52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: #2 Whit Criswell Bryan

Whit Criswell Bryan - About 1924 at his home in Seymour, Texas.

No Story Too Small

Last week, I accepted Amy Crow's challenge of posting 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks. I did this knowing that I had put my genealogy away for January as I have a work project, due January 29th, that needs all of my attention. However, I just couldn't pass it up.  I really wanted a way to focus my attention on my Hairston family. I have tons of information from Hairston research that needs to be organized and this challenge will be perfect for that. 

So, for the next few weeks (until January 29), my posts will be "easy" posts about closer Hairston family members. Today's post is a photo timeline about a Hairston descendant that I knew well, Whit Criswell Bryan, my father. 

Whit Criswell Bryan was the son of Redic E. Bryan and Myrtie Hairston Bryan. 

He was born in Seymour, Texas on December 21, 1920 and lived there until the death of his father in 1929. 

Dad lived with his sisters, in Borger, Texas, until 1940 when he joined the Navy.
Pictured with Dad are his sisters - Marie Bryan, DeRay Bryan, Willa Mae Dudley and his niece, Jackie Dudley.

He attended Basic Training at the U. S. Naval Training Station in San Diego California. Bill Smith, Robert Winters, and Whit Bryan

Dad was assigned to the Mobile Naval Hospital #3 in Pearl Harbor when the bombing occurred on December 7, 1941. 

Dad was married twice. After WWII, he married Geraldine Mixon. They had two daughters.
 

He married my mother in 1955 and had two children.
That's me in the picture with Mom. 

Dad in Vietnam. He served as a Hospital Corpsman with the 3rd Marine Division in 1967. 

Dad retired from the Navy in 1969. 

Here is Dad in Bienville Parish, Louisiana, in 1981, at the grave of his great-grandfather, Reddick Bryan.  His interest in his family led to my obsession with genealogy. 

Whit Criswell Bryan passed away on August 22, 2001. He was 80 years old. 

Diana

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