Everett West Sherron was the first child born to Emmett Sellars Sherron and Amy (Rickman) Sherron at Maxon Mills near Paducah, Kentucky, on September 12, 1916. His mother had been a teacher at Heath School before she married and his father was a teacher at Heath School and later a principal at Lone Oak School District. His family was living with his mother's grandparents, the Clustermans, on Lightfoot Road near Paducah when Marvin was born and moved to Lone Oak before Marie was born. Grandma Clusterman's maiden name was West. His family moved to 1002 Central Avenue in Hopkinsville, Kentucky, in June 1923 because his father was offered the position of Boy Scout Executive there. He attended Belmont Elementary School in Hopkinsville.
In addition to Everett, the other children born to Emmett and Amy were Marvin Wilson on September 11, 1918; Annie Marie on September 25, 1920; and Emmett Harold on January 2, 1927.
The family moved to Middletown, Ohio, where his dad became Boy Scout Executive, in March 1927 when Everett was in the fifth grade. They first lived at 218 McKinley Street and then moved the next year to 104 McKinley. He attended Lincoln Elementary School for 2-1/2 years and went to eighth grade in the old high school building which was at the corner of Central Avenue and Clark Street and later became the city building.
They moved to Camp Hook in June of 1930 and he attended Carlisle High School for his freshman and sophomore years. During the depression, his dad became executive of the YMCA as well as of the Boy Scouts. In October 1932 as the times became more difficult, his dad lost his job although they were allowed to still live at Camp Hook.
After Emmett lost his job, he arranged with the local farmers to slaughter their hogs. He knew how because his parents, John Thomas and Rachel (Carter) Sherron, owned a large farm at Lone Oak, Kentucky. They had orchards and raised crops and livestock. They also had a large slaughter house. Emmett set up a slaughtering operation on their residential property at Camp Hook. When Everett was a junior, his dad sold the pork sausage he made and the meat in Middletown. Everett rode in with his dad to attend Middletown High School. He sometimes had to walk the five miles home (uphill in the snow).
The family moved to 2211 Arlington Avenue in Middletown in August 1933 and Everett graduated from Middletown High School in 1934.
Everett worked at Krogers during his senior year. He continued to work there after he graduated while he took courses at U C at night. Then in February 1936, he started working at Wrenn Paper Company in the testing department. He was at Wrenn until he started in September 1937 at Miami University where he majored in economics. The first year he commuted from Middletown with Tom Ortman who drove and he worked part time at Fay Drug Company.
While he was working at Wrenn his Social Security card was issued to him on December 1, 1936. At this time his family was again living at 104 McKinley where they lived when he was twelve. They always rented and never bought a home until they moved from Young Street to 2109 Wilbraham Road in about 1944.
In 1938, the family moved to 210 West Collins Street in Oxford. Everett went to school all year round in 1938 and 1939 and continued working weekends at Fay Drugs in Middletown until September of 1939 when he started working weekends at L. E. Merz Drug Company in Oxford where he worked until August 1940. He finished the course work in the summer of 1940 for his Bachelor of Arts degree but had to wait for commencement in June of 1941 to receive his diploma along with his sister Marie.
During the 1940 - 1941 school year Everett, Marvin, and their father lived in an apartment at the Sorg Mansion while the family home was still in Oxford. Emmett was a Juvenile Probation Officer, Marvin worked at Shartle Brothers, and Everett sold insurance for Penn Mutual. After Marie graduated in 1941, the family moved to 208 Young Street in Middletown.
In the summer of 1941 Everett was hired on at Wright Aeronautical in Lockland. He ran an Arter rotary grinding machine making cams and later became lead man in the department making supercharger gears for 18 cylinder aircraft engines.
Because of his work at Wright Aeronautical, he was deferred until November 1943. He was drafted and although he requested to be in the Army, he was sent to Great Lakes for Navy boot camp. He was discharged after a couple of weeks, presumably because of earlier sinus surgery.
He went back to Wright Aeronautical and ran a lathe until the end of the war in September 1945. Next he worked for two or three months at Aeronca but was only getting a couple days a week and he couldn't support a family on that so he worked for several months at the P. Lorillard tobacco plant. Then on August 14, 1946, he began working at Shartle Brothers (later Black Clawson). At first he worked in inventory control and then he was an estimator who determined the cost to make parts. He ended up in inside sales and after working 35 years, he retired at age 65 in September 1981.
