Harris County Texas Archives Biographies.....Keen, Edwin Lafayete February 3, 1923 - April 30, 1966
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Annette Keen kskeens2@sunflower.com February 24, 2005, 1:45 pm

Author: Annette Keen

Edwin Lafayette Keen was born in Mira, LA 2-3-1923 to Annie Jewell Tompkins and 
Forest Lafayette Keen.  He was the oldest son but not the oldest child.  He 
joined the NAVY at the beginning of WWII and was stationed in the South Pacific 
as was his brother, A.C. Keen.  He married after the war to Virginia Ann 
Parker, of Corsicana, TX.  Her mother lived in Shreveport, LA and lived next 
door to his mother, which is how they met.  They were married 20 years when he 
died in 1966.  He was a pipefitter, learning the trade in the Navy and learning 
more after the war with the G.I. Bill he attended San Jacinto College for 2 
years, graduating.  He developed Rheumatoid Arthritis during the war.  He had 
to have surgery on his neck to fuse vertabrae.  He never missed a days' work 
and if he had trouble finding work during strikes, he would sign up to work 
over in South America for 6 month stints.  He was a very handsome man, with 
very intense blue-hazel eyes that would change color depending on what he 
wore.  He was 6 feet tall till his later years when his arthritis made him 
shrink about 2 inches by the  time he died.  He was a man that loved fast cars, 
and his idea of a good time was taking the engine apart and putting it back 
together on a weekend.  His life was cut short too soon, and his brain was 
donated to science as the doctors couldn't understand how he was able to handle 
the pain he was in and yet still work everyday.  They said he had progressed to 
the point, he should have been in a wheel chair, but there he was, still 
walking around and wasn't taking any meds for it.  He loved to laugh, he was 
passionate about those he loved, his family, and he learned in the war that you 
should live each day like it is your last because it very well may be!

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