Claude Addison McElroy papers

Collection

Identifier: MS 0622

Staff Only

Finding aid note: Stored offsite at the Library Service Center and require 24-hour notice for retrieval. Please contact the Woodson Research Center at 713-348-2586 or woodson@rice.edu for more information.

Scope and Contents

This material primarily consists of correspondence to and from Addison McElroy during the Second World War and immediately thereafter. Included are letters from his friends at Rice, giving insight into wartime life at the Institute. There is also an extensive number of letters from McElroy to his mother and her responses thereto. His naval service is detailed in his official personnel file and sets of orders to various duty stations, as well as material from his wartime service in the Southwest Pacific.

Dates

Creation: 1941-1947

Creator

McElroy, Claude Addison (Person)

Conditions Governing Access

This material is open for research.

Conditions Governing Access

Stored offsite at the Library Service Center and require 24-hour notice for retrieval. Please contact the Woodson Research Center at 713-348-2586 or woodson@rice.edu for more information.

Conditions Governing Use

Permission to publish from this material must be facilitated through the Woodson Research Center.

Biographical / Historical

Claude Addison McElroy was born in Houston on 19 May 1924 to his parents Alma Elizabeth and William Addison McElroy. He attended Lamar High School, and entered the freshman class at Rice in 1941. At Rice he joined the first class of the newly formed Naval ROTC. He was called to active duty in July 1942, commissioned an Ensign, and ordered to amphibious training at Little Creek, Virginia, and subsequently to the Amphibious Training Command in Fort Pierce, Florida. Upon completion of his instruction he was ordered to the South Pacific area where he joined the LST 462. At the war’s end he returned to Rice to complete his interrupted education and was graduated in 1947.

Addison married Francis Louise Swender In June 1949. In 1950, he and his college friend Preston Frazier started making candles in the McElroy garage and selling them the during the Christmas season. Thus started the tradition of “Faroy Candles” that lasted in Houston for over 50 years.