Photograph of Charles at Laclede Steel Company

At the age of 16, in 1923, Charles had been employed for two years already at the Laclede Steel Company in Venice, Illinois. This image, taken in April of that year, shows him in a work shirt seated at the foot of a large platform holding heavy industrial machinery. Charles helped to support his mother and sister by working on Saturdays and Sundays and during school breaks in the years after his father’s death.