DTM_Summer'26_Flattened - Flipbook - Page 13
Postcard used by the city of Crane to encourage settlers to visit.
(Taken 15 days after town was established on January 7, 1927.)
Source: DavickServices.com
Elmer grew up on a working ranch, the “Jigger Y”
owned by J. T. McElroy near Crane, Texas, where his
father was foreman. Buck Kelton, born in 1901, was
among “the last of the full-time horseback
cowboy[s],” and Elmer and his brothers—Myrle,
Billy, and Eugene—felt fortunate to have been born
before those days were entirely gone for, soon
enough, they “witnessed the slow transition into the
mechanized, computerized, and increasingly
regulated ranching industry of today.” The Kelton
boys were each expected to participate in ranch life,
helping with tasks as size and ability allowed, but
Elmer never felt his own abilities as a cowboy lived
up to expectations, particularly those of his father.
He was not a natural at riding or roping, like his
brother Myrle, and an early scare on horseback
when he was just a toddler left him forever
“tentative” around horses. Ranching—then and
now—can be a dangerous and physically
demanding occupation. Elmer knew many old
cowboys who ended their days crippled up, some
short a digit or limb. And he knew a few that would
never get old enough to complain of age or infirmity,
killed while doing the same ranch
work that he and most of the
people he cared about did daily.
Cowboying didn’t pay much,
either . . . on balance, the “risk vs.
reward” of the cowboy career must
have made young Elmer, inept as he
felt himself to be at it, nervous
indeed, even while he truly admired the
work ethic, physical stamina and athletic
talent of the cowboys around him.
Jigger Y Ranch Cattle Brand
Source: Texas Almanac
But Elmer was perhaps even more nervous to tell his
father that he wished to become a writer instead. As
he feared, the full weight of Buck’s disapproval was
summed up in this response to the sixteen-year-old:
“That’s the way with you kids nowadays, you all want
to make a living without working for it.” Buck Kelton
didn’t try to hinder his son, but neither did he offer
any enthusiasm, leaving Elmer to figure it out for
himself.
Elmer relied instead on the encouragement of Paul
Patterson, who taught journalism at Crane and was
an author in his own right. Patterson became
Elmer’s life-long mentor. Elmer even did the
illustrations for Patterson’s 1947 publication of Sam
McGoo and Texas Too, amusing and skillful
pen-and-ink sketches, but drawing was more of an
amusing hobby than a passionate pursuit. Elmer
loved reading from a young age and, never athletic,
played clarinet in the school’s marching band and
worked on the school newspaper. After graduating
(only eleven grades at that time) Elmer headed for
the University of Texas, lured by its writing
program and J. Frank Dobie, a popular folklorist
who taught there.
Elmer’s Illustration in Sam McGoo and Texas Too.
Source: Sam McGoo and Texas Too by Paul Patterson.
But he would never get to study under Dobie, for
World War II interrupted Elmer’s academic career.
Rejected by the Navy for flat feet, he was able to
join the Army infantry at 18, and after training at El
Paso, was shipped off to the war. He didn’t see
much of it—it was winding down in Europe, and
most of his last year there was spent overseeing
refugee and prisoner-of-war camps. It was in
Ebensee, Austria that he met Anne Lipp by
happenstance one evening. Something about her
struck young Elmer; he walked her home and
returned the following day. Despite their trouble
communicating, Elmer felt comfortable with the
young Austrian woman, and like Eve with her
apple, as Elmer tells it, Anne sealed the deal by
baking the best strudel he’d ever eaten. Apple, of
course.
