First Lt. Coy Buell Ellison died on Aug. 2, 1944, on a World War II bombing mission over Romania. He was a navigator on a Liberator aircraft that did not return.
Seaman 2nd Class Johnny Leo Windom died on Nov. 25, 1944, in the Pacific theater of World War II. He was listed as missing as action before being declared killed.
The locations of their deaths were half a globe apart, but they had started out in the same place. They were the first and last of six young men killed in the war during a three-month, three-week period – all from the town of McLean, Texas, whose population was just more than 1,400.
Ellison, Windom and the other four were remembered this Memorial Day in an annual service at Hillcrest Cemetery on the edge of McLean, whose city limits sign now says it has 665 residents. It was a sunny day with just enough breeze to make the Stars and Stripes flutter.
The flag was marched to the cemetery center circle by Cub Scouts and raised to the top of a pole before being lowered to half-staff. The morning’s speaker, Don Sanders, noted the scores of other, small, American flags that the Cub Scouts had placed on graves the day before.
“It’s a privilege to see a town that supports our veterans,” said Sanders, who served in Vietnam from 1968 to 1970. He grew up in Stinnett and is a longtime member of Heald Methodist Church outside McLean.
Sanders made clear that his faith, his mother and his “little sweetheart from McLean, Texas,” had helped him overcome “demons” that haunted him after his Vietnam experience.
He had seen fellow Army servicemen undertaking dangerous tasks such as hauling napalm, and a friend from Buffalo, New York, who “had your back” had returned to the States with irreparably damaged lungs from Agent Orange.
A chaplain had told Sanders, “God’s not through with you yet.”
“We’ll all get through this if we’re soldiers of Christ,” Sanders said. “I don’t know if it’s good for you to hear this, but it’s good for me to tell.” He referenced those who didn’t make it back. “I’m telling my story, but the others can’t tell theirs.”
Jennifer Evans, my cousin who volunteers with the Hillcrest Cemetery Association and the McLean-Alanreed Area Museum, among other community groups, is researching all 31 known McLean service members who have lost their lives from World War I on. She read short biographies of the six who died in that short 1944 time span.
Ellison is buried in the Cambridge American Cemetery in England. Windom is buried at McLean. In addition, Army Sgt. Morse Ivey of the McLean Class of 1936 was killed in action on Aug. 9, 1944, in France. Ivey, who was related to my family, is buried in the Brittany American Cemetery in France.
Navy Ensign James Everett of the McLean Class of 1940 was killed on Sept. 10, 1944, while strafing a Japanese landing field in the Philippines. A marker at McLean memorializes his life. Private 1st Class Alton Glenn died on Oct. 8, 1944, two months after being wounded while fighting with the Marines on Guam. He was born in Wheeler County and is buried at McLean.
And Private Delmas H. Collie died on Nov. 10, 1944, on Leyte Island after suffering wounds fighting with the Marines on Guam. His grave is at McLean.
As remarkable as it is that so many lives from one small town were cut short in less than four months, the impact isn’t the numbers but the devastation on each of those six families – and on families all over the Texas Panhandle and the nation.
Bobby and Carey Richardson, two of several excellent musicians at the Hillcrest service, talked about their late brother, Staff Sgt. Kenny Richardson, who was a member of the Air Force Academy’s Wings of Blue parachute team and a survival trainer.
Kenny Richardson was killed in a parachute accident in 1999, and knowing the sense of loss his brothers feel makes their beautiful harmonic singing even more inspiring.
I’ve seen them perform “Go Rest High On That Mountain” at several funerals, and their rendition was no less inspiring on Memorial Day.
A service that included “Amazing Grace,” “How Great Thou Art” and “Far Side Banks of Jordan” led by the Richardsons, Kristen Webb, Kendalyn Richardson and Bobby Evans left some in tears, but maybe the Ernest Tubb song, “Soldier’s Last Letter,” sung by Evans, captured the moment best:
“When the postman delivered a letter, It filled her dear heart full of joy. But she didn't know till she read the inside, it was the last one from her darling boy. …
“Dear Mom, was the way that it started. I miss you so much, it went on. Mom, I didn't know that I loved you so. …
“I'll finish this letter the first chance I get, but now I'll just say I love you…
“Then the mother's old hands began to tremble, and she fought against tears in her eyes. But they came unashamed, for there was no name, and she knew that her darling had died.”
Mike Haynes taught journalism at Amarillo College from 1991 to 2016 and has written for the Faith section since 1997. He can be reached at haynescolumn@gmail.com. Go to www.haynescolumn.blogspot.com for other recent columns.
This article originally appeared on Amarillo Globe-News: Haynes: Memorial Day supports veterans, soldiers of Christ
