Queer Places:
509 N 1st St, Phoenix, AZ 85004
South Seas Cafe, 32 E Monroe St, Phoenix, AZ 85004
Kaye's Happy Landing, 3815 S Central Ave, Phoenix, AZ 85040
Kaye's Happy Landing, 4405 S Central Ave, Phoenix, AZ 85040
Safford City Cemetery
Safford, Graham County, Arizona, USA
Kaye Aileen Elledge (July 27, 1911 - February 9, 1977) was a rather short and gruff woman with the opposite taste in girlfriends: She liked the femme lipstick lesbians. She operated
Kaye’s Happy Landing for some 25 years and passed away in 1977. Kaye’s Happy Landing Buffet opened its doors on south Central Avenue,
Phoenix, in 1941. During WWII, happy landing could have been a double entendre. Happy Landings was one of Phoenix’s first gay bars and was located in South Phoenix near Broadway. The bar initially opened in 1941 at 3815 S. Central Ave. The 1968 edition of the Damron Guide shows the address at 4405 S. Central Ave. Kaye’s Happy Landings was founded by Kaye Aileen Elledge along with Violet “Patricia” O’Hara-Rector-Brand. Records do not indicate how the two met, only that Patricia owned a home in Phoenix and that she rented a room to Kaye.
Kaye was born on July 27, 1911, just a year before Arizona was granted statehood. Kaye’s parents George M. Elledge and Sylvia Madsen raised her in Safford, a small mining town in the southeastern portion of the state. Named after an Arizona Territorial Governor, the town of Safford is said to be the inspiration for Walt Disney’s Main Street in Disneyland.
In the 1920 census, George, 36, Sylvia, 36, and Aileen, 8, were living in Miami, Gila County, Arizona, and George was working as a motor man in a smelter. They owned their own home which was located at 4121 Mill Street, but they had a mortgage. In a 1923 U.S. City Directory Listing for Miami, Arizona, George and Sylvia were listed there and he was working as a motorman for International Smelting Company.
The 1930 census for Miami, Arizona, dated April 3rd, showed that George, 46, and Sylvia, 45, were living with their daughter, Aileen, 18, at 15 Hill Street, a home they owned valued at $2,000. They had a radio in their home. George was working as a converter foreman in a smelter.
However, Kay Elledge, 18, was also listed in a 1930 census in Los Angeles, California, living with Walter Wafing, 23, and his wife, Mildred Wafing, 22. Walter was working as a musician in a cafe. Since Mildred was also born in Arizona, perhaps she was a school friend of Kay. No occupation was listed for Kay or Mildred. They were living in a rented house at 942 Georgia Street.
In the 1940 census, Kay was still living in Los Angeles as a "lodger" with 4 other lodgers and Erwin H. Karz, the head of the household, and he owned his own home located at 509 1st Street which was valued at $1,800. Kay was working as a stenographer in an office. Mr. Karz was a lawyer in private practice, and some of the other lodgers in the home were working as a nurse, a chauffeur, a merchant in a buffet, and a helper in a buffet. For the 24 weeks that Kay worked as a stenographer at 36 hours per week in 1939 her income was $600. Previously in 1935 she had been living in Hollywood, California. Mr. Karz was born in Russia and had been naturalized. He had 4 years of college as did Kay.
In the 1940 census for Greenlee, Arizona, Kay's parents, George, 56, and Sylvia, 67, were listed as living in a home they owned and he was working at a chicken farm. Both George and Sylvia had one year of high school education. Sadly, George passed away just three years later on February 28, 1943, in Graham County, Arizona and was buried in the Safford City Cemetery. His cause of death was from pneumonia and diabetes. He was the son of George W. Elledge and Sallie Moyers Elledge of Rome, Georgia, and had been born in Colorado.
Kay's mother, Sylvia Elizabeth Madsen Elledge, born December 20, 1881, in Bloomington, Bear Lake, Idaho, lived another 17 years and passed away on February 13, 1960, in Safford and was buried in the Safford City Cemetery with her husband and infant son George Madsen Elledge.
Kaye eventually left Safford’s Main Street for the big city lights of
Central Avenue in Phoenix. By 1940 Kaye was 28 years old, working in a tavern
and lived at 509 1st Street in Phoenix. The same census data gives us a blurry picture of what the household may have looked like. There were six people living at the home, three men and three women. The youngest was 27 and the oldest 35 at the time. It’s difficult to tell the makeup of the group judging by their surnames. Head of the household was Ervin H. Karz with the remaining occupants listed as “lodgers”. They were Albert D. Ashby, Grace Ashby, Kaye Elledge, Josephine Wykoff and Paul Van Wassenhove.
