June Lucile Connell: Military Nurse

Granddad J.C. volunteered some information about his sister June the other day when I was talking with him. He said that several of his older siblings went to serve their country during WWII--three of his older brothers and his older sister June. When he said that, my curiosity was piqued. Women didn't usually go overseas to war in that era, did they?

Well, this one did.

June signed up to volunteer her services to her country as a nurse when she was about 21, and was assigned to the USAHS Marigold (United States Army Hospital Ship Marigold). This was the first Allied ship to reach Japan (according to Wikipedia :P, but also according to Granddad) after the Hiroshima bombings in 1945. June eventually became a nurse lieutenant, and when she came home was a nurse in Charleston. Later, she transferred to the VA hospital in Tampa, Florida where she met a man "by the name of Reynolds," as Granddad put it. They had one child together in addition to the two he had from a previous marriage. June later graduated from the University of Tampa and taught elementary school in Florida for the rest of her working life. Granddad said sometimes he'd go down to Florida to spend Christmas with her family.

The USAHS Marigold (picture found here)

Where was J. O. Thompson after his mother died?

After J.O.'s mother died, his father was so upset by her passing that he didn't feel fit to care for his three children, so he sent them to live with his brother John Thompson. When J.O.'s father remarried, his new wife would take his two daughters to live with them, but said that she didn't want to have to raise a "big 'ol boy," so J.O. stayed with his uncle John. J.O. was only 12 years old.

J.O. loved his uncle John. When Grandma was telling me about J.O.'s stay with John Thompson, she said this several times. "My daddy loved his uncle John." John taught him how to farm and run a farm, among many other things. The skills J.O. learned when he was with his uncle John helped him land his job as manager of a farm in or near Charlotte when he met Grace Campbell, my great-grandmother.

Here's the 1910 census showing him with his uncle John Monroe Thompson's family. J.O. was the oldest child there by a long shot. If you sign in to Family Search to view the picture, you will need to go to the previous image to see the rest of John M. Thompson's family.

Sources: Grandma Izzy, Cousin Rita, 1910 US census

Compassion - Vesta May Cowdrey (nee Henize)

So in the pictures that Rachel sent me, I found a lot of this young man (or maybe these two are brothers?):

I asked Grandma Kathleen about the picture on the left, thinking these two were the same person. Grandma replied saying that his name is Danny Lightner. The caption for the picture below, however, is "Vesta, Jackie Lighten, Mary Louise". Grandma told me, "Aunt Vesta and Uncle Herman frequently took in boys who needed help. They would help out with some farm duties, but treated as part of family. This boy was Danny Lightner. He was with Aunt Vesta for - maybe 5 years."

I think it's sweet that we have people in our family like Aunt Vesta and her husband, Aunt Docia, and Robert Jackson Connell who had the generosity and compassion to take in children who needed help.

Mary Louise, Vesta, Jackie Lighten

Aunt Vesta