More Mary Grace and the Cavalry

Update: There was more than one Russell I discovered today when I was scanning in more of Mary Grace's scrapbooks. The war years must have been tough because she didn't exactly put them together in order. That's about all the blame I can pass on to her for mixing up the Russells. The Russell in the South Pacific was Russell Bosley as he told her or perhaps it was Bosler. He was born in 1919 in Watkins Glen, New York. She went with him to a winter formal on January 29, 1944. By February he had been sent to the South Pacific. He sent her the photos from there the following January.

Russell Bosley and Mary Grace
Winter Formal, January 29, 1944
Topeka

Russell Bosley, Staff Sergeant
in the Army Air Corps

   

So to those of you who felt that men didn't serve in both the European theater and the Pacific theater, apparently you were right--at least in this case. I must admit I didn't think the Russell in Topeka in 1945 looked that much like the Russell in the South Pacific, but it wasn't enough to stop me from publishing the blog. It was, though, enough to keep me from sending the photos or copies of the photos to Russell Hains' survivors. 

Mary Grace spent a lot of time at the USO, dancing with the GI's and helping to distract them from the war. Her mother gave her this cartoon, saying it reminded her of Mary Grace. She kept their photos and mementos through the war years, adding comments like, "I didn't even dance with this 'little guy'." Among these are nearly 20 photographs, Russell Leroy Hains sent her from his posting with the 5th Bombardment Group in the South Pacific.

Cartoon from 1944
The things you're saying to these boys
sounds pretty serious -- I don't want a 
troop of soldiers marching in here to quarrel
over you!

       According to his obituary in January of 2004, he earned a Bronze Star and Purple Heart in Europe during World War II, but the article doesn't mention his time in the South Pacific. To me the Russell Hains in the obituary is the one whom Mary Grace knew. There are records that indicate he was mustered out of the army at a hospital in Topeka in September 1945.

"A picture of our pet parrot, George. That's me
beside him. Nice tan don't you think."

       
     These photos are a sampling from what he sent her. I haven't been able to pinpoint where he was stationed, but it may have been in the Solomon Islands. Clearly somewhere warm as these are dated either December 15 or Christmas Eve 1945. Russell was born in August 1924 so that would make him only 20 years old.

December 24, 1944
Another view of our celebrating Christmas
in the Islands.

December 15, 1944
E. Moodie, our ballgunner with bananas
and tree.

Russell saw Mary Grace when he returned to the states in 1945. On this day in August he and Mary Grace posed for several photographs. In her My Life, Mary Grace wrote that she almost got engaged to one of the soldiers she met through the USO. At this point, no one knows or remembers which one of her suitors she meant, but she has more photos of Russell than anyone else. She and Ray had been dating off and on by then for almost four years with engagements occurring between them every so often. They eventually married in July 1946 less than a year after this. In Mary Grace's scrapbook, near the photos of Russell in Topeka, is a clipping describing the 30th McClenny reunion, including the information that Mary Grace Burkhardt attended. Russ left Topeka soon after these photos were taken. The last reference of Russ is a postcard from him saying he was on his way home to Philadelphia.

December 15, 1944 - Solata,
my radio operator and me.
Things that look like rocks are coral.

Edna and Russell
August 1945 Topeka

Russell and Mary Grace
August 1945 Topeka

The John and Edith McClenny Family Home - 60 Years Apart

Edith Davis and John McClenny
Wedding day, November 9, 1890

      John McClenny married Edith Lorraine Davis on November 9, 1890 at the home of the Edith's parents according to the Farmer's Vindicator. It could have been the home of her mother, but her father, James Young Davis, had died in 1884. John and Edith, who grew up 300 miles apart, may have known each other because their families were somewhat intertwined. John's father, WC, grew up in Bond County, Illinois where Edith's family, the Davises also lived. John's aunt, Mary Melissa, married Edith's father's half-brother, Amos Huntington Davis. As a sidelight, Amos, spent the Civil War as a member of the 20th Illinois Infantry band.

     Their first child, Curtis, was born in August 1891 in Jefferson County, but their next two children, Otis and Valla, were born in Bond County, Illinois. At the beginning of 1898, they returned to Jefferson County. In January 1899 they took out a mortgage on 10 acres near present day 150th St and Marion St in Jefferson County.

From the left, John holding Goldie or Helen as we knew her; Otis, Curtis, either Edith's mother, Mrs. Davis
or her sister, Sada Davis; Valla and Edith outside their home in 1901.
Both Helen and Vala started with two l's, but they both dropped the second l at some point.

McClenny Home from a different view from the back after an addition. This photo was dated 1914.

     The McClennys lived there until about 1917 or 1918, perhaps, five years after John's death in 1913. Below is a home movie from 1965 when Helen and Vala revisited their home, nearly fifty years after they last lived there. John & Edith's home on Google maps The description of their land is 10 acres of the northwest quarter of the northeast quarter of section 35 in township 8 of range 18 east of the 6th meridian. It's close to the intersection of 150th St and Marion Road in Jefferson County.