People

: Charles J. "Charley" Colosimo; He was one of three children born to Italian immigrants John Colosimo, a coal cutter for the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad, and Angelina Letizia Colosimo, a homemaker. He was born and grew up on Hale Avenue in Grand Junction, Colorado’s Riverside neighborhood. As a young man he worked in Grand Junction’s movie theaters. He married Mary Louise Chiaro in 1934. After a brief time in Fruita, where Mary was a homemaker and he managed a theater, they got a chance to move to Utah, where Charles would manage a theater there. Charley’s parents insisted that they stay and help them, and so the two of them moved into their house at 201 Hale Avenue instead, where they lived for eighteen years. He began working for the Denver & Rio Grande as a call-boy in 1941, and became an engineer in 1945.

: Charles James "Huff" Huffaker; He was born to Paul D. Huffaker and Mary Jewel (Conner) Huffaker in Runnels, Texas. His Texas birth certificate indicates that his names was Charles Jones Huffaker at birth. His father was a farm laborer and night watchman. His mother was a homemaker. US Census records show the family living in Randall County, Texas in 1930, when Charles was 7. By 1940 they lived in Jal, New Mexico, where Charles attended high school. He enlisted in the US Navy in January 1941. He did his basic training in San Diego and served aboard the Tennessee, a battleship harbored in Pearl Harbor. He then was sent to signal school in San Diego to become a signalman. He was a communications officer assigned to the signal bridge. During the war, his ship was involved in several Pacific Theater battles, including the Battle of Iwo Jima and the Battle of Tarawa. He left the Navy as a chief petty officer in 1946. He married Josephine Evelyn Collins on October 17, 1946 in Philadelphia. They came to Grand Junction, Colorado in 1953, where they had a house, barn and dairy. These structures later burned. They lived on Mesa Creek and Fall Creek in Unaweep Canyon from 1953 to 1968. Charles held ranching jobs. He also worked in the uranium business for a uranium pilot plant for four years. His wife died in Grand Junction, Colorado on May 20, 1982. They had two children. *Photograph of Charles Huffaker and Josephine (Collins) Huffaker

: Charles King Jr.; Charles *Chaz Roi" King Jr. is a recording artist in Grand Junction, CO.

: Charles Leslie; Sheep rancher and husband of Eva (Wood) Leslie. They were married in Fruita, Colorado on July 5, 1922. He had a permit to graze sheep in the Fruita Reserve on Pinon Mesa. When his son Melvin was ready to go to school, they moved to a ranch near Fruita. When Melvin went into the service, Charles bought the Lighthouse Hotel in Fruita, which he operated with his wife. Then he bought a pool hall called the Owl in Fruita, which he ran until 1954.

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