thedrifter
12-11-05, 07:05 AM
Posted on Sun, Dec. 11, 2005
A small town still remembers four special men
By Ed Grisamore
TELEGRAPH COLUMNIST
LOUISVILLE - A bronze plaque rests against the bricks and mortar at the entrance to the city cemetery,
"This wall and these gates," it reads, "were erected in grateful and loving memory of four sons of Louisville who gave their lives in the Second World War."
They are listed alphabetically: Phillips "Sonny" Abbot Jr., John Joseph Cofer, Robert Northington "Bobby" Hardeman III and Augustine Patterson "Pat" Little Jr.
Their names flank the wrought-iron gate, but you won't find their graves in the hometown that gave them to the world, then cried at their funerals.
Hardeman is buried at Marietta National Cemetery, a historic cemetery in Cobb County that dates back to the Civil War. Little and Abbot died in France and were buried there. Cofer's final resting place was an island in the Pacific.
Last week marked the 64th anniversary of Pearl Harbor and America's entry into World War II. In reflection, almost every community in America lost sons and daughters. More than 400,000 American soldiers died in the deadliest military conflict in history.
In a small town like Louisville, which had a population of about 2,000 in the 1940s, losing four bright and popular young men was a staggering blow.
Cofer was killed in November 1942. Hardeman, Abbot and Little all died in a span of four months in the summer and early fall of 1943.
The grief was a heavy load. People would greet each other on the street, then break down in tears.
The four men served in different branches of the military - Army, Army Air Force, Marines and Navy. They all graduated from the same high school, Louisville Academy, and worshipped at the same church, the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church.
Louise Abbot is among those committed to keeping their memory alive. A one-time friend of the late Flannery O'Connor, she is Bobby Hardeman's sister. She was 12 years old when he was killed at Saipan.
Four years ago, with the help of the Jefferson County Historical Society, she published the World War II scrapbook of Philippa Denny, a local woman who faithfully saved newspaper clippings about the war from the pages of The News & Farmer.
In Abbot's foreword, she quoted Paul Horgan from his novel "Whitewater."
"Time goes, you know. Yes, time goes but it stays, too, if ... if anybody remembers, no matter who?"
UNEXPLAINED SORROW
Cofer was the first native son to die in the war. He grew up on a farm just outside of town. After Pearl Harbor, he asked the Navy for a transfer into the fighting forces as a gunner. He died after a long battle, but heroically stayed at his station, even after being mortally wounded.
An older brother, Charles, returned from World War II and taught English at the high school. He would tell his students about waking up on another ship the night his brother was killed, sensing that something terrible had happened. He experienced unexplained sorrow as he walked to the ship's bridge.
He would later serve on the USS Cofer, commissioned in 1944 in honor of John Cofer.
Cofer's death quickly brought the war home to Louisville.
"I remember being horrified that people actually died in the war," said Lillian Easterlin. A young woman, that fear consumed her.
"I had nightmares about the Germans and Japanese taking over," she said.
Sonny Abbot was her cousin. She remembers his passion for building model airplanes. It came as no surprise when he joined the Army Air Force and became a P47 fighter pilot.
His was killed when his plane went down over France. A young man from a neighboring farm recovered his body and removed all identification and papers before the German soldiers could find the American pilot.
Abbot's family later took money it collected from the GI insurance and helped send the young Frenchman to college. Family members also had the brick wall built around the city cemetery in Louisville.
After the war, a serviceman from Louisville named Roy Amerson had been assigned to help move the graves of American soldiers to a military cemetery in France.
He shoveled at one grave site, marked only by a white cross. The loose dirt revealed a chilling discovery.
On the casket was the name of Sonny Abbot, one of his friends from this small east Georgia town which, perhaps with no small irony, was named after King Louis XVI of France.
Two months later, on Sept. 29, Little also died on French soil. An Army colonel, he was a West Point honor graduate and had just been promoted to brigadier general a few weeks before his death. He had married the day after he graduated from West Point in June 1937. He had spent two years overseas in the African and Italian campaigns, and he was an aviation engineer attached to Gen. George Patton's Army.
While accompanying a fellow officer to inspect an airport at Bourget, near Paris, members of his party were hit by sniper fire. The other officer was killed instantly, and Little heroically pulled his driver to safety. The driver survived. Little died a few days later.
'GREAT MISGIVINGS'
Louise Abbot married into the Abbot family several years after the tragedy of losing her older brother. Bobby Hardeman was a popular young man who was extremely patriotic and had a deep faith. His father had been a Marine in World War I, and he begged his parents to let him join the Marines when he was 18. Most of his friends already had enlisted. His mother and father finally consented, with "great misgivings," Louise Abbot said.
Thirteen months later, in the final days of the battle at Saipan in the Pacific's Mariana Islands, he was killed by a sniper's bullet.
The grim news arrived on a Sunday morning, before church, and soon her grandmother's house in Louisville was filled with people.
At the funeral, the Rev. Moffett Plaxco read from Psalms and talked about having a meeting with Hardeman before the young man left for the war. Plaxco recalled him running off the porch, across the yard and jumping the hedges.
Then, he was gone.
In many ways, this town has never stopped grieving.
