Roger's Family
Great-Grandfather: Henry Hughes
Kansas Territory, 1862
Roger's great grandfather Henry Hughes, the second son of James and Elizabeth Hughes, was born on August 28, 1838, in Coalbrookdale, England.
Henry and his betrothed Agnes Seddon were married at the Cathedral Church in Manchester in 1862. Within days of their marriage, Henry and Agnes joined the flood of immigrants who sailed to the United States in response to The Homestead Act and acquired 160 acres of prime wheat and cattle land in the Kansas Territory.
Henry’s son Elsworth was born in 1877. Sadly, Agnes died of scarlet fever in 1882 when Elsworth was only five years old.
Grandfather: Elsworth Hughes
Elsworth Lawrence Hughes (aka Curly) left Kansas in 1892, and headed for California. He was 15 years old, and it is unclear whether he was kicked out of the family home or just ran away. Regardless, there is no argument that he was incorrigible. Curly's attitude and nickname were likely the result of his being rendered bald at a young age due to a severe bout with scarlet fever, the same disease that took his mother's life.
When he arrived in California, Curly was too young to work at logging, so he washed dishes, did laundry, and worked at a number of odd jobs. Soon he found his way to the gambling saloons that dotted the logging territory. A few years after the turn of the century, he was running his own establishment, which determined the course of the rest of his life.
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Roger's grandmother, Myrtle McCoy, responded to Curly's advertisement for a cook in the Sequoia Forest of California. Curly proposed not long after their meeting, and Myrtle accepted.
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This is how Roger's grandmother, Myrtle McCoy, at the age of 30, came to marry Curly Hughes, a man ten years her senior, a gambler and a saloon keeper.
Though he was not an educated man, Curly was astute. He was known as a man not to be fooled with, earning him the moniker, the "Meanest Man in Bakersfield."
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Elsworth, Harry (Roger's Dad),
and Myrtle Hughes
As the logging industry faded, Curly and Myrtle pulled up stakes and migrated to the oil wells in the lower San Juaquin Valley, first to Tulare and then to Bakersfield.
With Myrtle's help, Curly started and acquired several restaurants and gambling saloons in the lower San Joaquin Valley.
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On September 24, 1921, Elsworth and Myrtle's only child, Roger's father Harry J. Hughes, was born. It was a rough time and place to be born.
Elsworth aka Curly Hughes at his saloon,
The Turf Saloon in Bakersfield, CA
Father: Captain Harry J Hughes
Harry Hughes, Roger's father was born on September 24, 1921. Finding Elsworth’s anarchist philosophy disdainful, Harry enlisted in the Marines the day after the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. Though he lacked a college education, he earned the honor of Top Gun in his class at the Marine Fighter Pilot School in Cherry Point, North Carolina.
He became a decorated war hero and spy who served his country in WW II, the Korean War, the Formosa Conflict, the Vietnam War, and countless little-known conflicts around the world.
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During the Korean War, the C-47 earned its reputation as a great warbird due to its speed, versatility, and durability, matched by no other transport plane of its time. To this day, it still can be found doing yeoman's work where heavy lifting or treetop navigation is required.
Harry Hughes-Top Gun,
Marine Fighter Pilot
Harry & Colleague after landing Douglas C-47
without landing gear in Korea.