Early Life
After his birth in Dallas, Cole lived with his mother in Texas until the age of four, when he became ill with a severe case of scarlet fever. After being told that he would not survive without sea air and sun, his mother Florence moved to Los Angeles, California with young Edwin.
Cole was educated at Belmont High School in Downtown Los Angeles.
In Los Angeles, Edwin played an active role in the Angelus Temple of Aimee Semple McPherson, often participating in the Temple's illustrated sermons. He played a trumpet with street corner witnessing teams on Los Angeles's skid row.
He enlisted in the United States Coast Guard during World War II, where he met his wife, fellow Coast Guard member Nancy Corbett. Later Cole began street witnessing again, and within two years accepted the pastorate of a church in northern California.
Read more about this topic: Edwin Louis Cole
Famous quotes related to early life:
“... goodness is of a modest nature, easily discouraged, and when much elbowed in early life by unabashed vices, is apt to retire into extreme privacy, so that it is more easily believed in by those who construct a selfish old gentleman theoretically, than by those who form the narrower judgments based on his personal acquaintance.”
—George Eliot [Mary Ann (or Marian)