Friday, January 30, 2009

Our Gang (of Hunters)


The above picture is my grandmother Minnie Tyson Hunter smiling in an ironic way to her children: first row, left to right, W.C., my father Ed, and ?, second row: Herbert the oldest, and Bee, the only daughter. In this picture Herbert (the oldest) reminds me of Alphafa of Our Gang. Remember how Alfapha was a Romeo or Casanova. In this picture Herbert looks something of a Romeo or Casanova. Herbert grew owning his own barber shop, and for a while he jointly owned one of the first, if not the first, airfields in Marietta. He died at age 75,

Herbert’s sister Bee, grew up and married a local entrepreneur and spent her time watching over her big family, of her own, and extended. She lived 67 years.


This is a picture of my father on the left and my uncle Jack on the right.



This picture was taken a two or three years later. My daddy was very recognizable – he is on the far left. One of the two other boys is his older brother W.C. W.C. was about three years older than Ed, my father. So, does any of the two boys look 2 years older than the boy on the left? Also, consider this: W.C. was called Peanut because of his small statue.

Ed spent his life as in law enforcing. At one time he was chief of the Marietta Police and right after that he was the chief of the Cobb County Police. He died in 1988 at age 77.

Jack spent a career in the Navy and was a chief petty officer. He was at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, and he and his fellow PT crew members are credited with saving Eddie Rickenbacker in the Pacific. I don’t know if at the time Rickenbacker was on the boat that Jack knew that the new airfield in his hometown was named The Eddie Rickenbacker field or not. Jack died at age 75.

W.C. was wounded in World War II and a metal plate was put in his head. He never fully recuperated from his war wounds. He died at the Veterans Hospital in Milledgeville, Georgia, at age 90.

I heard the family back then always had a family cow. Look, there’s one now!



These two are my uncles Dick and Stanley Hunter. Dick on the left joined the Navy and went to war. According to his service strips on his arm he reenlisted. He married in Massachusetts but finally came back to Marietta with his family and he went to work for Lockheed in the Planning department.
He and his wife Jeannette had twelve children that lived. Dick was mayor of Marietta in the 1960s.
He died at age 59.

Stanley went to War also and in on the invasion of the beaches of Normandy on D-Day. After he returned home he worked for the city and then went to work for Lockheed where he retired, except being a bailiff. He was an active member of several local civic organizations and was a pillar of the community. He died at age 76.

The two sons that I do not have good childhood pictures of are Bus and Doug.

4 comments:

Unknown said...

ET,

Great way to start my day seeing those pics. The last one has always been one of my absolute favorites. It shows how some people know very early what enjoy most - as Granddaddy was never happier than when he was in his garden working the earth...except maybe when he was running a football or playing baseball.

j3

Eddie said...

John,
Every time I see one of those bright red artificial poppies that some local civic organization sale every year I think of your granddad. Every year he stationed himself in front of the First National Bank and sold them to people coming in and out of the bank and he would get me walking by. I forgot what needy cause the money went for.

Si's blog said...

Great pictures and story.

How I wish I had pictures of all of my cousins. And how I wish I had kept up better.

Eddie said...

Si,
And I wish I could remember how I filed them.