Charles Russell Keep (724*) was born 3 October 1896 in Hartford, Connecticut to Charles Davis Keep (453*) and Grace Sturges Keep. [*Found in John Keep of Longmeadow and His Descendants, 1994]
Charles Davis Keep
was born in Alton, Illinois, and grew up in Hartford, Connecticut. As an adult he was connected with the Phoenix Mutual Life
Insurance Company in Hartford. He served in the city council from 1888 to 1895. For several years he was a member and secretary of
the Republican town and city committee. Grace Sturges was from Chicago, Illinois.
Charles Russell Keep attended elementary and high school in Hartford,
CT, graduating 1915. He attended one year of preparatory school prior to entering the class of 1920 at Dartmouth College starting
in the autumn of 1916.
After German submarines sank seven U.S. merchant ships and the public revelation of the Zimmerman Telegram from Germany asking Mexico
to attack the US, the United States entered the Great War on 6 April 1917.
Charles Russell Keep enlisted in the U.S. Navy Air
Force Reserve in 1917. When called to duty, his name was flashed on the screen at the Nugget Movie Theater in Hanover, New Hampshire. He left the theater to the cheers of his Dartmouth classmates and proceeded to the Naval flight training facility at the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology.
Mr. Keep had his flight training at the Naval Air Station, Pensacola, Florida. Naval aviators were
instructed in flying seaplanes, dirigibles and free kite balloons. This was the first naval air training station in America, established
for this purpose in 1913, and is called the cradle of naval aviation. It was the primary training base for all Navy, Marine and Coast
Guard aviators.
Young siblings Mildred Sturges Keep
and Charles Russell Keep
Charles Russell Keep, center. elementary school class photo
Charles Russell Keep, 1918
Photo and brief profile in “Flying Officers of the USN 1917-1919”. book published 1919 by the Naval Aviation War Book Committee, Washington D.C.
N.A. = Naval Aviator
HTA= Heavier Than Air (airplanes)
LTA= Lighter Than Air (balloons)
Seaplanes at Dinner Key Naval Air Facility at Coconut Grove, FL, 1918
WWI Naval Aviator Certificate of Charles Russell Keep
Germany surrendered 11 November 1918, Armistice Day, a little more than two months prior to Mr. Keep’s obtaining his Naval Aviator certification. On January 18, 1919, Mr. Keep was certified as the 2056th Aviator and Ensign in the Naval Flying Corps.
Mr. Keep was discharged 1919. After World War II, Dartmouth College belatedly recognized the service of its World War I veterans and presented them with honorary degrees. On return to Hartford, CT he addressed local community groups about the wonders of aviation.
Russ
met Ada Floyd, born 15 March 1902, daughter of Marcus Lawson Floyd and Maude Aloise McDuffie Floyd.
Ada was the 8th child of thirteen of Marcus Lawson Floyd, from his second of three marriages. Her father, Mr. Floyd, of West
Hartford and Floydville, Connecticut, was the United States Department of Agriculture tobacco expert who pioneered the now famous
“shade-grown” tobacco industry in Connecticut. He was originally from southern Georgia. He was also active in politics and formed
the Connecticut Progressive or Bull Moose Party in support of Teddy Roosevelt’s 1912 presidential bid. Mr. Roosevelt visited their
farm and Ada recalled having taken his signature bulldog for a walk.
Ada’s mother Maude Aloise McDuffee was born in Alabama.
Maude’s father John Van McDuffie served in the Union Army as Sergeant-Major in the 2nd Iowa Cavalry. He later was judge, planter,
and Republican representative to Congress from Alabama. Maude’s mother was Martha Alice (Quinn) Kelly, widow of a Confederate
soldier, with two children from that marriage, who had fled Monticello for refuge in Alabama.
Since Ada Floyd was 6 years the junior of Charles Russell Keep, and at 18 years old was under the age of consent, they eloped 10 April
1920. In later years she would tell her grandchildren that it had been widely predicted that the marriage would not last.
Ada
and Russ eloped to Los Angeles, California where Mr. Keep worked at a Ford assembly plant. For horsing around he was sent to
work in the paint booth as a type of punishment. Perhaps this led to Mr. and Mrs. Keep returning to the East Coast. They
lived in Jackson Heights, Queens, New York. Charles Russell Keep went to work for the Pacific Fire Insurance Company of New
York. Charles Russell Keep, Sr. and Ada Floyd’s only son Charles Russell Keep, Jr. (2431*) was born 9 February 1929. Russell
Sr. continued in the US Navy Air Reserve until the late 1920s and flew seaplanes out of the Naval Air Station Rockaway in Queens,
New York. The arrival of his only son in 1929 led to his giving up flying, from safety considerations for a new father flying
an open cockpit early seaplane.
The Pearl Harbor attack of 8 December 1941 brought the United States into World War II. Charles Russell Keep, Sr. was called on short notice for active duty in the US Naval Air Corps.
C. Russell Keep’s World War II Draft Card
New York insurance industry weekly newspaper clipping, 1942
Dinner Key Naval Air Facility, Coconut Grove, Florida. Early 1940’s
Lieutenant Commander C. Russell Keep, Sr, about 1942
He was given a commission as Lieutenant Commander and was assigned as Commanding Officer to reactivate and command the base at the
Dinner Key Naval Air Facility, Coconut Grove, Florida for the duration of the war. Dinner Key became the hub for all seaplanes
servicing U-boat patrols and courier service to patrols through the Caribbean for World War II. German activity off Florida
was significant. U-Boats sank twenty-four ships off Florida's coasts. Ships could be seen burning by Floridians and tourists.
In late February 1942, German submarines attacked four merchant ships right off the east coast near Cape Canaveral. German
spies came on shore near Jacksonville. They were captured before they could blow up Florida's railroad lines to interrupt the shipment
of war supplies.
Shortly after Victory in Europe Day (8 May 1945), Russell was discharged with the rank of Commander. Commander
Keep returned to civilian life after serving his country in both World Wars. While he did not himself see active combat he was
an aviator, and pilot instructor in the First World War, and commanded the same Dinner Key Naval Air Station in World War Two.