In 1962, the United States put the first man in orbit and the Beatles recorded their hit single “Love Me Do.” In that same year, Elmo Battles was a 32-year-old Korean War veteran and single father of three boys working in his hometown of Cuero, Texas at the local Chevy dealership.
Elmo knew Shirley Battles’ parents as regular customers and one day they brought her and her sister in with them to the dealership where Elmo was to inspect their car. That’s when he first laid eyes on Shirley. It was a couple of more meetings until Elmo asked her where she lived. “I drove out there as fast as I could,” he said. He recollects traveling down dirt roads that he had never even known to get to Shirley’s house. “I was hoping I would make it back.”
Elmo found her house and that began a two-year courtship until they married in 1964. Elmo bought a house on Morgan Street, and Shirley, a beautician by trade, moved her shop next to their home. They raised another child, a daughter named Djuna.
