Editing Jack Webb (section)

==Early life==
Webb was born in [[Santa Monica, California]], on April 2, 1920, son of Samuel Chester Webb and Margaret (née Smith) Webb.<ref name=mnf>{{cite book| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IosyS2rjwMgC&q=%22Samuel+Chester+Webb%22&pg=PA9| title=My Name's Friday: The Unauthorized But True Story of Dragnet and the Films of Jack Webb| first=Michael J.| last=Hayde| publisher=Cumberland House Publishing| location=[[Nashville, Tennessee]]| date=2001| isbn=978-1581821901}}</ref><ref>LDS family records show that Samuel C. Webb (b. 1890 Henrietta, Clay County, Texas, son of James H. Webb and Mary Elizabeth Gambell) married May 30, 1917, in Superior, Mineral, Montana, to Margaret Smith age 18 born Caldwell, Canyon Co, Idaho, daughter of [https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/MM5G-TJS Frank J. Smith and Emma Strickland].</ref> He grew up in the [[Bunker Hill, Los Angeles|Bunker Hill]] section of Los Angeles. His father left home before Webb was born, and Webb never knew him.<ref name="NYT">{{cite web| title=Jack Webb, Laconic Sgt. Friday On TV 'Dragnet' Series, Is Dead| first=Frank J.| last=Prial| date=December 24, 1982| url=https://www.nytimes.com/1982/12/24/obituaries/jack-webb-laconic-sgt-friday-on-tv-dragnet-series-is-dead.html| work=[[The New York Times]]}}</ref>{{failed verification|date=June 2020}}

In the late 1920s and early 1930s, Webb lived in the parish of Our Lady of Loretto Catholic Church and attended Our Lady of Loretto Elementary School in [[Echo Park, Los Angeles|Echo Park]], where he served as an altar boy.<ref name=OLL>{{cite web| title=Our Lady of Loretto Elementary School: OLL Historic Timeline| url=http://www.ollalumni.com/historic-timeline.php| access-date=June 23, 2011| url-status=dead| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090905002033/http://www.ollalumni.com/historic-timeline.php| archive-date=September 5, 2009}}</ref> He then attended [[Belmont High School (Los Angeles)|Belmont High School]], near downtown Los Angeles, where he was elected student body president. He wrote to Belmont's student body in the 1938 edition of its yearbook, ''Campanile'', "You who showed me the magnificent warmth of friendship which I know, and you know, I will carry with me forever."<ref>''Campanile 1938,'' Belmont High School, 1938.</ref> Webb attended [[College of Saint Benedict and Saint John's University|St. John's University, Minnesota]], where he studied art.
 
During [[World War II]], Webb enlisted in the [[United States Army Air Corps]], but he "washed out" of flight training.<ref name="mnf" /> He later received a hardship discharge because he was the primary financial support for both his mother and grandmother.<ref>{{cite book |first1=Daniel |last1=Moyer |first2=Eugene |last2=Alvarez |title=Just the Facts, Ma'am: The Authorized Biography of Jack Webb, Creator of Dragnet, Adam-12, and Emergency! |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PyAIAQAAMAAJ&q=hardship+discharge |page=39 |isbn=978-0929765297 |publisher=Seven Locks Press |year=2001 |access-date=January 28, 2020}}</ref>