Thursday, January 11, 1945
PRIVATE FIRST CLASS BASIL C. SHARP
Notice came on Monday from the War Department announcing the death of Private First Class Basil Claire Sharp on December 23, 1944, from wounds received in action in Germany. He was a member of the 45 Division of the Seventh Army. He had been in service about ten months, and overseas since mid-summer.
Basil C. Sharp, aged 30 years, was a son of Mr. and Mrs. Ernest G. Sharp, of Frost. His three brothers, Rex, Lyle and Blair, are in the armed services.
He married Miss Jane S. Price, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Calvin W. Price. She and their three children, Basil Price, John Calvin and Jane Rutledge, survive.
Thus is noted the passing of an outstanding young citizen and a brave soldier. He prepared himself for a life of usefulness and leadership. By his own efforts he put himself through college. Upon graduation at Davis and Elkins College, he taught for five terms in Hillsboro High School and directed athletic activities.
In religion, Basil was a working member of the Presbyterian Church.
Whether at work or play, in his calling as a teacher or his endeavors as a church man, in the pursuits of peace or in the grim realities of war, this outstanding young man did with his might what his hands found to do.
“Soldier, rest, thy warfare o’er.”
Our Army and Navy Boys
First Lieutenant L. E. Kisner, of Frank, in the neighboring county of Pocahontas, who was severely wounded by flak in his last mission over Germany, and who is a patient at the Don Cesar hospital at St. Petersburg, Florida, was home on a seven-day leave from the hospital and visited his sister, Mrs. F. J. Widney, of Elkins.
A bombardier navigator, he was shot down twice and the second time was on his 50th and last mission. What happened to him between the time he was shot down and the second time when troops of his own country arrived in the country in which he had landed in a parachute cannot be told. Lieutenant Kisner entered the service in March 1942, receiving his training at Santa Ana, California, and Roswell Field, New Mexico. – Randolph Review
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Mrs. Dulcie K. Reed, of Roanoke, Virginia, received the following telegram from the War Department:
“Regret to inform you that your husband, Private First Class Carl Reed was seriously wounded in action in Germany, December 11th. You will be advised as reports of his condition are received. Private First Class Reed is the son of Mr. and Mrs. J. A. Reed, of Hunters-ville. They have another son, Theodore, serving with Patton’s Third Army.
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Mrs. Letha Sparks received the following letter from Major Daniel I. Dunn:
Dear Mrs. Sparks:
“Your son, David, was recently awarded the Drivers Badge. This award is given only to our best drivers with a good record and you may be sure it is well deserved…” David is a driver of jeep ambulances and is stationed in France.
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Hubert Buzzard, mechanic in the Air Corps, with five years’ service behind him, is home on a 15-day furlough with his father, R. W. Buzzard, and other relatives. He made the trip from Africa to New York by plane.
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Sergeant James Howard, of the Air Corps, stationed at Charleston, South Carolina, is home on furlough with his wife and little son, James Judson, and his parents, Mr. and Mrs. J. L. Howard, of Buckeye.
WEATHER
My friend, Fred Galford, of Williams River, admitted we have had six weeks of pretty rough winter weather, with snow four feet deep up on Black Mountain, overlooking his home. However, he still maintains that this winter will not be marked and marred by exceeding low temperature. He takes his cue from the way bears are carrying on. The last days of the deer season, December 7 to 9, he was in the woods a hunting in 15 inches of snow. On Saturday before the Monday on which the really deep snow fell, Fred found where numerous bears had been raking the night before for beech nuts as if they were ravenously hungry…
Well, the snow came to depths ranging from two to four feet on Monday after the Saturday on which Fred noted numerous bears feeding. Monday was followed by a Tuesday on which the wind blew the snow into drifts and tied up our whole Greenbrier Valley country like it had not been snow bound in half a century. So it was a full ten days before Fred could break through across the mountain to tell me the infallible, never failing sign for a mild winter…
BIRTH
Born to Mr. and Mrs. Grant Sharp, of Mill Point, a son, named Donald Kenneth.
DEATH
The dead body of Clonnie Bolden, aged about forty years, was found on a wooded hillside near his home at Seebert last Saturday, January 6, 1945. He had been dead some days. It is supposed that he had fallen on the ice, slipped over a cliff and perished from hurts in the cold. While he lived alone, he had not been seen for about ten days. Search had been made for him. His brothers found the body. The deceased was a son of the late John and Harriet Bolden. His brothers are Willard, Robert and Vernie.