Thursday, August 6, 1945
Our Army and Navy Boys
Aboard the USS Guam in the Pacific:
Two Marlinton men, Clifford L. Barkley, 31, seaman, first class USNR… and Arch G. Wooddell, 20, seaman first class USNR, served aboard this unique battle cruiser while she was proving her worth during the nearly six months of combat from Okinawa to the fringes of Japan’s Inland Sea.
The Guam … made her battle debut on the morning of March 18, during the now historic two-day air strike against the Ryukyus and the Inland Seas area of Japan.
Guns of the battle cruiser were credited with shooting down two [Japanese] planes as they attempted suicide dives on a nearby aircraft carrier, while her 12-inch guns have poured tons of steel on two [Japanese]-held islands.
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First Lt. Sherman Beard, who has completed his missions as first pilot on a B-24 bomber, flying with the 15th Air Force in Italy has reported to Greensboro, N. C. for reassignment, after spending a 30-day leave with this parents, Mr. and Mrs. Henry Beard, at Lewisburg.
Lt. Beard has been awarded the 3 Oak Leaf Clusters and the Distinguished Flying Cross.
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Captain Thomas Edgar is at home from an army hospital in Washington, D. C. on furlough. He is accompanied by his wife.
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Private First Class George Jackson and Private Vernon Crider had a happy meeting with Corporal Mitchell Hill and 1st Sergeant John Hayden Tibbs in France in July. This was their first meeting in two and a half years.
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James Lilly, of the Ninth Air Force, is just back from the European Area, after two years. He is on a thirty-day furlough at the home of J. V. May, of Beard. He carries five battle stars.
Held for Grand Jury
In Squire Neff Morrison’s court last Tuesday, Rice Alderman and Clifford Snyder were given preliminary examinations on charges of having killed James Lee Bowers. They were held for the grand jury without bail.
Along about June 11 last, Bowers was reported missing. On July 14, his body was found by the officers in a shallow grave in the cornfield of Rice Alderman, near Stillwell. The dead man had been shot through the chest, and his chest crushed in.
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Monterey – James Wilson, Jr., aged 17 years, of Back Creek, formerly of West Virginia, is held in the Highland county jail on a charge of shooting and killing Albert Simmons, aged 37, on Saturday, July 28, 1945. Wilson had recently run off from the State epileptic colony near Lynchburg. Some months ago, he had been sent to the reform school for stealing checks.
DIED
Mrs. Elsie S. VanReenen, aged 51 years, departed this life on Tuesday evening, July 31, 1945, after an illness of a few weeks.
On Thursday afternoon the funeral services were conducted from the Edray church… burial in the family plot at Mt. View Cemetery.
She was the daughter of the late Silas and Margaret Hull, of Alvon.
On June 17, 1918, she was married to Earl Gilmore, who died in September of that year.
On August 14, 1922, she was married to Gilbert VanReenen. To this union five children were born: Guy Francis, who is serving with the Armed Forces in Hawaii; Cecil Glen, who was killed in action in Belgium on January 24, 1945; Betty Jean, John Garth and Donald Gray, at home…
Mrs. VanReenen served as a teacher in the county schools over a period of fifteen years and took an active interest in community and church affairs…
In her girlhood, she united with the Methodist Church and consistently lived her religion, serving faithfully her family, friends and neighbors. Her patience with life’s lesser cares, and her courage in the face of great sorrow, will be an inspiration to all those who cherish her memory…
