Hansens Family Tree

Burial in Liberty Baptist Church cemetery, 1260 Wilkerson Rd., 23968. Percy spent his first 18 years of life in Boydton, VA. He worked in the town grocery store, helped paint the courthouse and helped string electric lines throughout the county.

After his father's death in the summer of 1939, life started to change.In the winter of 1940 he left for a NYA trade school in Charleston, West Virginia, joined the Navy in the fall of 1942 and spent the next three years in San Salvador, Brazil. He learned to dive and to do underwater repairs of the naval ships, then came back to the States in 1945 to join an Underwater Demolition Team (this group was later known as the Navy SEALS) in Fort Pierce , FL.

After World War II he hitchhiked around the country visiting Navy comrades and looking for work. He found employment at Eastman Kodak in Rochester NY where he began in 1946 working as a machinist. He retired 37 years later as a mechanical engineer.

In 1951 he and his wife Helen purchased a small 30 acre farm in Ontario NY east of Rochester. During the 50 years they lived on this farm they raised their five children, Doris, Jane, Dirk, Peter, and Carol and their 15 grandchildren enjoyed visiting this homestead. After his retirement he developed a small wood working business that he ran until his death in 2004.