Early Life and Adulthood
Demara, known locally as "Fred", was born in Lawrence, Massachusetts in 1921, at 40 Texas Avenue in the lower southwest Tower Hill Neighborhood. His father, Ferdinand Waldo Demara, Sr. was born in Rhode Island and worked in Lawrence's old Theatre District as a motion picture operator. In those days, his father did financially well and they lived on Jackson St in Lawrence, an upper class district with many larger-size, finer homes. However it was his uncle, Napoleon Louis Demara, Sr. who owned those theatres, where Fred's father, Ferdinand, Sr. was an active union member. At some point during the earlier stages of the 1930s depression, Fred's father lost virtually all he had and the family moved to poorer districts in the city. This angered the young man.
He ran away from home at the age of sixteen to join Cistercian monks in Rhode Island, where he stayed for several years. He joined the U.S. Army in 1941.
Read more about this topic: Ferdinand Waldo Demara
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