Clarence Eldon Nation, who went by "Eldon," was born April 4, 1915, in Mounds, Lynn County Kansas to parents Clarence John and Delia (Wayne) Nation. Eldon was the youngest of four children, only two of whom lived to adulthood: Iva (b1902) and Eldon. For this reason, Eldon spent some of his early childhood as an only child, because Iva (13 years older) married and moved away. Also, Eldon's father Clarence sadly passed away in 1920 due to complications from the flu epidemic. Eldon was only 5 at the time. He spent the next several years living with his widowed mother and two elderly grandmothers (according to 1920/1925 censuses and family pictures). Apparently, things were very tight financially during this time, with Eldon trapping small animals to sell their pelts as supplementation for the family income. Sometime between 1925 and 1930, Eldon's mother Delia married widower James McHone and took young Eldon to live with his new stepfamily. My grandfather almost never talked about this period of his childhood, but I did hear him say once that he "had never seen so much food in one place before and witnessed it disappearing so quickly." Eldon remained in contact with his step siblings throughout his life, although I never met any of them. It does seem clear-from the very few things Eldon did say about his childhood-that Eldon's stepfather was a strict disciplinarian and perhaps too hard on his stepson. Eldon married Agnes Grace ("Grace") Bernstorf on April 9, 1939 in Chase County, Kansas. He was 24 years old at the time. The birth of their first son took place in November 1940, The young family grew up in rural Kansas, where Eldon worked in the oil industry. The family moved to Ft. Morgan, Colorado in the early 1950's where their children graduated from high school. Because all of Eldon's grandparents had passed away by the time he was 8 or 9, he would not know so much about them; he would have been interested to know that his grandfather Thomas E Nation is considered a pioneer of Kansas, having moved to the territory in the 1860's. Also, Eldon's maternal great-grandfather, Temple Wayne, was one of the first to arrive in Kansas Territory in the 1850's and is one of the original Jay-Hawkers. Married 66 years to Grace