Papa was born Clarence Edgar Craven on March 19th, 1924 in Jacksonville, Florida. He was one of five children born to Clifford Heath Craven and Lenora Jane Walker also of Jacksonville. His father passed away while he was still a child and he quit school to help take care of his family. Before his father passed away, he would pass on a gift and love for making music that he would carry with him for the rest of his life – carrying his guitar with him overseas to numerous countries and dance halls around the south when he came home. He played his music up until his last few months and it was one of his great loves. His first love though he met as a teenager and never looked back – Mrs. Elouise Virginia Price Craven. They married in 1942 and raised 4 handsome boys together off Craven Road. It was never a boring life with those four boys with too many stories to tell in just a few paragraphs. They lived that love until 1989 when she passed away and he missed her every day since. He left to serve in World War II shortly after his first son was born and spent four years missing his family and serving his country. He came home in 1945 as a Staff Sergeant after serving with the 666th Antiaircraft Artillery Machine Gun Battery. He would later go on to proudly serve as a Civilian Contractor for the Army during the Vietnam War. He worked for Capital Concrete for 25 years making a living for his growing family. Soon he also went onto his next love, commercial fishing. He started out running charters in the Atlantic and then shrimping and crabbing on the St Johns long after most men his age would have retired. His love of music and the river, he passed onto his sons who joined him in one or the other various times through his life. Ed and Eadie’s love would lead to four boys Clifford (Barbara), William “W.J.” (Margie), Calvin “Foots” (Judy), and Walter “Fuzzy” (Laura), 6 grandchildren (Ronnie, Kevin, Travis, Ginny, Sara, and Spencer), 16 great grandchildren, 11 great -great grandchildren and numerous cousins, nieces and nephews. He was a charismatic, handsome, complicated, river man who lived a big life with stories that if only 50% are true would be more than most can say they did. I idolized him as a child, learned from his wisdom as a teenager, realized he was a flawed human as an adult and will never be the same because he was my Papa. There was never a moment he didn’t make me feel beautiful, loved Jesus even though he didn’t love most churches, made us angry with his stubborn attitude and loved us all. Rest easy Captain with Grandma tonight and may you play sweet music and sail on calm seas until we meet again.
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