Posted on 07/24/2018 5:37:41 PM PDT by eastforker
Fess Elisha Parker Jr. was born Aug. 16, 1924, in Fort Worth and grew up on farm near San Angelo, Texas. He was named after his father ("Fess" means "proud" in Old English). After graduating San Angelo High School he served in the U.S. Navy in World War II on board the USS Clay (APA-39) and participated in mopping-up operations in the Philippines aboard the USS YMS-334.
Parker's height prevented him from entering Navy flight school. Then he tried for aviation radio gunners school in the Navy. "They threw me out because I was too big. They said, "You'll never get inside the cockpit." But because he had gotten Morse code training, he was shipped off to the Marines in Oceanside, Calif., where he trained for beach landings carrying a 50-pound field radio. "We were all just a bunch of kids, Happy Jacks," he remembered. One day, command called the group together and split them into two groups. The other group went to Iwo Jima. "They lost 5,000 people just getting off the beach," he remembers. "I assume someone had said, "That guy's too big." I was fortunate all the way through."
They finally did ship Parker out. "I was in the middle of the Pacific when they dropped the bomb." He went on to the Philippines and crewed on a wooden mine-sweeper, YMS-334, charged with cleaning up after the Japanese from September 1945 to March 1946.
(Excerpt) Read more at navy.togetherweserved.com ...
In a lifetime of taking bows for Davy Crockett, Parker said the most meaningful moments were meeting adults who were influenced as children by his portrayal. "I met some of the Vietnam fellas who were five or six years old when Davy Crockett came along," he said. "I was so touched by the fact that these were the little kids with the coonskin caps caught up in that awful situation. One fella told me that he was pretty comfortable in the jungle at night. He said he learned that from watching Davy Crockett."
6’6”. Tall dude.
Short compared to me, but definitely someone I would have liked to have met.
Thank you for this! I am was a child when Davy Crockett was on TV. I had such a crush on Fess Parker! We eventually lived in California and were within a day drive to his winery in Los Olivos. We went several times before he passed on and never saw him. I so wanted to meet him, even though I am now old. What a man!
Davy, Davy Crockett, king of the wild frontier!
I loved that show and most all of the Disney stories on Sunday night.
Born on a mountaintop in Tennessee
Greenest State in the Land of the Free
Raised in the woods so’s he knew every tree
Kill’d him a b’ar when he was only 3
Davy, Davy Crockett
King of the wild frontier
Sure wish I still had my coonskin cap. They actually sell little coonskin wine bottle toppers at his winery.........
There was a time even the actors in Hollywood possessed a strong moral character not like the pansies of today with their perverted ideals
FTA: “A lot of the actors would have shows for the servicemen in Hollywood,” he says. “It was a chance for us to say hello to the people you’d see on the screen, and they offered to take us into a movie studio, to see how a picture was made. While I was there, I noticed just how nice it was - there was air conditioning, and there was this gorgeous young lady there. I thought to myself, “These are excellent working conditions.”
Many actors say they got into show biz for the ladies.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.