Roy "Leonard" Hampton was the son of Rev. John William (JW) Hampton and Sarah Jane Wilkerson Hampton. He was husband of (1st wife), Martha Matilda Brehm Hampton and he was the father of 2 children: Robert "Bob" Wade Hampton and Pearl Hampton Orland.
He went by his middle name "Leonard" and has been referred to as kind of "a wild and crazy carefree guy", since he did so many lives on the edge things cheating death once to many times. He served on the 1st USS Saratoga ACR-2 in the Pacific before WWI. It used to be the USS New York and it was on the back of 2-dollar bills for some time. By the time he was 22 years old he was already discharged from the Navy. He had made Gunners Mate 3rd class (GM/3). That was on 11 Feb 1916. He had been in the Navy 4 years since 1912.
He grew up on a farm in Waco, Texas. His father was a Methodist minister. After the war he painted water towers and smokestacks with his brother Neal or "Nee lee" as he was called. They had no fear of anything and would do many things that would scare the socks off of most folks, but undoubtedly would give them a thrill a second! He was one of the first people to take and sell aerial pictures, from a large kite or ballon towed by a truck down a hill! How's that for hair-raising? They liked doing unusual and crazy things for thrills and money and did not seem to care of the consequences involved or the fear of loosening one's life! They were some of the 1st if not the first to ride motorcycles inside silos round and round on the walls for money in a carnival type act. They called it a Moter-dome. They would ride in there together. Once Leonard wrecked and broke 21 bones, but he recovered ok. In 1916 he married Martha Brehm in California. Another hair-raising job he had was on tall skyscraper construction in Chicago where they used no safety ropes and walked on the beams like a tight rope walker catching white hot rivets in a bucket and hammering them in the steel beams. He almost fell 52 stories one time but fell just 2 stories by hanging onto the crane hook with a couple of fingers on just one hand! He landed on his feet and was ok not being scared of heights at all and loving that thrill it gave him. He had 2 children, Bob and Pearle with Martha but divorced her in 1928 and remarried for a short time to Catherine Schmer in 1929 but divorced again in 1931. By then he had moved his kids down to Texas where his roots were. By now the depression was going strong and jobs and pay were very hard to come by. For a while his kids would stay with their mother, then his mother Sarah Jane in Teague, Texas and then with his younger sister Vera in Klondike, TX and then back again, and also some others. They bounced all over it seemed, but it was not unheard of in those dire times. It wasn't that the parents didn't love them, they did. It was because working from place to place and working day, and with just a few items of clothing, and perhaps 1 meal a day, if that was not a life suitable for children and their schooling and up-bringing. He bought a house trailer and mounted a shooting gallery on the back of it and went traveling with several carnivals with his nephew Bill "Billie" Hampton. While in California in the mountains there he went hunting for some fresh meat and noticed it was getting late. He started running down the hills to get to his camp before dark. He fell down a steep slope and got banged up really bad. He saw a doctor and he told him he needed surgery to mend the damage inside his body. Of course he had no money, so while in all kinds of pain he sold his trailer and anything else he could, which wasn't enough. He traveled down to Texas to his family to see if they could help with the costs. They barely had enough to eat let alone money for operations. He died in his son's arms from his injury, but before that as least he was able to say goodbye to his family and kids. He was only 39 years old,
and now "he was free from his pain", as his son Bob told him.
He went by his middle name "Leonard" and has been referred to as kind of "a wild and crazy carefree guy", since he did so many lives on the edge things cheating death once to many times. He served on the 1st USS Saratoga ACR-2 in the Pacific before WWI. It used to be the USS New York and it was on the back of 2-dollar bills for some time. By the time he was 22 years old he was already discharged from the Navy. He had made Gunners Mate 3rd class (GM/3). That was on 11 Feb 1916. He had been in the Navy 4 years since 1912.
