Included are photographs, service records and ephemera covering the boyhood, military, and postwar life of Sacramento native Robert L. Lavelle.

Robert "Bob" L. Lavelle was born to Leo Keating Lavelle and Edale Catherine O'Brien Lavelle on May 18, 1926, at Sacramento's Mater Misericordiae Hospital. He was named Robert Lee, but when able, he would change the "Lee" to Leo after his father. Lavalle spent his earliest years at his paternal grandparent' house at 2620 Q Street, then moving at age twelve to a new home at 2711 Harkness Avenue in old Land Park where he attended Fremont Elementary and McClatchy High School, graduating from the latter in 1944. On May 17, 1944, he joined the Navy serving 18 months in the Pacific at the end of World War II. He attended Radar School in San Diego and was a Seaman First Class working in communications. He was stationed aboard the USS Frazier, which received 12 battle stars for service in the Pacific War.

.1 Linear Feet 1 folder and one oversize image within an archival folder