Humphries Family Ancestor Book and Story Collection (PDF file on CD-ROM)

Charles Evans Humphries, the third and youngest child of Edward Watson and Ellen Gray Banks Humphries, was born on July 18, 1927, in Coronado, California. Edward and Ellen Gray eloped in 1911, while she was a student at Mississippi State College for Women in Columbus, Mississippi, and in doing so, she earned the unforgiving wrath of her father, John Oliver Banks II. The couple moved about the South and by 1927 had settled in Coronado, California, across the bay from San Diego. There they socialized and played bridge with many of the great players of the time and with many of the naval offices based at the Coronado Naval Base.

Ellen Gray left Edward in 1931 for unknown reasons and returned with her three children, Julia ("Ju-Ju" or "Judy", age 17), William ("Bill", age 13) and Charles (age 4), to Eutaw, Alabama. In the midst of the Great Depression, and in an area that had not yet recovered economically from the Civil War, Ellen Gray secured a job with the National Recovery Administration, and later with the Postal Department.

Charles graduated from Castle Heights Military Academy (high school) in Lebanon, Tennessee, in 1945. With World War II still being fought in the Pacific, he went straight into the U. S. Navy. He was discharged in 1946 with a rating of Aviation Electronics Technicians Mate third class. He graduated from Auburn, then Alabama Polytechnic Institute in 1951(member of Phi Kappa Phi national honor society and Sigma Nu fraternity). He served six days as an Air Force second lieutenant, but was medically discharged just before the Korean War.

After college, Charles moved to Montgomery, Alabama, and began work with an architectural firm. On May 30, 1953, he married May Lillie Langham in Montgomery. The couple had four daughters: Ellen Gray (Gray), May Lillie (Lil); Sarah Wyman (Sally), and Frances Gregory (Fran). Charles died on July 2, 2014, in Montgomery.