He grew up on a farm in Waco, Texas. His father was a Methodist minister. After the war he painted water towers and smokestacks with his brother Neal or "Nee lee" as he was called. They had no fear of anything and would do many things that would scare the socks off of most folks, but undoubtedly would give them a thrill a second! He was one of the first people to take and sell aerial pictures, from a large kite or ballon towed by a truck down a hill! How's that for hair-raising? They liked doing unusual and crazy things for thrills and money and did not seem to care of the consequences involved or the fear of loosening one's life! They were some of the 1st if not the first to ride motorcycles inside silos round and round on the walls for money in a carnival type act. They called it a Moter-dome. They would ride in there together. Once Leonard wrecked and broke 21 bones, but he recovered ok. In 1916 he married Martha Brehm in California. Another hair-raising job he had was on tall skyscraper construction in Chicago where they used no safety ropes and walked on the beams like a tight rope walker catching white hot rivets in a bucket and hammering them in the steel beams. He almost fell 52 stories one time but fell just 2 stories by hanging onto the crane hook with a couple of fingers on just one hand! He landed on his feet and was ok not being scared of heights at all and loving that thrill it gave him. He had 2 children, Bob and Pearle with Martha but divorced her in 1928 and remarried for a short time to Catherine Schmer in 1929 but divorced again in 1931. By then he had moved his kids down to Texas where his roots were. By now the depression was going strong and jobs and pay were very hard to come by. For a while his kids would stay with their mother, then his mother Sarah Jane in Teague, Texas and then with his younger sister Vera in Klondike, TX and then back again, and also some others. They bounced all over it seemed, but it was not unheard of in those dire times. It wasn't that the parents didn't love them, they did. It was because working from place to place and working day, and with just a few items of clothing, and perhaps 1 meal a day, if that was not a life suitable for children and their schooling and up-bringing. He bought a house trailer and mounted a shooting gallery on the back of it and went traveling with several carnivals with his nephew Bill "Billie" Hampton. While in California in the mountains there he went hunting for some fresh meat and noticed it was getting late. He started running down the hills to get to his camp before dark. He fell down a steep slope and got banged up really bad. He saw a doctor and he told him he needed surgery to mend the damage inside his body. Of course he had no money, so while in all kinds of pain he sold his trailer and anything else he could, which wasn't enough. He traveled down to Texas to his family to see if they could help with the costs. They barely had enough to eat let alone money for operations. He died in his son's arms from his injury, but before that as least he was able to say goodbye to his family and kids. He was only 39 years old,
and now "he was free from his pain", as his son Bob told him.
Roy "Leonard" Hampton was the son of Rev. John William (JW) Hampton and Sarah Jane Wilkerson Hampton. He was husband of (1st wife), Martha Matilda Brehm Hampton and he was the father of 2 children: Robert "Bob" Wade Hampton and Pearl Hampton Orland.
He went by his middle name "Leonard" and has been referred to as kind of "a wild and crazy carefree guy", since he did so many lives on the edge things cheating death once to many times. He served on the 1st USS Saratoga ACR-2 in the Pacific before WWI. It used to be the USS New York and it was on the back of 2-dollar bills for some time. By the time he was 22 years old he was already discharged from the Navy. He had made Gunners Mate 3rd class (GM/3). That was on 11 Feb 1916. He had been in the Navy 4 years since 1912.
He grew up on a farm in Waco, Texas. His father was a Methodist minister. After the war he painted water towers and smokestacks with his brother Neal or "Nee lee" as he was called. They had no fear of anything and would do many things that would scare the socks off of most folks, but undoubtedly would give them a thrill a second! He was one of the first people to take and sell aerial pictures, from a large kite or ballon towed by a truck down a hill! How's that for hair-raising? They liked doing unusual and crazy things for thrills and money and did not seem to care of the consequences involved or the fear of loosening one's life! They were some of the 1st if not the first to ride motorcycles inside silos round and round on the walls for money in a carnival type act. They called it a Moter-dome. They would ride in there together. Once Leonard wrecked and broke 21 bones, but he recovered ok. In 1916 he married Martha Brehm in California. Another hair-raising job he had was on tall skyscraper construction in Chicago where they used no safety ropes and walked on the beams like a tight rope walker catching white hot rivets in a bucket and hammering them in the steel beams. He almost fell 52 stories one time but fell just 2 stories by hanging onto the crane hook with a couple of fingers on just one hand! He landed on his feet and was ok not being scared of heights at all and loving that thrill it gave him. He had 2 children, Bob and Pearle with Martha but divorced her in 1928 and remarried for a short time to Catherine Schmer in 1929 but divorced again in 1931. By then he had moved his kids down to Texas where his roots were. By now the depression was going strong and jobs and pay were very hard to come by. For a while his kids would stay with their mother, then his mother Sarah Jane in Teague, Texas and then with his younger sister Vera in Klondike, TX and then back again, and also some others. They bounced all over it seemed, but it was not unheard of in those dire times. It wasn't that the parents didn't love them, they did. It was because working from place to place and working day, and with just a few items of clothing, and perhaps 1 meal a day, if that was not a life suitable for children and their schooling and up-bringing. He bought a house trailer and mounted a shooting gallery on the back of it and went traveling with several carnivals with his nephew Bill "Billie" Hampton. While in California in the mountains there he went hunting for some fresh meat and noticed it was getting late. He started running down the hills to get to his camp before dark. He fell down a steep slope and got banged up really bad. He saw a doctor and he told him he needed surgery to mend the damage inside his body. Of course he had no money, so while in all kinds of pain he sold his trailer and anything else he could, which wasn't enough. He traveled down to Texas to his family to see if they could help with the costs. They barely had enough to eat let alone money for operations. He died in his son's arms from his injury, but before that as least he was able to say goodbye to his family and kids. He was only 39 years old,
and now "he was free from his pain", as his son Bob told him.
