Melting Pot society presentation on 'Darling Conley ... Dearest Del'

Submitted photo WORLD WAR II CORRESPONDENCE: Chip Culpepper will speak at The Melting Pot Genealogical Society meeting at 12:30 p.m. Tuesday on correspondence by his parents during World War II.
Submitted photo WORLD WAR II CORRESPONDENCE: Chip Culpepper will speak at The Melting Pot Genealogical Society meeting at 12:30 p.m. Tuesday on correspondence by his parents during World War II.

The Melting Pot Genealogical Society will meet at 12:30 p.m. Tuesday at the Melting Pot Library, 649-B Ouachita Ave. A presentation on the World War II correspondence of his parents, Conley Culpepper and Delphia "Del" Ashley, will be given by C.C. "Chip" Culpepper, the youngest of the couple's seven sons. Visitors are welcome.

Chip Culpepper spent a year transcribing, researching and annotating the nearly 250 letters written by his parents from 1942-45. Conley Culpepper completed 35 combat missions as a flight engineer/aerial gunner with the famed "Bloody Hundredth" (100th Bomb Group) of the 8th Army Air Force in Europe. Delphia Ashley worked with three of her sisters at the Arkansas Ordnance Plant, in Jacksonville, making components for bombs and other military explosives. Chip Culpepper's presentation is titled, "Darling Conley ... Dearest Del."

Chip Culpepper, like his brothers, is a graduate of Fountain Lake High School and holds a degree from the University of Central Arkansas. He is an owner and the chief creative officer with the Little Rock marketing firm Mangan Holcomb Partners.

A lifelong student of history, Chip Culpepper is his family's unofficial historian, and has completed numerous family history/genealogy projects. He currently serves as chairman of the MacArthur Museum of Arkansas Military History Commission. He served on the Arkansas Civil War Sesquicentennial Commission, and was recently named to the national Board of Directors for the 100th Bomb Group Foundation.

The MPGS maintains a library whose collections include more than 9,000 publications. The library hours are 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday and Friday or by appointment, 624-0229. The staff is an all-volunteer group of people interested in preserving and making available to the public the histories of families of Garland County and other areas.

Society on 05/21/2017

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