War minded citizens of Hazard and Perry County have during the last two years been assigned home front war jobs to do by the hundreds and they have done them well.General Eisenhower has promised victory against Germany this year but he makes it plain that it will come only if the home front continues to function in high gear.
We all want our sons back and we know they want to come back. We are expecting them to win this war with their own blood and they must certainly have the right to expect us here at home to help with our time and money...
In 1944 the grim reaper will begin to exact a terrible price from the mothers and fathers in the lives of their sons, so let us not falter or fail them in this most trying year.
As you close your eyes tonight think of that boy across the street or perhaps our own son freezing on the side of a high mountain in Italy; wading the deep mud half crazed from the roar of big guns and death everywhere about him. Think of him in the steaming jungles of the South Pacific fighting a fiendish and cunning enemy that may ask of him the supreme sacrifice any minute. Think of these boys of ours all over the world tonight, thousands of them making their peace with God knowing the end is near. Yes, draw on your mind for a real picture of what war really is.
L.O. Davis 1944
Editor's note: Two years later, in 1946, L.O. Davis' only son, Bobby Davis, was killed while serving oversees in Germany. He died in a train wreck two days before his 20th birthday. L.O. Davis' gift to his son and the city of Hazard was a living memorial, The Bobby Davis Library, Park and swimming pool. Today it is known as the Bobby Davis Museum.
I actually got chills when I read this...knowing that 2 years later one of the lives claimed by the grim reaper was Mr. Davis' own son.
ReplyDeleteWhat a find!!!! All these years his words laid dormant and then you came along and brought it
ReplyDeleteright back into reality, almost as if it were yesterday and those not living then can read something true that hits home to us all. I
remember the little flags that Mothers would put in the windows with a star in the middle to show they had a son fighting. What a sight for a young girl to see as she went about town, and what an honor. The adorned windows spoke loud, made a statement from the hearts of the
mothers and other family members. I remember the first Perry County boy that was killed and returned. I think he was a Stacy but I am not for sure. I know my family had the newspaper story in the Bible for years. I have no idea where it got to.