Frances Louise Craig was born March 12, 1917, the fourth child of Paul and Mary Evelyn (Hall) Craig in Vicksburg, Michigan. She was named after her paternal grandmother. Her father was born in Excello, Ohio, and worked at Harding Jones Paper. Her mother was born in Orange County, Indiana, and was working as a maid for Harry Engles at Engles Corner. They were married June 1, 1912, when Paul was 23 and Evelyn was 17. They had Paul on April 17, 1913; Charles Foster on August 11, 1914; Robert on September 30, 1915; and Louise on March 12, 1917. Their father had gone to work for a paper mill in Vicksburg, Michigan, where Louise was born.
They moved back to the Middletown area when she was a very young child because her dad got a job at a paper mill in Franklin. Her mother, who was not yet 24, and a new baby died on March 22nd in the 1919 flu pandemic. All the kids were farmed out to relatives and Louise lived with her father's sister Alma Shreve and her husband Jesse in Excello until her father married Florence Harman, who was a teacher, in March 1922. Then they lived in Middletown at 800 Fourteenth Avenue and later at 610 Granada Avenue. They attended Amanda Methodist Church. Her father later worked at Crystal Tissue and her step mom at Armco. She graduated from Monroe High School in 1935.
Louise baby-sat Dr. and Mrs. Ligett's daughter Barb and rode the bus to their home. Tom Ortman, who was a substitute driver for Ortman-Stewart, introduced her to Everett in 1937. Louise worked at Fay Drug Store for a year or two and then worked at Crystal Tissue in the converting department until she got married.
Everett and Louise got engaged December 28, 1941, and were married on February 28, 1942. They had been dating for four years. Everett now had a good job at Wright Aeronautical, war had been declared, and it seemed like everyone was getting married. Louise once commented that she didn't think Everett was ever going to propose.
After they were married, they lived at 741 Stout Avenue in Wyoming, Ohio. After the war, they lived for three months with Grandpa and Grandma Craig while their house at 2901 Oxford Avenue was being finished. They moved in on Thanksgiving day, 1946. They were blessed with three children. John Thomas was born on June 1, 1944; Anne on September 23, 1945; and Douglas Craig on December 14, 1947. Later there would be nine grandchildren and seventeen great grandchildren.
Louise was a stay-at-home mom. She was in the choir and women's circle at the First Methodist Church and active in the PTA and band boosters at her children's schools. She was also a great cook. She wanted to learn to drive and got a learners's permit but driving made her too nervous and she never got her license. After the kids were grown and gone, she went back to school and became a Licensed Practical Nurse when she was fifty. She worked at Middletown Hospital and also did some private duty nursing.
Later in life Louise had suffered from health problems. On February 28, 1988, she died from a ruptured aortic aneurysm at age 70. It was her 46th wedding anniversary.
Everett started going to First Methodist Church when his family moved to Middletown in March 1927. He started ushering around 1949 and still continues to usher. He was president of Methodist Men for two years and chairman of Administrative Board for one year.
He was a Boy Scout from September 12, 1928, until 1937 when he went to college and from September 1955 when John became a scout until the present. He made Eagle Scout in 1932 and is in Order of the Arrow. As an adult, he received the Silver Beaver Award and two district awards of merit. He was assistant scoutmaster and scoutmaster of Troop 18 and is now serving as committee chairman for Troop 718.
Everett was active with the Middletown Historical Society since 1982 when the Canal Museum opened. He served as President for four years. Over the years he gave tours at the museum on Sundays during the summer and to school children in the spring. Everett was and continued to be a staple of the Middletown Historical Society over the years as well as a walking history for the City of Middletown.
Everett was named the All American Citizen of 1998 by the Middletown High School Athletic Boosters Club. In addition Everett had been instrumental in planning Middletown High School Class of 1934 reunions and monthly luncheons.
Sadly, Everett passed at the age of 100 on May 24, 2017. He and his wife Louise who passed away in 1988 are interred at Butler County Memorial Park in Trenton, Ohio. Due to Everett being instrumental in donation many artifacts and his expansive service and knowledge of the Middletown Boy Scouts, the Middletown Historical Society has endowed our Boy Scout room with this name to honor his memory and contributions.
FROM ALL OF US HERE AT THE MIDDLETOWN HISTORICAL SOCIETY AND THE CITY OF MIDDLETOWN, YOU WILL BE MISSED!
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