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Louis
L'Amour lived in Choctaw, Oklahoma.
Louis L'Amour (1908-1988)
L'Amour -" I think of myself in the oral tradition - as a troubadour,
a village taleteller, the man in the shadows of the campfire. That's the
way I'd like to be remembered as a storyteller. A good storyteller."
And that he will be... His way of telling a story makes you feel as though you are there and part of the action.
Much has been written about his life, including that on The Official Louis L'Amour WebSite. Included here is information from various sources about the history of the family - maybe little more... it is hard to write about this man without elaborating.
A list of other related sites can be found below.
Born Louis Dearborn LaMoore of French-Irish descent on March 22, 1908, Jamestown, Stutsman County, North Dakota, he was the last of seven children in the family of Doctor Louis Charles LaMoore and Emily Dearborn LaMoore.
Louis Charles LaMoore and Emily Lavisa Dearborn were married August 24, 1892 in Jamestown, North Dakota. Children: Edna May (b 1893), Charles Parker (b 1897), Yale Freeman (b 1899), Emmy Lou (b 1901), Louis Dearborn (b 1908); twins Clara and Clarice (b before 1900).
Louis Charles LaMoore was born c1869 in Michigan. Little else is known about his family at this time. Emily Lavisa Dearborn, born Aug 14, 1870 is the daughter of Abraham Truman Dearborn and Elizabeth Freeman.
A search of the 1900 US Census, North Dakota, Stutsman County, City of Jamestown, shows the family enumerated on Third Avenue as the Louis C. Moore family.
A search of the 1910 US Census, North Dakota, Stutsman County, City of Jamestown, shows the family enumerated on 2nd Street South as the Louis C. Lm Moore family. 1920 finds Parker L'Moore enumerated in Washington, D.C. as a roomer. A quick check of the 1920 North Dakota census and 1930 Oklahoma Census did not locate the family.
Stutsman County, North Dakota School Census Index list various of the L'Moore children in 1905, 1910, 1915, 1917.
Louis' home for the first years of his life was Jamestown, North Dakota, a medium sized farming community situated in the valley where Pipestem Creek flows into the James River. Dr. LaMoore was a large animal veterinarian who came to the Dakota Territory in 1882.
When Louis was very young, his grandfather, Abraham Truman Dearborn, came to live in a little house just in back of the LaMoore's. A. T. and Elizabeth Dearborn are also buried at the Jamestown Cemetery, Jamestown, North Dakota.
By the beginning of the 1920s, Louis and his adopted brother John were the only children left in the LaMoore household. Edna, had moved away to pursue a career as a schoolteacher. His eldest brother, Parker, was on his way to becoming a successful newspaperman and political aid, and his other brother Yale managed a grocery store where John and Louis occasionally worked. The twins, Clara and Clarice died while infants and before 1900. Sister, Emmy Lou, succumbed to the 1918 epidemic of Spanish influenza. The three girls are buried at the Jamestown Cemetery, Jamestown, North Dakota.
A series of bank failures ruined the economy of the upper Midwest. Hard times uprooted the family and removed them from his childhood home of Jamestown. John (an adopted brother) had left Oregon a year before and had not been heard from and so it was just the three of them who traveled across Idaho, Wyoming, Nebraska and Kansas to settle on the acreage outside Choctaw, Oklahoma. His parents moved to a little farm that their eldest son, Parker, had purchased in Oklahoma. Slowly the LaMoore family began to put down roots in Oklahoma. Two articles in The Daily Oklahoman newspaper places Louis (L.C.) in the Choctaw area in 1944. Articles written by Parker LaMoore for The Daily Oklahoman places him in Oklahoma City area as early as 1922.
In the late 1930s L'Amour returned to Oklahoma to pursue his writing career. L'Amour took some creative writing courses at the University of Oklahoma and started his career as a book reviewer. While living in Oklahoma City, he wrote more than 200 book reviews for the Sunday Oklahoman. His very first book was a self-published collection of poems, Smoke From This Altar by Louis L'Amour, Oklahoma City: Lusk Publishing Company, 1939. $1.50. The book has since been reprinted. His poetry was originally seen in many anthologies and magazines.
