Charley Damron's Story
"I am no one special. Just a common man with common thoughts. There are no monuments dedicated to me and my name will soon be forgotten. But in one respect I have succeeded as gloriously as anyone who ever lived. I've loved another with all my heart and soul and for me that has always been enough." from the movie The Notebook
RAW ( Roy), as his sisters called him, was born in Huntington, WV and weighed 16 pounds at birth, so the story goes. As a babe in arms, he moved with his family to Lucasville, Ohio where his sisters tell stories of his crawling to the neighbors house across the street for a jelly sandwich because he was too big to walk ... must have been the jelly rolls on his little legs.
At age two, the family moved to Missouri Branch, in Wayne County, WV, where his grandfather Lafe and great-grandfather Harvey George lived years before. Charles does not remember meeting either grandfather. He lived and went to Wells Mountain Elementary School in Missouri Branch from 1930-1940. Today, with over 200 Damrons living in the Cabwaylingo area, this city in WV has more Damrons than any other section of the US. If you drive thru Dingess today and tell a stranger your name is Damron, everyone asks if you are from the Lafe Damron clan.
At age 12, the family moved to 1708 Maple Street, Kenova, WV. They lived in this house from 1940-194. Being an ambitious young man and interested in making money, Charley began his first job at an early age cutting grass for apartment buildings in Kenova.
As a young lad of 14, he met a beautiful girl in a light blue pant suit and thought how he would like to marry her some day. The year was 1942; her name was Helen Wilson (age 13) from Barger Hill, and they were in Junior High school.
His next job as a teenager was at Dreamland pool as a Soda Jerk. He also got his girlfriend, Helen a job there checking clothes in the locker room. Their relationship was growing more serious every day. He asked her stepfather, Cecil Rowe if he could take her out on a date. They went to a Saturday afternoon movie and he bought her a vanilla ice cream at the local drug store. The birds were singing! The bells were ringing! And Love was in the air.
From Dreamland, Charley, as he was being called, went to work for Western Union as a delivery boy. He had the difficult job of delivering telegrams to the families of soldiers killed in action during WWII. On many occasions, he had to stay with the person until another family member arrived. Perhaps this is where he first learned compassion.
His next job as a hard working teanager was setting pins at the local bowling alley. He took a bus to Huntington to set pins. At age 16, he went to work at the C&O Railroad as a laborer.
Two weeks before his 17th birthday, Charles decided to go into the service. The year was 1945 and the war was quickly coming to a close. He joined the Navy and was sent to San Diego, CA for two years. He wrote Helen a letter of proposal and asked for the marriage to take place in San Diego. However, he got a leave to come home, and plans were changed to get married in KY.
On June 3, 1947, Charles Roy Damron married Helen Virginia Wilson at the pastor's home of the Baptist Church in Cattletsburg, KY, with her mother Wilma Rowe, and Aunt and Uncle Charlie and Ruby Brumfield by their side. He was so nervous that his pants leg was shaking and he forgot his sailor hat and had to go back in the parsonage to get it.
Charles went back to San Diego and Helen went back home. As soon as the Navy made living arrangements for the couple to be stationed in Washington state, Helen joined Charles in their first apartment in Seattle. She enrolled in Queen Anne High School.
Half way through her senior year, the Navy stationed Charles in Bellingham, Washington. This was their second apartment. One day Helen became very sick. Charles called the Doctor to the apartment thinking the worst. It only took the doctor a few minutes to determine that Helen would be just fine in about nine months.
With the news of their first child, came news that the Navy was shipping Charles to sea. His first assignment was 6 months on the USS Princeton. Helen went back to Kenova for the birth of their son, Charles Roy Damron, Jr.
Charles put in for a transfer closer home. The Navy sent him to Norfolk, VA where he shipped out on the USS Tanniger. He worked sweeping the ocean for mines from WWII. He made fiendships that would last a lifetime with another sailor from Huntington, Ray Terrell. Together they sailed to Newfoundland, and also the West Indies.
In 1949, Charles completed his tour of duty. He went to work for the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad as an electrician working on signal lights. His father-in-law, being an excellent carpenter, transformed what was a chicken coup over the hillside into a one bedroom house for the young couple's first home. It was here that another child was born, Sandra Louise.
Soon after Sandra's birth, Charles and Helen bought their first home on Chase Street in Huntington with a zero down offer from the GI Bill. One year later, they were able to turn a $2000 profit by selling the house. Charles and Helen moved back to the Chicken coup and their third child, David Alan Damron, was born in 1951.
Charles was riding the train daily to South Charleston and working on the tracks in front of Rock Lake Pool. When David was nine months old, Charles found a house to rent on Lambert's Court on the hillside overlooking Rock Lake Pool.
In 1952, Charles and Helen made a decision that would change the family's life forever. In November 1954, Charles started his own business, Damron Electric with a $50 investment. While workint on the railroad, he and Dick Thomas worked evenings doing service work. Charles studied hard for his Electrician's license and in 1954 was able to quit his job on the railroad and 
go full time in the electrical service business. His first office was in the attic of our home. The motto of his business "It's the know-how that count." The logo was a boy holding a toolbox with a bolt of lightning in his hand.
All the years as an ambitious, hard working teanager and the skills learned in the Navy and working for the Railroad paid off. Damron Electric was a successful service company from the first year.
The young entrepreneur worked hard in these first years of his business. In 1962 Charles built the Damron Electric building at 624 Chestnut Street on a lot that was previously used as a car dump. For his improving the area, the city awarded Charley a beautification award.
