GROENDYKE, Roy (LeRoy Breaks)
Roy (LeRoy) Breaks Groendyke
Roy (LeRoy) Breaks Groendyke was born (July 31, 1893) in Crawfordsville, Montgomery County, Indiana but by the time he was 23, he was living and registered for the draft in Cleveland, Ohio Precinct I. Tall, slender, with brown eyes, brown hair, he worked as a Machinist for the American Wire & Steele Company at Maryetta Lakeside and lived at 2280 E. 71st in Cleveland. He was given exemption as he had just enlisted in the Ohio Engineers unit of the National Guard, Company I.
Registering for the draft again during WWII, he was 47, living with wife, Thelma and employed at the Indiana Employment Security Division at 141 South Meridian Street in Indianapolis. He lived on RR #2, Box 538E Indianapolis at that time. At 6'2, 150#, he certainly still fit the "tall and slender" of the first registration. Dark complected, his hair remained brown and eyes of course brown as well.
His first marriage was to Nora Dean Ward (16 Dec 1891 - 13 Jan 1938, daughter of Ulyssesus "Grant" and Clara Sanders Ward) . They had at least three children, James, Nancy and Jean. He married Thelma Evelyn Smith not long afterward, on 5 February 1938.
He was the son of James C. and Etta Breaks Groendyke. He had one sister, May. Buried with Thelma in Naples, Florida, he passed away October 26, 1964, she remaining a widow for almost 22 years. Nora is buried at Oak Hill. At the time of her death, he was an auditor in a local bank, following the bookkeeping type profession most of his life. In the 1930s he lived at 615 W. Pike with his family, but after Nora's death moved to Evansville.