Lucky Bag Yearbook

From the 1922 Lucky Bag:

EUGENE EVANS ELMORE

Gene, Doc, Southern.

Sub Squad (4, 3, 2).

“SURE, I’ll drag. I certainly do enjoy the company of a nice girl."—Can you believe your ears? “Snake” Elmore, newly arrived.

Three years away from home made a great change in “Gene.” He still talks incorrigibly Southern. He still retains the dignity, generosity, and self-control which are his chief characteristics. But, thanks to Navy influence, his lack of bad habits has been supplied, and when in New York he knows how to celebrate a Navy Victory.

Literature is his forte. His letters home read like Bacon’s essays. He likes fresh air and long walks for exercise; but above all he likes to eat, and when you’re hungry he’ll bust out a box he got from home, or from town, with a “Want some chow?”

Loss

Eugene was lost when USS Quincy (CA 39) was sunk early in the morning of August 9, 1942 by Japanese surface forces at the Battle of Savo Island. He reported aboard in October 1940.

Other Information

From researcher Kathy Franz:

Born in Georgia, Eugene graduated from Anderson high school in South Carolina.

He married Marie Link at St. Matthew’s Lutheran Church in York, Pennsylvania, on November 22, 1923. His best man was Ensign Thomas Raftery (’22. ) Ushers from the Class of 1922 were: Ensigns Ray Hansen, Edward Woods, and Robert McDonald.

Eugene’s father was a merchant at a grocery store, mother was Lillie Bell, and sister Annie. In 1910, they lived with his grandparents J. H. and Margaret Evans.

His wife was listed as next of kin; he was also survived by a son, who was old enough to serve during World War II. His other son, William, was a Navy Lieutenant in Korea and served for six months aboard the ship named for his father.

Eugene has a memory marker in Georgia and another at the Annapolis National Cemetery.

Namesake

USS Eugene E. Elmore (DE 686) was named for Eugene; the ship was sponsored by his widow.

Photographs

From The York Dispatch on November 22, 1923

Related Articles

Raymond Hansen ‘22 was Eugene’s roommate; he too was lost in the Battle of Savo Island (while serving aboard USS Vincennes (CA 44). Information from Raymond A. Hansen, Jr. ‘61 via email on November 6, 2018.

Navy Directories & Officer Registers

The "Register of Commissioned and Warrant Officers of the United States Navy and Marine Corps" was published annually from 1815 through at least the 1970s; it provided rank, command or station, and occasionally billet until the beginning of World War II when command/station was no longer included. Scanned copies were reviewed and data entered from the mid-1840s through 1922, when more-frequent Navy Directories were available.

The Navy Directory was a publication that provided information on the command, billet, and rank of every active and retired naval officer. Single editions have been found online from January 1915 and March 1918, and then from three to six editions per year from 1923 through 1940; the final edition is from April 1941.

The entries in both series of documents are sometimes cryptic and confusing. They are often inconsistent, even within an edition, with the name of commands; this is especially true for aviation squadrons in the 1920s and early 1930s.

Alumni listed at the same command may or may not have had significant interactions; they could have shared a stateroom or workspace, stood many hours of watch together, or, especially at the larger commands, they might not have known each other at all. The information provides the opportunity to draw connections that are otherwise invisible, though, and gives a fuller view of the professional experiences of these alumni in Memorial Hall.