Читать книгу Carroll Shelby: A Collection of My Favorite Racing Photos - Art Evans - Страница 8

“My first car.”

Shelby’s father worked for the U.S. Postal Service. Sometimes young Carroll accompanied him. That’s Carroll looking out of the window.

He recalled, “Dad was a rural mail carrier, but contrary to what one might think, he made out pretty well at it. My earliest recollection is that he got around in a buggy in East Texas. Delivering mail was pretty hard work; he would be out from early in the morning until late at night.”

Carroll Hall Shelby was born on January 11, 1923, in Texas. His father was Warren Hall Shelby who was born in 1897 in Texas and died in 1943. His mother was Francis Eloise Lawrence, born in 1903 in Texas and died in 1951. They married on April 7, 1922.

Carroll Hall Shelby was born on January 11, 1923, in Texas.

During the 1930s, the Shelby family lived in this house in the small Texas town of Leesburg.

Carroll had one sister, Lula Anne, who was born in 1926. She was also born in Leesburg, Texas. “There was just the two of us and, since there weren’t many other children around where we lived, we spent a lot of time playing together.”

This formal portrait of Shelby was taken when he was 14.

“I couldn’t wait to have one of my own, which I did when I was 15 years old. When I talk about having owned a car at that age, I’m kind of overstating the facts. Actually, it was my dad’s car, but he let me spend so much time with his investment that I got to thinking of it as my own.”

Shelby remembered that his dad had a succession of cars.

A teenage Carroll with his mother, Francis Eloise, and sister, Lula.

This portrait was taken with his mother when he was a few years older.