Elmer Robert Spence

When Elmer was born, the Spence family consisted of his parents, John and Lena, and his brother, John, who was about 16 months old. John Sr. was a grocery store manager and they were renting a row house at 3039 Titan Street in the Grays Ferry section of Philadelphia.

The two brothers soon had two sisters when Lorraine arrived in 1922 followed by Eleanor in 1927. They needed more room so they moved two blocks to 32nd Street across from a little park called Stinger Square where the kids could play. The 1930 census identified the store John managed as the A&P supermarket. 

The Great Depression devastated the nation’s economy in general and the Spence family in particular when John lost his job. They made another move, this time to Elmwood Park in Southwest Philly and John kept the family fed by working as a cashier in a grocery store.

Neither son graduated from high school, but Elmer followed in his father’s footsteps. On the 1940 census he was listed as a cashier at the Giant food store about three miles away in suburban Lansdowne. Later that year he registered with his local draft board as required under the Selective Service Act. 

Elmer’s mother was diagnosed with a malignant tumor in her chest wall in 1941. She lost her life to the difficult-to-treat cancer in May while Elmer and the two girls were still living at home. 

Then came a letter in October of 1942 informing Elmer that he was needed in the Army. He served in Company M of the 7th Infantry Regiment and was part of three amphibious landings on three fronts. The first was on the island of Sicily, taking it from the Axis forces in 1943. 

Early the next year the regiment landed in Italy to begin the Battle of Anzio, which ended with the liberation of Rome in June of 1944. The third, shown here, was the invasion of southern France in August under the code name, “Operation Dragoon.” It was during this campaign in late September that Elmer died from enemy gunfire in France and therefore earned the Purple Heart medal.

Following a temporary burial, his body was returned home and laid to rest beside his mother in 1948. His father ordered a military grave marker, and was the last to be added to the family plot when he died in 1958.