Born Francis Jesse Denbo in or around English, Indiana, and orphaned and on his own after the age of about 14, Francis (or Frank, as he was called in childhood) studied at Moore's Hill College in Indiana, then graduated from the Indiana Dental School (IDENT)in Indianapolis (now Indiana University's dental school, and was a young instructor at the school when World War I broke out. In 1918, he joined the armed service and was attached to the US medical-dental corps in France, returned to the US after the war, and practiced dentistry in Terre Haute, Indiana from the early 1930s until about 1962, when he retired due to failing health. Francis J. D'Enbeau was almost always called "Doc" by the people he knew in Terre Haute. He was married at least four times and had the following children: Francis Marion D'Enbeau, born around 1915 (the Frenchified spelling was Francis Jesse's conceit); Joseph D'Enbeau, born around 1917; Anita D'Enbeau, born around 1932 or 1933; Jane D'Enbeau, born 1945; and probably also William or "Bill" Selsam, born in the 1920s, and to whose mother, Dr. Etta Selsam, Francis Jesse was briefly married. "Doc" himself was an illegitimate child whose parents both died young, and who was raised by his grandparents as a putative youngest child in a large family. Haunted by his illegitimacy, he became something of an obsessed amateur genealogist and probably falsified his own birth records in the late 1940s in southern Indiana. He was a strong talker, a hard drinker, a rugged individualist, a pretty good dentist, and incidentally, my father.

Born Francis Jesse Denbo in or around English, Indiana, and orphaned and on his own after the age of about 14, Francis (or Frank, as he was called in childhood) studied at Moore's Hill College in Indiana, then graduated from the Indiana Dental School (IDENT)in Indianapolis (now Indiana University's dental school, and was a young instructor at the school when World War I broke out. In 1918, he joined the armed service and was attached to the US medical-dental corps in France, returned to the US after the war, and practiced dentistry in Terre Haute, Indiana from the early 1930s until about 1962, when he retired due to failing health. Francis J. D'Enbeau was almost always called "Doc" by the people he knew in Terre Haute. He was married at least four times and had the following children: Francis Marion D'Enbeau, born around 1915 (the Frenchified spelling was Francis Jesse's conceit); Joseph D'Enbeau, born around 1917; Anita D'Enbeau, born around 1932 or 1933; Jane D'Enbeau, born 1945; and probably also William or "Bill" Selsam, born in the 1920s, and to whose mother, Dr. Etta Selsam, Francis Jesse was briefly married. "Doc" himself was an illegitimate child whose parents both died young, and who was raised by his grandparents as a putative youngest child in a large family. Haunted by his illegitimacy, he became something of an obsessed amateur genealogist and probably falsified his own birth records in the late 1940s in southern Indiana. He was a strong talker, a hard drinker, a rugged individualist, a pretty good dentist, and incidentally, my father.