The White Star Market was located at 715 South Palafox Street and was owned by Elmer Ellsworth White and his wife Clara Augusta McIntosh. Elmer was born in 1889 in Pensacola and would marry Clara in c1912. Prior to their marriage, he was working as a clerk for the Southern Export Company and boarding at 1227 East Jackson Street. However, after they married he and Clara moved into 1215 East Jackson Street while he was the manager of the E. E. Saunders Fish Company. Clara was born in Mississippi on October 19, 1894 and would bear Elmer eight children; Mary Catherine, Alma Lois, Herbert Franklin, Clara McIntosh, Marjorie A., Elmer E. Jr., Henry Roderick, and Edward Richard White.
By 1920, the two of them opened up their own meat store called the "White Star Market." By 1936, the Great Depression had run many of the companies in Pensacola out of business and theirs was no exception. Their building at 715 South Palafox Street was taken over by the "Samuel Rosenau Insurance Company" and Elmer took work as a salesman. One of their butchers was Roy Raymond Fell Sr., born on December 19, 1900 and a veteran of World War I. Following the first war, he worked in Pensacola as a butcher among other jobs until World War II. He eventually enlisted in the artillery and was sent to fight in Europe until the end of the war. He would pass away on May 9, 2000 and was buried next to his wife Lottie Mae in Miflin, Alabama. His former employers, Clara and Elmer would remain in Pensacola until their deaths. Elmer would pass away in 1960 and Clara would join him in 1978 and both were buried in Bayview Cemetery.
Their children would attend Pensacola High School where their sons would leave for the war to fight in Europe and the Pacific. Their daughter Clara (Class of 1938) would marry Clinton J. Chew in 1943 before he left for the war himself. Their son Herbert F. (Class of 1936) would serve with the 20th Infantry Division in Europe while his brother Sgt. Elmer Ellsworth Jr. (Class of 1941) fought at the Battle of the Bulge. Henry R. (Class of 1942) would enlist in the Marines and head for the Pacific. After the war, Henry would go to work for the Escambia County Sheriff's Office and retire in 1988. The business and the building are long gone, but a new one was built in its place in 1980.
White Star Market at 715 South Palafox Street. LtoR: Roy Raymond Fell Sr. (butcher),
Clara Augusta McIntosh White and her husband Elmer Ellsworth White Sr.
WWI and WWI Veteran (1900-2000)
The former location of the White Star Market in 1920 as it looks today.