Thursday, December 21, 1944
Our Army and Navy Boys
Mrs. Ruth Gilmore Elliott has received a telegram from the Secretary of War that her husband, Private Ralph W. Elliott, has been missing in action since the 25th of November in Germany. Private Elliott landed in France on November 5th.
Mrs. Margaret Fowler, of Hillsboro, has received word that her son, Corporal Virgil H. Fowler, of the Army Air Corps, had arrived in San Francisco, from the Southwest Pacific on December 1. He will be transferred to the Woodrow Wilson Hospital, Staunton, Virginia, for medical treatment. Corporal Fowler has been overseas nearly twenty months.
James A. Bussard, of the Marines, stationed in California, has returned to his station after a 30-day leave with his mother, Mrs. Edith Bussard, of Minnehaha Springs. He wears three stars, designating three major battles.
Mrs. Oda Gay has received word that her son, Dale, of the Marines, is now on duty in the South Pacific.
“Pooley” Curry, of the Marines; Odie Clarkson, of the Sea Bees; “Dupey” Anderson and Earl Eades, of the Navy, are stationed so close together in Hawaii that they are able to see each other real often.
THE BIG SNOW
The twenty-inch snow of last Monday, December 11, and the snow of almost every day since are preserving for another generation the traditional hard winters of every man’s childhood.
There have been other twenty-inch snows in my recollection, but this one seems to have tied things up more completely than any of the others. First, there was the unusually heavy fall on Monday. Then came the wind on Tuesday, piling up the snow in great drifts. The road people did their utmost to keep the highways open, but the machinery available was just too light for the work. It was bulldozer work, and bulldozers are few…
The first gasoline truck in a week made it here on Monday. A week’s supply of Charleston Gazettes were delivered in this town in bundles to carrier patrons.
On last Tuesday, the log camps shut down in the Gauley woods of the Cherry River Company. Men from Laurel Creek, about a dozen miles from home, made a start to make it through four feet of snow on the level. Of course, they turned back. Taking the log train out, they caught the B & O for Charleston, then the C & O for Marlinton. This was a distance of nearly four hundred miles, with a dozen miles for the Laurel Creek men still to plout through the deep snow.
LOCAL MENTION
John S. Kellison is home from Philadelphia, where he has had another successful season as coach of the Philadelphia Eagles professional football team.
A flat roof on the garage of the Marlinton Electric Company, went down under the weight of snow Monday night.
Miss Ruby Jordan, who works in Baltimore, spent the weekend with Mr. and Mrs. Clyde Beverage. The snow blocked roads preventing her getting to her home on Laurel Creek. She returned to the city without seeing or hearing from her mother.
Harry W. Taylor was down from Dunmore on Tuesday. He reports just a little more snow than we have down here. All I can say, that is a plenty. In his pocket, Harry brought me a piece of as fine a venison steak as any man ever ate.
BIRTH
Born to Mr. and Mrs. James Shelton, of Slaty Fork, twin girls, Allie Marie and Aileen McCarty, on Friday, December 15, 1944
DEATHS
Cresap Kee, aged 71, died at his home below Marlinton on Friday December 15, 1944. On Sunday afternoon, his body was buried in the family plot in the Buckley cemetery. The deceased was a son of the late Aaron and Mildred McNeill Kee. He is survived by his four sisters, Mrs. James I. Beverage, of Sequim, Washington, Mrs. D. P. Barnes, Mrs. W. A. McLaughlin and Miss Viola Kee.
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Hunter W. Menefee was born August 2, 1908, at Cloverlick, the eldest son of Mrs. Eva Menefee and the late Herman J. Menefee, and departed this life at the Clifton Forge Hospital November 25, 1944. His health had been failing for some time… His body was laid to rest in the family plot in Mt. View Cemetery.
He is survived by his mother and the following brothers and sisters: Paul, of Henderson, Tenn.; Sterling, of Lang Field, Va.; James, of Baltimore, Md.; Pvt. Price Menefee, serving somewhere in Italy; Lt. Evelyn G. Menefee somewhere in Great Britain; and Mrs. W. P. Cruikshank, of White Sulphur Springs. His father preceded him to the grave four months ago.