The Reverend Bob LeRoy donated his papers to the Western Historical Manuscript Collection on February 14, 1997.
Reverend LeRoy was born in Ellensburg, Washington in 1923. He grew up in the Tacoma region and as a young adult became involved with radical right-wing, populist religious and political groups, including those of the Presbyterian radio evangelist Dr. Carl McIntire and St. Louisan Gerald L. K. Smith. LeRoy began military service in 1943, serving as a paratrooper in the South Pacific until 1946. He documented his World War II experiences in a book, From My Foxhole To Tokyo, which he published in 1992.
After he returned, LeRoy studied at Pacific Lutheran College in Tacoma and found work as a public school teacher. He was dismissed after complaining to a superintendent that he felt a fellow teacher was a Communist. LeRoy also dropped out of his membership in the American Legion and the VFW because he felt those groups were soft on communism. In 1962, he joined a group in Norcross, Missouri called the Minutemen. After losing a teaching job in Nebraska in 1965 because of his political views, LeRoy became the chaplain of the Minutemen and traveled nationally as a speaker for it. The Warren Commission investigation of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy at one time placed into evidence two exhibits suggesting a link between the assassination and the Minutemen, but later withdrew them. From 1965 to 1968 LeRoy met with members of the FBI and answered questions about possible Minutemen involvement in gun-running operations.
Because of his convictions as a Baptist evangelist, LeRoy eventually split with Minutemen founder Robert DePugh and formed the Christian Sons of Liberty in Liberty, Missouri in 1970. He organized anti-Communist protest rallies and became known as the "parachuting preacher" because of his paratrooper background. In 1980 he moved the headquarters of the Christian Sons of Liberty to New Jersey and then to Langley, Washington in 1981, where he continued to be active in anti-Communist and right-wing populist causes.
SCOPE AND CONTENT
The LeRoy papers include correspondence describing his involvement with the
Minutemen, the group's factional organization and some of its members;
newsletters published by LeRoy from 1963; a copy of his 1992 memoir, From
My Foxhole To Tokyo; a radio interview conducted with LeRoy when he worked
as chaplain for the Minutemen in 1966; and photographs, 1943-1990.
FOLDER LISTING
1. Correspondence, 1995-1996
2. Newsletters, 1963-1995
3. From My Foxhole To Tokyo by Trooper Bob LeRoy, 1992
4. T579.1, Radio Interview with Minuteman Chaplain, 1966
5. Photographs 579.1-4, 1943-1990
579.1 Pfc. Bob LeRoy, Hg. Co. - 3rd Bn.- 511th Para. Inf. Reg.- 11th Airbourne Division -
U. S. Army, 1943-1946
579.2 "Minuteman Chaplain", Rev. Bob LeRoy, 1965 to 1970
579.3 Rev. Bob LeRoy and family, Kansas City, MO, 1980
579.4 Rev. Bob LeRoy, 1990
INDEX
Anti-Communism
LeRoy, Reverend Robert
Kennedy, John F. (assassinations)
Minutemen
Norcross, MO
Militia Movement
STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF MISSOURI RESEARCH CENTER-ST. LOUIS
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