2.9 Linear Feet, 2 ft. 11 in. (4 document cases, 5 in. each); (1 records carton, 15 in.)
Creator
Billmeyer family
Location
West Virginia and Regional History Center / West Virginia University / 1549 University Avenue / P.O. Box 6069 / Morgantown,
WV 26506-6069 / Phone: 304-293-3536 / Fax: 304-293-3981 / URL: https://wvrhc.lib.wvu.edu/
Language
English
Abstract
Correspondence, military service records, receipts and photographs of David Billmeyer, George Billmeyer and family. David
Billmeyer (1907-63) was a writer, clerk and laborer who in 1933 joined the U. S. Army Air Corps and served in it until after
World War II when he re-enlisted in the U. S. Air Force from which he retired in 1955. In his youth he had worked in New York
City as a clerk and free lance author where he met and later corresponded with America's then foremost literary critic, H.
L. Mencken. During the Depression he enlisted in the U. S. Army and was assigned to the National Geographic Stratosphere Flight
and at various meteorological stations in the United States. During World War II he served the U. S. Army meteorological service
in the Canal Zone and Europe. After the war he re-enlisted in the U. S. Air Force and served in meteorological units in the
Orient. Most of the military and veterans records document his career and state of health. There are many photographs of where
he was stationed and of him with various companions indicative of service life. There is also correspondence of David Billmeyer's
brother George and other family members mainly about conditions in Shepherdstown. There is also correspondence from George's
daughter, Ann, who attended the University of Nebraska and after graduation moved to San Francisco where she mentions witnessing
the Republican convention of 1964, her feelings about the Kennedy assassination and her involvement in the estate of her uncle,
David, who died in retirement in the Philippines.
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Conditions Governing Access
No special access restriction applies.
Preferred Citation
[Description and date of item], [Box/folder number], Billmeyer Family Papers, A&M 3018, West Virginia and Regional History
Center, West Virginia University Libraries, Morgantown, West Virginia.