He sold his first short story Anything for a Pal to a pulp magazine called True Gang Life, he made less than eight dollars. In 1937 he sold a short story called Gloves for a Tiger to Thrilling Adventures Magazine, other sales followed quickly.
Louis was inducted into the US army late in the summer of 1942. After his discharge, Louis returned to the U.S. only to find that the market for his adventure stories had nearly disappeared. An old friend in the publishing business pushed him in the direction of westerns. Following his friend's advice, Louis L'Amour moved to Los Angeles c1946 and wrote western stories for pulp magazines. For the first couple of years, he sat on the bed and worked with his typewriter sitting on a folding chair. Compared to his Oklahoma days, his output was enormous. In one year he sold almost a story a week and wrote even more than that. Louis' average take on a short story was less than $100. He also wrote under pseudonyms of Tex Burns and Jim Mayo.
On February 19, 1956, Louis L'Amour married Katherine Elizabeth Adams, an aspiring actress. The daughter of a resort developer and silent movie star, Kathy had grown up in the deserts and mountains of Southern California. Together they traveled all over the west, searching out locations and doing research for Louis' books. In 1961 their son Beau was born, and in 1964 they had a daughter, Angelique.
The1960s were a productive time for Louis. He developed his famous Sackett family series and for the first time in his life, bought a house. He was often invited to speak at public forums, and held book signings for large crowds all across the country.
In the summer of 1987, Louis caught pneumonia. In a few weeks he fought it off and was seemingly healthy until late fall, when he caught it again. The first round of tests showed nothing, but ultimately a needle biopsy caught malignant cancer cells. Going back through the x-rays, doctors discovered a thin veil of cancerous material running throughout his lungs. Because the cancer was not localized in any one spot, surgery was not possible. He began his long postponed memoir, Education of a Wandering Man, and as the disease progressed, Louis moved his work from his office to a desk in an upstairs bedroom and ultimately into the master bedroom. He was editing the book the afternoon that he died June 10, 1988 at his home of lung cancer.
Lewis
L'Amour was buried at Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Glendale, Los Angeles
County, California. Plot: just outside the entrance of the mausoleum.
Social Security Death Index "Louis L'Amour" SSN 131-26-5656,
last residence Los Angeles, California, born Mar 22 1908, died June 10
1988, card issued New York in 1951 and 1952).
A few days before he passed away, Louis was notified that sales of his books had topped two hundred million.
Since his death in June of 1988, Bantam Books has continued to release the work of Louis L'Amour.
Louis was a Charter Member of Oklahoma Writers Federation, first book published during this period. Louis won the Western Writers of America's Golden Spur Award for Down the Long Hills, North Dakota's Theodore Roosevelt Rough Rider Award, his novels Hondo and Flint have been voted places in the 25 best Western Novels of all time. Louis L'Amour sold his one hundred millionth book and had won the Western Writers of America Golden Saddleman Award. In 1983 U.S. Congress voted him the National Gold Medal, and a year later the Medal of Freedom. October 2003 he was inducted into the Texas Trail of Fame. His books have been translated into over fifteen foreign languages and are sold in English in almost a dozen countries.
Louis L'Amour used his wide variety of travel, experience and knowledge to become one the most widely read and honored authors of our time.
The City of Choctaw has planned to name their new library building in honor of former Choctaw resident, Louis L'Amour. [2003]
Sources of more information:
Ancestry World Tree Project
Louis Dearborn L'Amour
Louis L'Amour - Official WebSite
Louis
L'Amour Biography
excellent time line
Louis
L'Amour Interview by Jean Henry-Mead - ReadTheWest.com American Western
Magazine
Louis
L'Amour Interview with Don Swaim
Louis
L'Amour - Prof. Janke
Louis (Dearborn)
L'amour (1908-1988)
Veinotte
Louis
L'Amour's The Diamond of Jeru - USA NETWORK
Luis L'Amour
- Pegasos
Star
Telegram - Trail of Fame
The Daily Oklahoman
Photos:
Find
A Grave - Mausoleum photos
Louis
L'Amour - photo gallery
Louis
L'Amour - older photo
Louis
L'Amour's grave (photo)
Louis
L'Amour's grave (photo)
