J. Edward Jennings served Navy: Dec. 1943, to June 1952

Littlelfield Navy veteran, J. Edward “Ed” Jennings, well-known lately as “the insurance man”, in Littlefield, celebrated his 95th birthday on Thursday, Oct. 22, 2020.

He retired from the Jennings Insurance Agency four years ago, and the current owner of Jennings Insurance Agency is Velma Rodriquez.

Military history

J. Edward Jennings is a veteran of U.S. Navy during World War II, and and re-drafted into the Naval Reserves during the Korean War.

He was first drafted when he was a student at Littlefield High School, on Dec. 23, 1943, and was finally discharged on June 9, 1952.

He was born at Paducah on Oct. 22, 1925. His parents were living at Pettit, west of Levelland, where his father was breaking out land with a Cross Motor Case tractor; and his mother was teaching school at Pettit.

When it was time for Ed to be born, his parents went back to Paducah, “because there weren’t any doctors out here”, he explained. The parents came to Littlefield on their way to Paducah, and spent one night upstairs in a building that was east of the Murdock Hotel, before going on to Paducah.

“That building had a restaurant on the bottom floor, and rooms for rent upstairs,” Jennings recalled as he was told about the trip, and later, while growing up, has seen that building.

When he was old enough to go to school, the first school he attended was Chalk. He and five or six neighbor children walked four miles to school, carrying sticks to hit the snakes they encountered. “We never really killed any, though,” he said.

His father was a farmer, and they moved a lot while he was growing up. They next moved west to Valley View Rural High School, which was located six miles west of Paducah; and later to Booksville School north of Paducah, and then to Paducah Schools.

In 1940, after they had moved to Wichita County, he attended Iowa Park Schools. While there, he won a contest for a “Tour of Texas”, sponsored by the Dallas Morning News and the Texas Almanac.

“There were 60 of us winners who went on that trip all around Texas,” he recalls.

In 1942, the family moved southwest of Littlefield, and he began attending Littlefield Schools.

“I was the only person drafted out of the Littlefield High School system during World War II,” he said. “I left on Dec. 23, 1943, so I didn’t get to graduate.”

He saw active duty at Saipan during World War II, and when the war was over, “I wound up in Shanghai, China,” he said.

A thing he remembers about Saipan is, “The people of Saipan were so frightened of Americans, they jumped off a cliff into the water, and drowned. Hundreds committed suicide because they were frightened of the Americans,” he remembers.

“After I came back, after being honorably discharged from the Navy on April 7, 1946, at the U.S. Naval Personnel Separation Center in San Pedro, Calif., they (Littlefield High School) wouldn’t give me a diploma.

“But just a few years ago, I finally was given a diploma from Littlefield High School, when Superintendent Jerry Blakely presented diplomas to three of us veterans at the same time.”

After he was discharged in 1946, Jennings worked for a while at the local Pontiac dealership, before he was called back into the Navy on Feb. 3, 1951, to serve during the Korean War.

“I spent a total of nine years in the Navy and Naval Reserve,” he said.

“After I got out of the Navy, I worked in Alaska with the Civil Service for the U.S. Army,” he recalled.

“We were on the western point of the North American Continent, and we could see Russia from there,” he reminisced.

His final discharge was recorded in the Lamb County Clerk’s Office by Lamb County Clerk Joel F. Thompson, on June 9, 1952.

When he was discharged in 1946, he was a Motor Machinist’s Mate Third Class.

His service with the Navy was aboard USS Gambier Bay, USS Ajax, USS Orvetta, and US APL-11.

He was the recipient of four medals: the Asiatic Pacific Area 1 Star; the American Area, The Philippine Liberation; and the Victory Medal of World War II.

He came back to Littlefield, but went to Houston, to work on a pipeline, and later with Phillips Chemical Company. “We had a strike, and I lost my job,” he said.

While in Houston, he briefly attended the University of Houston, but because of his work schedule, he could not continue his studies. “I wish I could have finished,” he looks back on the situation.

After that, he went to work as a deep water longshoreman. “That was the hardest work I ever did in my whole life,” he assures.

Back in Littlefield, he began his Jennings Insurance business in 1969, and had been with it until he retired four years ago. (1916)

As a veteran living and working here, he also worked with the local VFW Post 4854, and later with the American Legion.

“I was the last commander of the local VFW and the American Legion,” he recalls, after they were both discontinued.

“The reason the VFW folded, was because Bingo was abolished,” he explained.

“The VFW supported a lot of charities, and money was raised to support those charities through the Bingo games,” he said, “and when we couldn’t play Bingo anymore, the VFW went down.”

He tried diligently to get the American Legion going, but “because of apathy” it never went very long.

Family important to him

Ed was one of the four children his parents raised, including his two brothers and a sister, all who are now deceased.

His brothers were Robert C. Jennings, Jr. and Royce W. Jennings; and his sister, Linda Jennings Jones.

In 1951, during the war years, he married Christine Sorensen.

They are parents of two daughters and a son.

Their daughter Cynthia Pennington resides in Houston, and Charlotte Gilley lives here in Littlefield.

Their son, Michael Jennings, is also a Littlefield resident.

He and Christine are the proud grandparents of three grand-children; and four great-grand-children.