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Earl Rodgers
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Earl Rodgers was born in Eagle Lake, Texas in 1922 and lived his first 7 years in Eldridge. He attended school at the Eldridge, two room school house through the 7th grade. His teacher was a lady named Mrs. Stiles. Later he attended school in Eagle Lake, Texas and graduated in 1941 from Eagle Lake High School. His Dad worked for the railroad for a while.
After high school Earl attended college for 2 years. During his second year in college he received a draft notice. Earl knew this meant the Army but he did not want to be sleeping on the ground so he went to Houston, Texas to join the Navy. He was sworn into the US Navy as a store-keeper for $36.00 a month. He went to San Diego, California for basic training and then came home to Eagle Lake on a 10 day leave. Upon return to San Diego he was assigned to special training for special duty with the US Naval Intelligence Service in Washington D.C. for 6 months. After his training Earl was told to report back to San Diego for assignment. There he learned that he was being shipped to the South Pacific on a freighter of all things. The freighter proved to be too slow and the rest of the fleet ran off and left them out in the middle of the ocean. They finally made it to their destination after losing half of their supplies and food in a storm. Earl had many assignments throughout the South Pacific until November of 1945. In the course of returning home Earl spent time in Pearl Harbor and was there when the Atomic Bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. After 31 months of continuous sea duty Earl finally made it home. He used his 30 days accrued leave to recuperate and then reported to Dallas, Texas where he was informed that he was being assigned to Columbus, Ohio. Earl told the admin officer that he wasn’t being assigned anywhere but to Eagle Lake, Texas as a civilian because he had served his time. After a bit of checking the Navy agreed and discharged Earl Rodgers in December of 1945. Earl received a special award from the Department of the Navy for meritorious service, the details of which, according to the document, must remain secret even to this day.
Earl returned to Eagle Lake and took it easy for a while, buying himself a new car and sneaking off to Mexico City for a little R&R. Upon his return he re-entered college at the University of Texas. After a couple of years he became burned out on studying and left school and went to work for Shell Oil Company. About this time a friend of Earl’s bet him $10.00 that he couldn’t get a date with a particular young lady. Earl not only won the bet but won the hand of the young lady in marriage and they were married in May of 1948. About this time Shell Oil told Earl that they were going to transfer him to a place outside of Corpus Christie. His wife to be, a registered nurse at the Eagle Lake hospital said she was not moving. Earl resigned Shell and got married instead.
Earl went to work at the local bank where he remained until his father purchased the AB Grocery store in Eagle Lake. Earl would work at the bank in the morning and help at the grocery in the afternoon. Eventually the grocery became so successful that Earl had to resign the bank work at the grocery full time. Earl’s Dad passed away in 1968. Earl had become a board member at the bank and in 1969 was asked to return to the bank as a Vice President. Earl’s wife and two sons operated the grocery store while Earl worked at the bank until the grocery store was sold sometime in 1970.
Earl Rodgers served as the Quartermaster of the Eagle Lake VFW Post 8783 until his retirement after 37 years of service to that organization. He is now in his 90s and lives in Eagle Lake, Texas and drives every weekday morning and Saturday to the local Dairy Queen where he and other senior citizens of the town try to remember each other’s names.
Earl Rodgers passed away at 4:00AM, Sunday September 30, 2012 at Rice Medical Center in Eagle Lake, Texas |
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Jc Cooper
It's been about 5 years now since the passing of a good friend, Earl Rogers. I miss him everytime I pass by the Dairy Queen. If the tables in that place could talk. I followed Earl as Quartermaster of the local VFW and he took his time teaching me the ropes. He was not ever in a rush to just get through with it. He was thorough and made sure I understood every little intricacy before we moved on to the next topic. Miss you Earl. You were truly one of the good guys.
JC Cooper