I met Lorraine and Elmer when Elmer spoke at a hotel in Dallas about 1977. I covered the event for both, Gun Week and, The Dallas Morning News.
Lorraine seemed nice and she and Elmer got on well. He had evidently told her that he suspected that he'd be given a gun, a Mikkenger Arms .44 Magnum, and he smirked a bit when that happened, showing her the gun.
I was then married and my wife enjoyed meeting the Keiths. I got Elmer to autograph some books.
The next day, he fired the Mikkenger (sort of a Ruger Blackhawk copy with very tight tolerances and QC) at the Winchester range. I had to explain to a TV newsman who Keith was and why anyone might hunt game with a revolver. The TV guy was astonished to see Elmer hitting a target 200 yards away.
Keith mentioned Ted and pictured him in his books, and I think the Keiths were a close family.
Jack O'Connor mentioned son Bradford numerous times, as well as daughter Caroline. Son Jerry had some problems and was less mentioned. I think Bradford became Outdoor Editor at a Seattle newspaper. Jack's wife Eleanor was often his hunting companion and was frequently seen in his articles. Her custom 7X57mm built on a Mauser action killed a lot of animals! She killed a BIG tiger with a .30-06!
Jack used a .375 on tiger, not the .270 Model 70 Winchester custom rifles that he was most identified with. He had a pair of .416's and a .338, too.
Warren Page at Field & Stream mentioned taking son Kem (?) on a safari in which Kem used a .280 Remington. Of course, his dad was famous for promoting 7mm Magnums.
Most gun writers haven't mentioned family a lot, as it's sort of unprofessional. But John Wootters, Jr. let us know about wife Jeannie, and Col. Charles Askins told about his family in, Unrepentant Sinner. He even took them on a tour sponsored by gun firms, on which only he should have been present.
Skeeter Skelton mentioned son Bart and showed him as a kid, using, I think, a Walther PPK .22, at age six! Bart later did some gun writing, but I haven't seen him in print for some time.
I've shown my son in some articles and mentioned him here. He was the cover story in an issue of, Gun Week, where I described his experiences in Iraq, with him supplying the photos. He's a member here, and has asked that I not discuss him or his family much, for Internet security reasons. My daughter is also concerned about that. But she was in an article for a knife magazine after we visited the American Bladesmiths School in Arkansas. She was quite a hit with the knife smiths and other guys, and enjoyed the male attention.
But she has just one S&W, a Model 38 that her husband inherited, and isn't much into guns. So, she isn't mentioned much. And she's a school teacher and the education field isn't much on guns, and it might hurt her career if some liberal administrator saw her in a gun article.
BTW, I tried to coax my former barber into appearing in articles, just holding some product being reviewed. She is a total fox, a hot blonde. And her teen daughter became a professional model. Neither wanted to be seen in gun magazines, fearing kidnapping or harassment. I did get a fashion buyer for a major dept. store to pose for an article on how to use knives defensively. If you've read Col. Applegate's, Kill or Get Killed, you'll know some of the poses. Cathy just looked a lot better than Rex Applegate did in those poses!
But her friends and a neighbor tried to convince her that it was weird and sort of kinky to be in a knife magazine and she wouldn't pose beyond the first article.
David W. Arnold had his wife do the line drawings in his, Shoot a Handgun, both the South African and USA editions. (The book also has numerous photos.) She is/was a superb artist and the work is fully professional.
But most gun writers don't mention their families. That doesn't mean they aren't close. It's just not too professional, and they don't want loved ones exposed to potential risks.