He went by his middle name "Leonard" and has been referred to as kind of "a wild and crazy carefree guy", since he did so many lives on the edge things cheating death once to many times. He served on the 1st USS Saratoga ACR-2 in the Pacific before WWI. It used to be the USS New York and it was on the back of 2-dollar bills for some time. By the time he was 22 years old he was already discharged from the Navy. He had made Gunners Mate 3rd class (GM/3). That was on 11 Feb 1916. He had been in the Navy 4 years since 1912.
He grew up on a farm in Waco, Texas. His father was a Methodist minister. After the war he painted water towers and smokestacks with his brother Neal or "Nee lee" as he was called. They had no fear of anything and would do many things that would scare the socks off of most folks, but undoubtedly would give them a thrill a second! He was one of the first people to take and sell aerial pictures, from a large kite or ballon towed by a truck down a hill! How's that for hair-raising? They liked doing unusual and crazy things for thrills and money and did not seem to care of the consequences involved or the fear of loosening one's life! They were some of the 1st if not the first to ride motorcycles inside silos round and round on the walls for money in a carnival type act. They called it a Moter-dome. They would ride in there together. Once Leonard wrecked and broke 21 bones, but he recovered ok. In 1916 he married Martha Brehm in California. Another hair-raising job he had was on tall skyscraper construction in Chicago where they used no safety ropes and walked on the beams like a tight rope walker catching white hot rivets in a bucket and hammering them in the steel beams. He almost fell 52 stories one time but fell just 2 stories by hanging onto the crane hook with a couple of fingers on just one hand! He landed on his feet and was ok not being scared of heights at all and loving that thrill it gave him. He had 2 children, Bob and Pearle with Martha but divorced her in 1928 and remarried for a short time to Catherine Schmer in 1929 but divorced again in 1931. By then he had moved his kids down to Texas where his roots were. By now the depression was going strong and jobs and pay were very hard to come by. For a while his kids would stay with their mother, then his mother Sarah Jane in Teague, Texas and then with his younger sister Vera in Klondike, TX and then back again, and also some others. They bounced all over it seemed, but it was not unheard of in those dire times. It wasn't that the parents didn't love them, they did. It was because working from place to place and working day, and with just a few items of clothing, and perhaps 1 meal a day, if that was not a life suitable for children and their schooling and up-bringing. He bought a house trailer and mounted a shooting gallery on the back of it and went traveling with several carnivals with his nephew Bill "Billie" Hampton. While in California in the mountains there he went hunting for some fresh meat and noticed it was getting late. He started running down the hills to get to his camp before dark. He fell down a steep slope and got banged up really bad. He saw a doctor and he told him he needed surgery to mend the damage inside his body. Of course he had no money, so while in all kinds of pain he sold his trailer and anything else he could, which wasn't enough. He traveled down to Texas to his family to see if they could help with the costs. They barely had enough to eat let alone money for operations. He died in his son's arms from his injury, but before that as least he was able to say goodbye to his family and kids. He was only 39 years old,
and now "he was free from his pain", as his son Bob told him.
Gravesite Details
ROY LEONARD HAMPTON
US NAVY
USS SARATOGA
Family Members
Siblings
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