From the Files of Marguerite Cook Clark: Dr. Vance W. Fletcher, Ringgold Physician and WWI Veteran

This obituary is another of the approximately 175 newspaper clippings saved by Marguerite Cook Clark, her mother, and her daughters.[1] 

Vance Wells Fletcher, the son of Edward Badger Fletcher and Roxanna McKeown, was born and grew up in Florida.[2] During WWII, he enlisted in the U.S. Army and served in France.[3] After the war, he attended Tulane University of Louisiana School of Medicine. [4]

By 1930, he and his wife, Ruth Williams, were living in Ringgold.[5]  Ruth, the daughter of B. Frank and Mamie Williams, died in 1938. In 1941, Vance married widow, Audra Macey Martin Ray, daughter of James Bryan Martin and Anna Cook.[6]

If you want to know more about the families I research, click here to like my Facebook page where you will see each post and other genealogical finds. 

Diana

© 2021

    1. "Services Today for Well Known Doctor [obituary]," newspaper clipping, n.d., unidentified newspaper, from the privately-held collection of Marguerite Cook Clark (1913-1989), Waynesville, North Carolina, 2021. Clippings were accessed and scanned at the home of Marguerite Cook Clark's daughter in Alpine, Texas on April 28, 2014, September 14, 2014, and November 9 to 11, 2016.

    2. Themis64, "Hunt Family Tree," public tree, Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com/family-tree/tree/31144515/family/familyview? : accessed 9 November 2021). 

    3.  U.S., Army Transport Service Arriving and Departing Passenger Lists, 1910-1939; digital images, Ancestry.com (https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/61174/images/44508_3421606189_0018-00257?treeid=&personid=&hintid=&queryId=19d320f4f8b8947c84a3e11a81171095&usePUB=true&_phsrc=DWY21313&_phstart=successSource&usePUBJs=true&pId=572002: accessed 9 November 2021); citing National Archives Microfilm Record Group Number: 92; Roll or Box Number: 3l. 

    4. "United States Deceased Physician File (AMA), 1864-1968," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-99QP-V94H-X?cc=2061540&wc=M6YC-RNL%3A353055201 : 9 November 2021), Fitzhugh, James S-Foerster, Ernst Ferdinand > image 1715 of 2994; American Medical Association, Chicago.

    5. 1930 U.S. Census, Bienville Parish, Louisiana, population schedule, supervisor's district no. 2, enumeration district 0012,  p.1B, dwelling 18, family 19, Vance W. Fletcher household; digital images, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com: accessed 9 November 2021); citing NARA microfilm T626, roll 785.

    6. Themis64, "Hunt Family Tree," public tree, Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com/family-tree/tree/31144515/family/familyview? : accessed 9 November 2021). 

Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day - 2019

Whit Criswell Bryan
1920-2001

I read today that today there are only three living survivors of Pearl Harbor. There are no living survivors in my part of Virginia where local survivors' names are engraved on a monument at Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek-Fort Story.

The Pearl Harbor memorial was built and dedicated in 1990 on the Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek-Fort Story.  An expansion to the monument was completed in 2001 which includes 184  names of known local survivors of the attack.

Names were added to the monument
just a few months after my father's
death in 2001.

My father, Whit Criswell Bryan, was a survivor of the Pearl Harbor attack. Dad was stationed at the Mobile Naval Hospital #2 as a Pharmacist's Mate 3rd Class. He was one of many Naval personnel constructing the hospital and it was not complete when the bombing occurred. He didn't talk about his specific duties after the bombing so I did some searching to find out more. 

According to U.S. Navy Medicine, The Mobile Naval Hospital was not yet uncrated but provided personnel, supplies, and equipment to treat 110 patients on the day that Pearl Harbor was attacked. 

Hospital Corps Quarterly, Volumes 15-16 has a list of all officers and enlisted men stationed at the Mobile Naval Hospital on December 7, 1941.

Bernard Williams, a Pharmacist's Mate at the mobile hospital, stated that after the attack they began the task of cleaning up the debris and worked well into the night. 

LeRoy Knurr, a Navy carpenter, said his unit was quickly put to work building medical facilities for casualties. It was written that as soon as an area was finished, beds would be brought in and it would soon be filled by wounded. Edward C. Kenny stated they worked frantically to finish the mobile hospital to accommodate 400 burn victims. 

George Gorohoff's obituary stated that he was personally responsible for making over 3,000 battle dressings following the attack while working in a cane field. The mobile hospital was surrounded by cane fields. 

Robert Brunner and others from the mobile hospital crowded into trucks and hustled to the harbor. The most severely burned victims were taken to the naval hospital. More than 100 were treated in the still-unfinished mobile unit.

left - Whit Bryan and Robert "Bob" Brunner - Pearl Harbor - about 1941
right - Robert "Bob" Brunner and Whit Bryan - Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek-Fort Story - December 7, 1991

Visit these links to learn more about Dad's time in Pearl Harbor. 

• Friday's Photo: Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day 2012


Thoughts of Dad on Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day 2014
Remembering Dad and Pearl Harbor: Naval Mobile Hospital # 2
Friday's Photo: Pearl Harbor 
Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day - Dad was stationed at the Mobile Naval Hospital #2 in Aiea Heights, Territory of Hawaii
#52ancestors Post Fifty-One: The Second Anniversary of Mobile Hospital No. 2, Pearl Harbor - August 1943 
Friday's Photo: Pearl Harbor Survivors, Whit Bryan and Bob Brunner - 1991

If you want to know more about the families I research, click here to like my Facebook page where you will see each post and other genealogical finds. 

Diana

© 2019

Other Sources

Family photographs and documents from the collection Diana Bryan Quinn. 

“JEB Little Creek-Fort Story honors Pearl Harbor survivors and victims at annual remembrance ceremony .” 13newsnow.com, https://www.13newsnow.com/article/news/national/military-news/jeb-little-creek-fort-story-honors-pearl-harbor-survivors-and-victims-at-annual-remembrance-ceremony/291-d6ce17a8-ef1c-4274-815f-017330c444d4. Accessed 7 Dec. 2019.

Napa Valley Register (California) 9 February 2001, obit for George Gorohoff, GenealogyBank.com https://www.genealogybank.com/doc/obituaries/obit/13C7C709F1A0A2B8-13C7C709F1A0A2B8 : accessed 7 December 2019

From the Files of Marguerite Cook Clark: Priscilla Neal Williams

Priscilla Neal  7 1/2 months. 

Priscilla Neal was born on December 24, 1902 to Alice Belle Neal and Thomas W. Neal. She grew up in Castor, Bienville Parish, Louisiana and lived much of her adult life in Minden, Webster Parish. 

Priscilla Neal married Lory W. Williams and had two daughters. She was a homemaker and a member of the First United Methodist Church of Minden where she was active in the United Methodist Women. 

Priscilla Neal Williams died on October 20, 1998 in Shreveport. Her husband died three years earlier. They are both buried in Old Castor Cemetery. 

       Priscilla was one of 13 graduates of Castor High        School in 1922. Click here to see the names of her       classmates and other school information. 

If you want to know more about the families I research, click here to like my Facebook page where you will see each post and other interesting finds. 

Diana

© 2016

Sources

Family photographs and documents from the collection of Marguerite Cook Clark. Accessed April 28, 2014 and September 14, 2014. Used with permission.

Shoemaker, Suzanne. "Obit: Priscilla Neal Williams, Caddo Par., Louisiana" The USGenWeb Project Louisiana Archives Nov. 1998. Web. 7 Jul. 2016. <http://files.usgwarchives.net/la/caddo/obits/williamspn.txt>.