James Elmer Ball

This young sailor is James Elmer Ball, James' dad.  He joined the Navy at 17 and never graduated high school.  He was a welder, a truck driver and the man who taught James to fish and drive a boat.  Lately we see him on birthdays and this January he is turning 73.  James looks so much like him that the first time I met James' dad he was sitting in a restaurant with his wife, Jean.  I walked straight over to the table and introduced myself because as soon as I saw him, I knew he had to be James' dad.  Happy Birthday, Poppop Jim!