My father, Gerald Francis Derry Sr., was among the last of the Derrys to be born in the 19th century. He grew up in Galesburg while his father, James, was a mail carrier and also owned a photography studio there. Grandfather James, ("Frank", as he was often called), moved the family to Baxter Springs (Cherokee County), Kansas between 1916-1920, where he was a conductor for the Rock Island railroad. It is unknown to me whether Dad went with the family to Kansas. Though I was quite young when he died, I remember well my father. "Were you always a preacher?" I once asked him. "I remember stepping off an old board sidewalk in a small town in Illinois, and there, preached my first sermon," he told me (Probably Galesburg or Quincy). He said that was about 1916. It was told to me that he left home at an early age, so I suspect he did not go with the family to Kansas.
The father I knew was a preacher. As I have learned over the years, Dad did many other things long before my existence. As a young man he was a professional boxer, a muleskinner, a long distance, high altitude runner, and in the late 1920's, a small town marshal in Missouri. For a time in the early 30's, he was a Chicago cop.
It was also during that time in Chicago, that grandfather James had joined the U.S. Treasury Department, Bureau of Industrial Alcohol, and served until 1935, when he retired. That job required frequent changes of duty stations, one of which was Berwyn, Illinois (1928-1929); another was Terre Haute, Indiana (1934). I have no information that Dad and grandfather James ever worked with the "Untouchable," Elliot Ness, the Treasury Agent who brought down Alfonse Capone. Though, I do know that after Dad resigned from the Chicago Police Department, he began his own private detective agency. In a story related to me by my mother, Dad was approached by the infamous, Alfonse Capone who wanted to use Dad's detective agency as a body guard service to protect Capone's mother. Dad told Capone he wouldn't use his detective agency as a body guard service.
The father I knew was a preacher. As I have learned over the years, Dad did many other things long before my existence. As a young man he was a professional boxer, a muleskinner, a long distance, high altitude runner, and in the late 1920's, a small town marshal in Missouri. For a time in the early 30's, he was a Chicago cop.
It was also during that time in Chicago, that grandfather James had joined the U.S. Treasury Department, Bureau of Industrial Alcohol, and served until 1935, when he retired. That job required frequent changes of duty stations, one of which was Berwyn, Illinois (1928-1929); another was Terre Haute, Indiana (1934). I have no information that Dad and grandfather James ever worked with the "Untouchable," Elliot Ness, the Treasury Agent who brought down Alfonse Capone. Though, I do know that after Dad resigned from the Chicago Police Department, he began his own private detective agency. In a story related to me by my mother, Dad was approached by the infamous, Alfonse Capone who wanted to use Dad's detective agency as a body guard service to protect Capone's mother. Dad told Capone he wouldn't use his detective agency as a body guard service.
My father, Gerald Francis Derry Sr., was among the last of the Derrys to be born in the 19th century. He grew up in Galesburg while his father, James, was a mail carrier and also owned a photography studio there. Grandfather James, ("Frank", as he was often called), moved the family to Baxter Springs (Cherokee County), Kansas between 1916-1920, where he was a conductor for the Rock Island railroad. It is unknown to me whether Dad went with the family to Kansas. Though I was quite young when he died, I remember well my father. "Were you always a preacher?" I once asked him. "I remember stepping off an old board sidewalk in a small town in Illinois, and there, preached my first sermon," he told me (Probably Galesburg or Quincy). He said that was about 1916. It was told to me that he left home at an early age, so I suspect he did not go with the family to Kansas.
The father I knew was a preacher. As I have learned over the years, Dad did many other things long before my existence. As a young man he was a professional boxer, a muleskinner, a long distance, high altitude runner, and in the late 1920's, a small town marshal in Missouri. For a time in the early 30's, he was a Chicago cop.
It was also during that time in Chicago, that grandfather James had joined the U.S. Treasury Department, Bureau of Industrial Alcohol, and served until 1935, when he retired. That job required frequent changes of duty stations, one of which was Berwyn, Illinois (1928-1929); another was Terre Haute, Indiana (1934). I have no information that Dad and grandfather James ever worked with the "Untouchable," Elliot Ness, the Treasury Agent who brought down Alfonse Capone. Though, I do know that after Dad resigned from the Chicago Police Department, he began his own private detective agency. In a story related to me by my mother, Dad was approached by the infamous, Alfonse Capone who wanted to use Dad's detective agency as a body guard service to protect Capone's mother. Dad told Capone he wouldn't use his detective agency as a body guard service.
The father I knew was a preacher. As I have learned over the years, Dad did many other things long before my existence. As a young man he was a professional boxer, a muleskinner, a long distance, high altitude runner, and in the late 1920's, a small town marshal in Missouri. For a time in the early 30's, he was a Chicago cop.
It was also during that time in Chicago, that grandfather James had joined the U.S. Treasury Department, Bureau of Industrial Alcohol, and served until 1935, when he retired. That job required frequent changes of duty stations, one of which was Berwyn, Illinois (1928-1929); another was Terre Haute, Indiana (1934). I have no information that Dad and grandfather James ever worked with the "Untouchable," Elliot Ness, the Treasury Agent who brought down Alfonse Capone. Though, I do know that after Dad resigned from the Chicago Police Department, he began his own private detective agency. In a story related to me by my mother, Dad was approached by the infamous, Alfonse Capone who wanted to use Dad's detective agency as a body guard service to protect Capone's mother. Dad told Capone he wouldn't use his detective agency as a body guard service.
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