Lester Arnold Cassingham

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Lester Arnold Cassingham is the son of John Gailen Cassingham and Henrietta Drown. He was born in 1919 in Colorado.

  • In 1941, he married (1) Viola Virginia Rudd in Idaho. Virginia, as she is known, is the daughter of Oscar Rudd and Marie Haggerty. She was born in 1923 in Colorado. Lester and Viola divorced in 1965.
  • In 1966, he married Hazel May Brown in Nevada. Her mother's maiden name is Mewhinney. She was born 22 March 1921 in Oklahoma or Arkansas. She died 3 Oct 1988 at age 67 in Redding, Shasta, California. She was buried 14 Oct 1998 at Eagle Point National Cemetery, Eagle Point, Jackson, Oregon.

Children of Lester Arnold Cassingham and Viola Virginia Rudd:

  1. Gary Arnold Cassingham was born in 1943 in California.
  2. Carol Jeane Cassingham was stillborn on 9 Aug 1946 in San Pedro, Los Angeles, California. She was cremated the same day at Pacific Crest Cemetery, Redondo Beach, Los Angeles, California.
  3. Lucretia Denise Cassingham was born in 1951 in California.

Notes

Lester: THE NAVY: Les was drafted into the service in Jan 1944 when he was 23. It was after he had worked in the shipyards for three years. When he worked in the shipyards a lot of people used to go down and talk to the captain and sign on as crew members. So that's what he figured he would do when the time was right. But he waited too long and they stopped him from doing that. So he went up to Los Angeles to join the merchant marines. You had to go to Catalina Island to school. So he signed up, took his physical and went home. They told him it would take about a week. He waited about a week, but never heard from them. So he went back to see what the hold up was, and found they had lost his papers. They'd never heard of him, so they had to come around and make like they found them. They promised to call in two or three days. So he went home and there was his draft notice. It came from the draft board up in Idaho. So he went back to the merchant marine office and they told him he would have to go in the army, they could not take him now. So he lost out on the merchant marine. He decided to ask about the Air Corps. One guy asked, "What if I don't get in the Air Corps? Can I serve half time to get into the Navy?" He was told, "No. If you don't make the Air Corps, you are in the standard Army." He didn't want the Army so he went and sat down and went through the procedure, all of the physicals and everything. At the end of it, he went down a stairway and there were three desks. You had to mark on your folder that you had all your information and which service you wanted. He marked Navy. The three men in front of him also wanted Navy. All of them were taken. Les was fourth, but he was told, "I'm sorry, I can't take everyone." So he started to hand his papers over to the Army. But then said, "Whoa. Wait a minute. I don't want to go in the Army. I want the Navy. My family is all Navy. If I go in the Army, I will be a family disgrace." Of course, none of his family had ever served in the Navy, but the guy didn't know that. Les did a little more talking and the guy finally said, "OK. Get in line." So he was in the Navy. Les qualified for electrical school. He ended up in submarines on the Spadefish. He finally got transferred to the base. He then worked in E&R, engineering repairs as an odyssey technician, for the rest of his time. He made third class electrician. Then when the war ended he went home. He served just 15 days short of two years, in the last part of the war. [Excerpted from a letter from Gary and Lynn Cassingham, 2002 - used by permission.)

Lester: BARBER: Redding had a specially colorful quality about it, exemplified by Les Cassingham's tonsorial emporium underneath the Market Street movie theatre. [His son Gary now has the Old Vault Barbershop nearby on Butte Street.] Sticking out into the sidewalk at the corner of the Sprouse-Reitz store was a narrow staircase leading down to the Basement Barbershop where a gent could be shorn, shaved, bathed, laundered and pressed after spending a couple of months as a timber beast. This quaint establishment was not for frivolous purposes. It catered to men in a respectable way. [Transcribed by Gary and Lynn Cassingham from "The Covered Wagon", Shasta Historical Society, 1987.]

Sources

Information for this family provided by Gary and Lynn Cassingham.

Hazel: Birth and Death from the Social Security Death Index (SSN 572-46-2066) and the California Death Index.

Carol: Birth and Death from Pacific Crest Cemetery records.

Census Listings

The individuals in this family appear in the following census listings.

 


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Daniel Edwards

Last Updated: Thursday, November 17, 2011.