Eleventh Generation

14821. Max Leroy TOWNSEND was born on 14 September 1923 in Washington, Washington, Kansas.¹⁶⁹⁷ He was a sales representative for Certain-teed Products (Plumbing supply).¹⁶⁹⁷ He had a private pilot's license.¹⁶⁹⁷ Max served in the military during World War II .³⁵⁵⁶ He was stationed on board a destroyer ship DD595, the USS Metcalf during WWII, He was a sonar man, 2nd class petty officer. They were in the Pacific, and won three battle stars for their campaigns in Okinawa, Borneo, and the Phillipines. Max says that the population of Washington (the town) was 1500 when he was a kid, and held steady a long while, and has dropped off to 1300 or so. He accounts for this in this way: "lots of new housing developments have grown up, and developers have added to the town. So I figure the population drops off because every time a gal has a baby, two guys leave town."

Max comments that it is not the women of Washington that do all the gossiping; it's the men. He says they meet down at the pub, and gossip about everyone-- "and if you can't remember what you did last night, they can certainly tell you!"

Max Leroy TOWNSEND and Barbara Jean LOCKMAN were married on 3 February 1951 in Reno, Washoe, Nevada.¹⁶⁹⁷ Barbara Jean LOCKMAN, daughter of Charles LOCKMAN and Ruby POWERS, was born on 23 April 1922 in Pacheco, Contra Costa, California.¹⁶⁹⁷ She was a medical secretary and manager of Taylorsville Campground, Plumas County, California.¹⁶⁹⁷

On July 13th, 1944, Barbara was visiting the Cagnassos, friends in the apartment building where she lived in Concord. That morning the E.A. Bryan was moored at Port Chicago (as it had been for 4 days) and loading on ammunition and explosives. Just before 10:20PM there was a massive explosion at the pier, which rocked Concord, blasting out window glass and causing widespread damage and injuries, and killing over 300 men instantly at the pier. (See full story included in this history). Barbara was sitting by a bay window when the explosion happened; luckily she jumped forward out of the spray of the glass from the window. Barbara was doing clerical work at the time at Mt Diablo Hospital in Concord (known then as Concord Hospital), and she left Butch with her friends and jumped in her car to go down to the hospital, knowing that whatever it was would require all the help they had. As she drove through Concord, she saw broken store front windows, fruits and vegetables all over the street. She said that many of the sailors were so terrified that many simply ran from the pier to the hospital-- quite a distance!
She remembers Dr Trolin, and he treated many of them-- lots of them just for "shock". She said the "Scrambled Eggs" (referring to the officers with all their decorations) were interviewing Dr Trolin, and when they asked if his name was t-r-o-l-i-n he corrected them, and said "That's CAPITAL T-r-o-l-i-n"; apparently he had some issues about his diminutive size, and needed to make a statement....

Another Barbara story is when she was about 14, and living back in California, she and her sisters were sneaking around looking for their hidden Christmas presents. They located their new skates, all wrapped up, snuck them out, skated around a while, then brought them back, wrapped them up again, and hid them back away to receive them on Christmas morning--- with Santa none the wiser, right????

When their Grandmother was living with them, Barbara and her sisters used to sneak out the window at night to go "carousing" (or whatever) and when they would sneak back into the house late, and then "try to walk like Grandma" with that certain "shuffle" to their feet-- to lull the folks into thinking it was just Grandma up and about at that late hour!

Barbara was driving her mom crazy, going around the house practicing yodeling. She had been wanting a certain type of shoe called "Brogues" (sp?), which she had not had luck talking her mother into buying for her. At last, in desperation, her mother told her if she would STOP YODELING she would go buy her the shoes she wanted!

Barbara was the tomboy of the three girls; the others wanted lace and frills, while Barbara was happy with new overalls and a short haircut. Her sister Peggy would tease her and say "Your hair is short like a boy's, so now you have to wash your ears!". Peggy was the pretty one with the curly blonde hair. Guys would always go by, and Barbara would whistle at them, and then run and hide, so they would think it was Peggy who whistled-- which of course totally embarassed Peggy! One night when they all snuck out, they came in late and Barbara fixed hamburgers with all the fixin's, in the middle of the night! She set one on Peggy's bedside table for her. The next morning, there was the burger on the nightstand-- Peggy had fallen asleep and not eaten it. Barbara was mad-- said she made that burger for Peggy and she HAD to eat it-- she insisted, and Peggy did eat it-- guess Barbara was the big boss around there!

Barbara never took dance lessons-- probably would have loved to, but that wasn't in the cards. She was a cheerleader at Mt Diablo High School, and Auggie (Butch's Dad) was a football star.

Max Leroy TOWNSEND-26460 and Barbara Jean LOCKMAN-26462 had the following children:

Max Leroy TOWNSEND and Shirley MENDONCA were married on 25 June 1955 in Castroville, Monterey, California.¹⁶⁹⁷ Shirley MENDONCA was born on 14 October 1929 in Castroville, Monterey, California.¹⁶⁹⁷ She was a bank teller and auditor.¹⁶⁹⁷

Max Leroy TOWNSEND-26460 and Shirley MENDONCA-26465 had the following children: