Rocket PoweR, InteRstellaR tRavel and eteRnal lIfe

Meanwhile, Daniel, Floyd and their mother Mary
(widow of William M. Hungerford) resided at 823 W.
Second Street. The 1930 federal census actually listed
three sons, machinists Daniel, Floyd and William J., as
living with their mother at a house which was valued at
$8,000. The oldest brother, the widowed William, who
did not live long in that house, 58 was employed by an
auto manufacturer (likely Willys-Morrow) while the
younger brothers operated the garage.
In 1992, Shirley Hungerford Hyde wrote about her
parents and the Hungerford family:
Daniel D. married Jessie M. Hopkins on August 7,
1918. I am their daughter. I was born on May 21,
1923 (so I was six years old [when the rocket car
was built], not eight as reported by Mr. Marvin’s
article.) 59 They separated when I was about five
and divorced when I was in my late teens. Neither
ever remarried. It was not a traumatic family break
for me since Dan and Floyd were always deep into
some project at their garage or the house on W.
Second Street [,] where Floyd and their mother
lived (and Dan after the break-up). I never lived
there as reported. During the five or so years of my
life prior to the separation, Dan, my mother and my
maternal grandmother always had a home of our
own. I cannot remember the circumstances as to the
time when he returned to live on W. Second Street.
I have only vague memories of his ever having
lived with us. I cannot remember his EVER being
home to have lunch or dinner or participating in
any family-oriented activities.
Both Dan and Jessie were soft-spoken people. He
did not, as the articles indicate, ever swear, drink
or smoke. There were never any harsh words
between them in my presence and we saw him on
occasion after the separation and divorce. Dan
was a very handsome young man. This fact did
not escape the notice of women other than my
mother. Nor did he discourage them. I can
remember one with whom he tried to promote
friendship with me. I have a fine studio portrait of
him taken probably in the ‘30’s.
I was told that Floyd was engaged to a girl as a
young person but she died and, as far as I know, he
was never involved with anyone else. His weakness
WAS drinking, I guess. I generally could smell
it. He was always very nice to me. I have the feeling
that both he and Dan and their mother were
amused by my occasional presence, but they were
not involved in my life in any other way.
My mother was Deputy County Clerk of Chemung
County and Naturalization Clerk. She was with the
Clerk’s Office for over 40 years. She maintained her
own apartment in Elmira until November of 1980
[,] when she came to Hendersonville [North
Carolina] to make her home with us. She had a
massive heart attack in January of 1981 and needed
round-the-clock care until she died (on my birthday)
May 21, 1981. 60
Shirley Hungerford in 1945 married her “childhood
sweetheart,” Norman R. Hyde, a fighter pilot in World
War II. The Hydes left Elmira, although on visits to their
home town, Shirley would “occasionally take essential
supplies to Dan and Floyd on W. Second Street. It
grieved me to see how they lived. Mother would go
with me once in a while.”
David Smith, who in the early 2000s researched the
Hungerfords with an eye to making a documentary
movie, related to me that Shirley Hyde told him of her
estrangement from her father. She said he was a handsome
man, and the women in Elmira knew it. His philandering
for which Shirley Hyde did not forgive him
precipitated the failure of their marriage. When Daniel
asked her for money to pay past-due real estate taxes,
she refused him. 61 In 1979 Schuyler Lathers related he
knew Hungerford was “friendly” with Dr. Miller, a
chemistry professor at Elmira College. He “kept her
company some”. 62 Lathers told another writer that he
was attending the college, where the “woman science
Figure 11. Mary Ward Hungerford and her three sons, left to
right Daniel, Floyd, and William, probably were photographed
ca. 1940.
16 Daniel and Floyd Hungerford: Rocket Power, Interstellar Travel and Eternal Life, by Geofrey N. Stein