My WWII Memoirs: By Charles H. Estes, Jr.

"Elizabeth, I'm going to try and chronicle my life to you

and my war experiences in hopes that you can

make something out of it, and possibly fill in

in a little few places and write us a book.

I suppose the first place that I should start is

when I was born. I was born on Jefferson

Street in Yazoo City, Mississippi. The year

was 1922. It was a cold night, the stars were

bright. My father recalls when I first came into

the world screaming and scratching and kicking

that the Roman Catholics were making their

way home from the midnight service at the

church, so that would indicate that I was born

on Christmas Day, 1922.

My father was Charles Henry Estes, Sr. My

mother was Annie Calvert Estes, and she came

from the Payne family, P-a-y-n-e. She was real

great with a needle and thread so her little boy

never failed to have cute little gowns and clothes,

and I looked like a young king most of the time

growing up because she just lavished all her

love on me.

Well, I wasn't a good student in school. I was

average I suppose, but never above average.

I made it through high school and graduated

with my class in the Class of 1940. I think that

there were about 60 of us then."

(To be continued.)