The First Robert
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| Robert Earl Davenport, Sr. | Commander, U.S. Navy 1894-1948 |
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| Robert Earl, Sr. & family
Easter Sunday, 1899 |
Hiram Myron Davenport, Estella, Fred M.,
Frances
Ella Davenport [Gates], Ethel M., Walter E.
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In the lower left picture above, Robert Earl, Sr. is shown at age 5. It was in the following year that Myron abandoned his family. Living fatherless in Montgomery Alabama, the family existed in extreme poverty, so, when he had completed only the 6th grade, it became necessary for him to contribute to the support of his mother. At age eleven, in the shops of the Southern Railroad, he began his years of apprenticeship to become a machinist. The skills he learned in that time were of value in his whole life.
Before World War One began, he lied about his age to be accepted by the U.S. Navy. His service there was with such distinction that by that war's end he had been commissioned as an Ensign USN. A distinguished military career then followed through World War Two and capped by his becoming the Captain of the destroyer USS Jacob Jones. This ship now lies in deep water off the East Coast, an early World War II victim of a German U-boat.
Others who have benefited from having a father who through example imprinted both life achievement goals and value standards upon us, will understand the reverence and respect which I feel even today. Gruff and authoritarian, he was compelled always to save and 'make do', an attitude which reflected his earliest years of childhood scrimping. A product of his difficult times, he had a strong sense of self-discipline. duty, and work ethic. Never learning to truly relax, he had no hobbies or man toys. His only true pleasures were in accomplishments. He spoke often in homilies and one of his favorites was a desire to leave his 'footprints in the sands of time'. To me, his footprints will always be there to see.