Harry Crews - 1935
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By Josh Miller (third cousin to Mr. Crews)
I. Biography Harry Eugene Crews was born on June 7, 1935 in a small community called
Bacon County, Georgia. Harry's father (Ray Crews) died when he was two, and his mother married Ray's brother Pascal. At age six, he discovered that Pascal was not his biological
father. At this time, his mother (Myrtice Crews) was divorcing him for fits and drunken violence. After this, she and the children moved to Jacksonville, Florida where she worked in a cigar factory.
In 1953, Crews graduated from high school, being the first in his family to do so. After this, he joined the Marine Corps, at about eighteen years old. A cease-fire was signed
preventing Crews from going to war. Crews then went to the University of Florida on the GI bill. He had put up with all he could in two years, and then he rolled off on his 650cc
motorcycle for nowhere with $100 in his pocket. He worked all kind of odd jobs while he toured everywhere from Canada to Mexico. He returned to the University of Florida eighteen months later.
There Crews met Andrew Lytle, his new mentor. He later married Sally Ellis, Their son was born the September of that year. Crews also graduated from the University of Florida that
year, taking a job teaching junior high school. Crews and Sally were separated, but then remarried in 1962. A second son was born a year later. II. Sources Go to Information provided by family. This essay was submitted by a student of Debbie Wooten, a teacher at Bacon County High School in Alma, Georgia.