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- LANG: U.S. Navy MAID: 252 TEXT: 121, 125, 126, 213, 214, 215, 216, 217, 218, 219, 220, 221, 222, 236, 245, 251 The following is per Jill Annette Bratcher, February 2005: In Memoriam - Donald Edmond Wallace Bratcher (1926-1970) Jill Bratcher - Feb 5, 2005 View | Edit | Delete | Viewers | Reply to this item Categories: In Memoriam - Family Memories & Dedications Today, 5 Feb 2005, is the 35th anniversary of my father's death. I was going to post something on his birthday, 10 April, but I decided to do it today since I was in here and thought of it. Donald was married to Dorothy Lee Clark, daughter of William Franklin Clark and Eula Clara Jones. William Franklin Clark was the son of William Monroe Clark and Willie Mae Allbright (and brother to Grady Luther Clark). Willie Mae was the daughter of William Abner Allbright and Melissa J. Legan. That should give you the tie in to most folks on this list. Donald was born 10 April 1926 in Vera, Knox County, Texas the second youngest of eight children born to Edward Lorance Bratcher and Hattie Belle Galloway. (Hattie went by "Belle", and Edward by "Ed".) Two of Donald's older sisters died young, both at around 5 years of age and both well before Donald came along. I never knew my grandfather; he died within 3 months of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor (not in the military, just using as a frame of reference since I was born on Dec. 7 some years later). I just recently found the family on the 1930 census in Malaga, Eddy County, , New Mexico, to which the family moved within a few days after Belle gave birth to their youngest daughter, my Aunt Eddie Belle Laverne Bratcher Lackey Bail. Granny Bratcher (Belle) was a big part of my early years, as she lived with Aunt Eddie and her family about 20-30 minutes from us up in Oregon. She was very religious and attended the Assemblies of God church. Only Aunt Eddie and one other sister, Aunt Earline (Vergie Earline Bratcher Lunsford Moore LeMay Harp Adams) lived in Oregon. All my parents' other siblings lived in Arizona, California, New Mexico, Texas and Kansas. We saw Earline and her family with Jess Moore some, mostly before I went to school and almost never after Daddy died. Daddy lied about his age and went into the Navy toward the end of World War II. (His military ID indicates his year of birth to be 1923.) He served aboard the "Mighty Moo" (not a typo!), the USS Cowpens. He was on board when she entered Tokyo Bay with the Pacific Fleet to obtain the Japanese surrender in 1945. I have pictures of both the ship with Mt. Fujiyama in the background. I also have a few pictures of him in uniform; I think I posted one to the group. Donald returned to New Mexico in 1945/46. There he met and married my mother Dorothy on 16 October 1946. (I'm guessing they didn't know each other before the war, but I could be wrong. I do know he dated another girl before mom, one of her friends. I met the lady in 1971 when we visited Grandma Reed [Eula Clara Jones Clark Gillespie Burcham Reed] then. Of course I didn't know about that until mom was sick in 1998 and her sister Rena Mae Clark Mitchell went through old photos with me.) While living in New Mexico, Donald and Dorothy had two children - Lynn Edward (December, 1947) and Donna Laverne (June, 1949, called Donna Lou). Sometime before the children entered school, the family moved to Oregon and eventually settled in McMinnville, Yamhill County, Oregon. They bought a house on Johnson Street, about five blocks from Cook Elementary School, which the children attended. Donald trained in office machine (basically typewriters, but probably adding machines, too) repair. However, in 1957, Donald was involved in an automobile accident which aggravated his Rheumatoid Arthritis. I was born in December, 1958, and by the time I was in kindergarten, he was disabled to
LANG: U.S. Navy MAID: 252 TEXT: 121, 125, 126, 213, 214, 215, 216, 217, 218, 219, 220, 221, 222, 236, 245, 251 The following is per Jill Annette Bratcher, February 2005: In Memoriam - Donald Edmond Wallace Bratcher (1926-1970) Jill Bratcher - Feb 5, 2005 View Edit Delete Viewers Reply to this item Categories: In Memoriam - Family Memories & Dedications Today, 5 Feb 2005, is the 35th anniversary of my father's death. I was going to post something on his birthday, 10 April, but I decided to do it today since I was in here and thought of it. Donald was married to Dorothy Lee Clark, daughter of William Franklin Clark and Eula Clara Jones. William Franklin Clark was the son of William Monroe Clark and Willie Mae Allbright (and brother to Grady Luther Clark). Willie Mae was the daughter of William Abner Allbright and Melissa J. Legan. That should give you the tie in to most folks on this list. Donald was born 10 April 1926 in Vera, Knox County, Texas the second youngest of eight children born to Edward Lorance Bratcher and Hattie Belle Galloway. (Hattie went by "Belle", and Edward by "Ed".) Two of Donald's older sisters died young, both at around 5 years of age and both well before Donald came along. I never knew my grandfather; he died within 3 months of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor (not in the military, just using as a frame of reference since I was born on Dec. 7 some years later). I just recently found the family on the 1930 census in Malaga, Eddy County, , New Mexico, to which the family moved within a few days after Belle gave birth to their youngest daughter, my Aunt Eddie Belle Laverne Bratcher Lackey Bail. Granny Bratcher (Belle) was a big part of my early years, as she lived with Aunt Eddie and her family about 20-30 minutes from us up in Oregon. She was very religious and attended the Assemblies of God church. Only Aunt Eddie and one other sister, Aunt Earline (Vergie Earline Bratcher Lunsford Moore LeMay Harp Adams) lived in Oregon. All my parents' other siblings lived in Arizona, California, New Mexico, Texas and Kansas. We saw Earline and her family with Jess Moore some, mostly before I went to school and almost never after Daddy died. Daddy lied about his age and went into the Navy toward the end of World War II. (His military ID indicates his year of birth to be 1923.) He served aboard the "Mighty Moo" (not a typo!), the USS Cowpens. He was on board when she entered Tokyo Bay with the Pacific Fleet to obtain the Japanese surrender in 1945. I have pictures of both the ship with Mt. Fujiyama in the background. I also have a few pictures of him in uniform; I think I posted one to the group. Donald returned to New Mexico in 1945/46. There he met and married my mother Dorothy on 16 October 1946. (I'm guessing they didn't know each other before the war, but I could be wrong. I do know he dated another girl before mom, one of her friends. I met the lady in 1971 when we visited Grandma Reed [Eula Clara Jones Clark Gillespie Burcham Reed] then. Of course I didn't know about that until mom was sick in 1998 and her sister Rena Mae Clark Mitchell went through old photos with me.) While living in New Mexico, Donald and Dorothy had two children - Lynn Edward (December, 1947) and Donna Laverne (June, 1949, called Donna Lou). Sometime before the children entered school, the family moved to Oregon and eventually settled in McMinnville, Yamhill County, Oregon. They bought a house on Johnson Street, about five blocks from Cook Elementary School, which the children attended. Donald trained in office machine (basically typewriters, but probably adding machines, too) repair. However, in 1957, Donald was involved in an automobile accident which aggravated his Rheumatoid Arthritis. I was born in December, 1958, and by the time I was in kindergarten, he was disabled to
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