COX Eligah T. Jr.Autry

Teen-ager Eligah Tice Autry Jr. did an impressive impersonation of “Popeye the Sailor Man,” so it was perhaps fitting that he enlisted in the Navy.

He became known as Popeye when he campaigned for election as honorary fire chief of Gray County, Texas. The election was a highlight of Boy Scout Week in the 1930s, and Scouts competed to be city, county and federal office holders for a day.

Fire chief was the most coveted job, the Pampa Daily News explained, because its perks included playing on the station’s billiards table and sliding down the “elevator.”

Mr. Autry, described as a dead ringer for the tough, spinach-eating comic-strip and movie character, was elected fire chief two or three times. Popeye was famous for his grimace, and Mr. Autry nailed it, the newspaper said.

His platform, no doubt, was appealing as well. In 1938 he promised that fire trucks would have to pass by the homes of Scouts who voted for him.

Mr. Autry, who lived in Lefors, population 809, achieved the rank of Eagle Scout and graduated from the local high school in 1938. He was living about four hours east at Dustin, Oklahoma, and working at a cotton gin when he applied to join the Navy. He enlisted on Aug. 9, 1939.

Mr. Autry was a coxswain and petty officer third class on the U.S.S. Arizona when he was killed in the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941.

He was born at Dustin on May 6, 1920. His father, Eligah Autry Sr., an Army veteran of World War I, was a stock farmer and later an oil rig builder and driller. His mother, Carrie Lanham Autry, was a homemaker. She died when the boy was about 14.

The Navy declared Mr. Autry missing on Dec. 20, 1941, but his, like many families, held out hope.  On Jan. 20, his grandfather, George Oakes, wrote to the Defense Department and included a page from the Jan. 5 issue of Life magazine showing a sailor on a damaged battleship.The caption didn’t name the ship, and Mr. Oakes said he couldn’t be sure it was Eligah because he had not seen him for four years. “Yet I think this is my grandson,” he wrote. 

Mr. Autry and two other Gray County men were honored on Memorial Day 1942 in a service that started at the high school in Pampa and ended at the town’s Fairview Cemetery.

Sources: Pampa (Texas) Daily News; Census; Navy enlistment records and muster roll; grave marker. This profile was researched and written on behalf of the U.S.S. Arizona Mall Memorial at the University of Arizona.

NOTE: If you are a family member related to this crew member of the U.S.S. Arizona, or have additional information, pictures or documents to share about his life or service to our county please contact us through our FAMILY MEMBER SUBMISSION FORM.