: Navy officers in white dress uniforms conducted a "farewell to arms" flag presentation ceremony and played "Taps" on a bugle for Leonard, a Navy veteran of World War II.
1943-1945, SK-0000, Submarine Rest Center, Admiralty Islands
Chain of Command The Admiralty Islands, atop the Bismarck Sea, became the key to the isolation of Rabaul and the final neutralization of enemy forces on New Britain. When the Allies seized Manus Island and the adjacent smaller Los Negros Island, enemy supply and communication lines from all points north and east were cut. In the busy months following the capture of the Admiralties, the Seabees transformed Manus and Los Negros into the largest U.S. naval and air base in the Southwest Pacific. By 1944, the new base had become the primary location for service, supply, and repair of the Seventh U.S. Fleet. During the same month, the capture of Emirau Island in the Saint Matthias Group completed the encirclement of Rabaul. There the Seabees built a strategic, two-field air base, huge storage and fuel dumps, a floating dry dock, miles of roads, and a base for torpedo patrol boats.
Other Memories In 1943, at the age of 17, Leonard graduated from The University of Detroit High School, and tried to join the Marines, but was rejected because of poor vision. He was subsequently drafted and assigned to the Seabees, the fighting construction battalion of the United States Navy. He served for a little more than a year and a half in the Admiralty Islands and the Philippines before returning home in January of 1946. He was assigned to a ship for six and a half months and was discharged from the Navy in June of that year.
