RARA-AVIS: Re: Roger Torrey bibliography

From: Richard Moore ( moorich@aol.com)
Date: 18 Oct 2006


I am just now catching up on posts after the Madison Bouchercon and a lovely trip to Italy.

In recent years I've received a great deal of information and copies of documents from Roger's half-brother Don Torrey. Don was a kid when Roger died in 1946 and he only learned about the connection from a sister a few years after their father's death in 1967. Their common father had three wives with children by each and Roger came from the first marriage and Don from the third. The father never mentioned the first family to his third.

I had anticipated Don's information being published as a part of a Torrey collection but that seems to have stalled. I will pull something together that will provide more detail but here are the basics.

Roger Denzel Torrey was born in Michigan May 5, 1901 (or May 5, 1900 depending upon which records are believed) to Neil Baldwin Torrey and Rose May Morey Torrey. Rose divorced Neil and moved to Klamath Falls, Oregon. Roger's mother married Harry Poole and together they bought or built several theatres in the area that featured movies and at least one had an orchestra and hosted vaudeville acts. According to various published Klamath Falls histories, Roger played the piano and organ in the theaters and for a time was a manager of one of them. Roger's mother was a community leader in Klamath Falls and was elected and served in the Oregon legislature from 1945 to 1947.

Turned down for the U.S. Army because of his age, Roger crossed the border, lied about his age and claimed to have been born in St. John, New Brunswick, Canada. He took the oath on October 16, 1918 and in his enlistment papers his "Trade or calling" was listed as Logger. His army health records list him as 5 ft. 6 and 3/4 inches tall and weighing 122 pounds and he had brown hair and hazel eyes. His discharge certificate was signed at Vancover, BC and dated December 9, 1918.

Roger did own the confectionary shop in 1930 with his then wife Edna working as a sales clerk in the shop.

Roger died in Broward County, Florida with the cause on his death certicate listed as "Acute intoxification (alcoholism)" and under "other conditions" was listed "cirrhosis of the liver." He was living at 1009 SE 4th Street in Ft. Lauderdale, FL with his wife Helen. He is buried at Evergreen Cemetery in Ft. Lauderdale. the death certificate lists his birth date as May 5, 1900. Family records place the year of birth at 1901.

There's more detail that I hope to bring together in a longer writeup.

Richard Moore

 

--- In rara-avis-l@yahoogroups.com, "George Tuttle" <noirfiction@...> wrote:
>
> The 1930 Census lists a Roger D. Torrey of Klamath Falls, Oregon,
> age: 28, occupation: "own confectionery". According to Lee
> Server's Danger Is My Business, Roger Torrey was a lumber-jack in
> Klamath Falls, Oregon.
>
> Florida Death Index, 1877-1998 (Florida: Florida Department of
> Health, Office of Vital Records, 1998) lists a Roger Den Torrey,
age
> unspecified, dying in 1946 in Broward County.
>
> It would be nice to have a newspaper obituary or a little more
> information before we connected all of these Torreys together.
>
> Anybody?
>
>
>
> --- In rara-avis-l@yahoogroups.com, "Vladimir" <kerwud@> wrote:
> >
> > Good day!
> > Bibliography of Roger D. Torrey on line
> > http://rraymond.narod.ru/torrey-bib.htm
> >
> > It's incomplete... :-(
> > Does anybody know the dates of his life?
> > Vladimir
> >
>

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