The year after the 1940 Census was taken, a very pregnant Violet “Patricia”
Rector left her home in New York City to setup household in Phoenix, Arizona.
Her husband, Mr. Rector was an enlisted man and flew for the Royal Air Force.
During this time he was on active duty during World War II and either agreed
to, or instructed Patricia to move the family to Phoenix where they would wait
for his return from the front line. In the early months of 1941, Patricia
purchased a home and settled in to Phoenix. Later in the year Kaye moves in to
one of the spare bedrooms as Pat’s new roommate. One night, Kaye along with
some male friends invites Patricia out for drinks at the South Seas. Listed in
the 1960’s editions of The Damron Guide, The South Seas was located on the
block where the Chase Tower now stands. During this night out, conversation turns to one of the friends discussing a bar he had visited in New Jersey. The bar had an aerospace motif and was quite appealing. Kaye was especially interested in the conversation since she had been in the bar business for many years and enjoyed both working at them and playing at them. These conversations happened on numerous occasions, as Kaye and Patricia would fantasize about opening this perfect bar just the way they wanted and how it would be a tremendous success.
With Pat’s husband away at war, the phrase “Happy Landings” had special meaning to her. She had picked up the phrase from a 1938 movie of the same name. Happy Landing the movie was a musical ice skating comedy that starred Olympic Medalists Sonia Henie and Don Ameche.
On August 13, 1941 Kaye and Patricia met with the superintendent of the Department of Liquor Licenses and Control. They wished to transfer the liquor license from the current owners of the Broadway Inn to themselves and under the new name of Happy Landings. At the time, the department had a policy that prevented people with less than a year residency in the state to hold a liquor license. That meant that Patricia could not be on the license for another year.
After their trip to see the Department of Liquor Licenses, they went on to the county recorder’s office and signed and filed a certificate of partnership between themselves,
reciting that they were doing business under the style and fictitious name of
Happy Landings, located at 3815 S. Central Ave., Phoenix, AZ. Between August 13, 1941 and January 12, 1942 Pat put in more than $11,700 of her own funds for upgrades and renovations to the former Broadway Inn.
Tragically, Pat’s husband was killed in action in early 1942. Later in 1942 Pat remarried and would change her name to Violet Patricia Rector-O’Hara. With Pat’s new marriage, Kaye decided to move out of the home for the newlyweds. By February of 1945, Pat’s new marriage had ended and by 1949 she decided to move back to New York City with her children, leaving Kaye to manage the business on her own. Before leaving though, Pat attempted to collect on at least a part of what she had invested. Kaye replied that she had been reinvesting the small amount the bar was earning for further upgrades. The most popular of which was the installation of a pool in the back of the bar. The bar and bar was packed in summer months. Let’s not forget this was a time when air conditioning was rare and the was just as hot.
In San Diego Pat met her third husband John Brand. She then returned to
Phoenix where she lived from 1951 to 1953. Mr. Brand was enlisted in the Navy
and was stationed in Japan in 1953. Pat decided to move there with the
children to be close to her new husband. By 1955 she was back in Phoenix and
began to seek legal counsel to resolve the Unhappy Landings issue. Lawyers
requested that Kaye provide accounting for the business and its profits and
losses. Kaye refused to cooperate. Then Kaye filed a general denial that a
partnership ever existed between the two. It was Kaye’s understanding that if
the partnership was not legal, that she would not be required to return the
funds. The argument was that when the partnership was created, Pat was not
allowed on the liquor license so how could the partnership be legal? Initially
Kaye prevailed but later at an appeal the tables were turned and Kaye was
ordered to repay Pat. But this was not before both of the “ladies” had
threatened each other with blackmail letters threatening to reveal what seemed
to be lesbian secrets. Kaye claimed that the blackmail letter was the only
reason she paid Pat $5000, a payment Pat claims to never have received.
Kay passed away 17 years later on February 9, 1977, and was living in Phoenix, Maricopa, Arizona, at the time of her death. She was also buried with her parents and brother in the Safford City Cemetery. Kay never married or had any children, and some family members indicated that she was gay and had a female companion most of her life.
My published books:
BACK TO HOME PAGE