"The ones old enough to remember all know these four men gave their lives for something very important," said Rosa Green.
Green saw the war from many different sides. She was related to three of the soldiers who were killed. She was Sonny Abbot's first girlfriend. During the war, she enlisted in the military as a Navy WAVE. And her father, James B. Polhill Jr., wrote columns for the local newspaper called "Cracks By a Georgia Cracker." The columns were written in the form of open letters to local servicemen, showing both appreciation for their service and sharing news from Louisville and Jefferson County.
It was a much different war, she said.
"We weren't divided like we are today," she said. "Everybody pulled together because it affected everybody."
The Rev. Ron Southerland is an Episcopal priest with The Church of the Annunciation in Vidalia. Every Thursday, he travels to Louisville to observe a Eucharist with members of the Episcopal Church of St. Mary Magdalene. He has grown to know them, love them and share in their life stories.
Their loyalty to the "sons of Louisville" from World War II reminds him of something he read in Harper Lee's "To Kill a Mockingbird."
"Names are important in a town," he said. "If you were a Morris or a Bennett, people know what to expect of you. In remembering them after they're gone, these stories give a strong sense of community."
Of course, there is always the wonder of what life would be like if they had lived and loved and still walked among others of the "Greatest Generation."
The sentiments grow stronger as their loved ones grow older.
"The memories others share with me become my memories, too," said Abbot, "even if I didn't see them for myself."
Louisville - pronounced "Lewis-ville" by the locals - has several claims to fame. It served as Georgia's state capital from 1796 to 1806. For history buffs, it has the state's only remaining slave-trading site, and there is a cemetery with soldiers from the Revolutionary War on the outskirts of town. And the highest temperature in Georgia - 112 degrees - was recorded on the sidewalks of Louisville on July 24, 1953.
Hardeman kept his hometown in his heart, his sister said. "I think Bobby would have come back to live in this town," said Abbot. "He loved it as much as he loved anything. He wanted to get back to Louisville. That was his goal. But he never did get back, not even on furlough."
Reach Gris at 744-4275 or egrisamore@macontel.com. Visit his Web site at www.grisamore.com.
Ellie
A small town still remembers four special men
By Ed Grisamore
TELEGRAPH COLUMNIST
LOUISVILLE - A bronze plaque rests against the bricks and mortar at the entrance to the city cemetery,
"This wall and these gates," it reads, "were erected in grateful and loving memory of four sons of Louisville who gave their lives in the Second World War."
They are listed alphabetically: Phillips "Sonny" Abbot Jr., John Joseph Cofer, Robert Northington "Bobby" Hardeman III and Augustine Patterson "Pat" Little Jr.
Their names flank the wrought-iron gate, but you won't find their graves in the hometown that gave them to the world, then cried at their funerals.
Hardeman is buried at Marietta National Cemetery, a historic cemetery in Cobb County that dates back to the Civil War. Little and Abbot died in France and were buried there. Cofer's final resting place was an island in the Pacific.
Last week marked the 64th anniversary of Pearl Harbor and America's entry into World War II. In reflection, almost every community in America lost sons and daughters. More than 400,000 American soldiers died in the deadliest military conflict in history.
In a small town like Louisville, which had a population of about 2,000 in the 1940s, losing four bright and popular young men was a staggering blow.
Cofer was killed in November 1942. Hardeman, Abbot and Little all died in a span of four months in the summer and early fall of 1943.
The grief was a heavy load. People would greet each other on the street, then break down in tears.
The four men served in different branches of the military - Army, Army Air Force, Marines and Navy. They all graduated from the same high school, Louisville Academy, and worshipped at the same church, the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church.
Louise Abbot is among those committed to keeping their memory alive. A one-time friend of the late Flannery O'Connor, she is Bobby Hardeman's sister. She was 12 years old when he was killed at Saipan.
Four years ago, with the help of the Jefferson County Historical Society, she published the World War II scrapbook of Philippa Denny, a local woman who faithfully saved newspaper clippings about the war from the pages of The News & Farmer.
In Abbot's foreword, she quoted Paul Horgan from his novel "Whitewater."
"Time goes, you know. Yes, time goes but it stays, too, if ... if anybody remembers, no matter who?"
UNEXPLAINED SORROW
Cofer was the first native son to die in the war. He grew up on a farm just outside of town. After Pearl Harbor, he asked the Navy for a transfer into the fighting forces as a gunner. He died after a long battle, but heroically stayed at his station, even after being mortally wounded.
An older brother, Charles, returned from World War II and taught English at the high school. He would tell his students about waking up on another ship the night his brother was killed, sensing that something terrible had happened. He experienced unexplained sorrow as he walked to the ship's bridge.
He would later serve on the USS Cofer, commissioned in 1944 in honor of John Cofer.
Cofer's death quickly brought the war home to Louisville.
"I remember being horrified that people actually died in the war," said Lillian Easterlin. A young woman, that fear consumed her.
"I had nightmares about the Germans and Japanese taking over," she said.
Sonny Abbot was her cousin. She remembers his passion for building model airplanes. It came as no surprise when he joined the Army Air Force and became a P47 fighter pilot.
His was killed when his plane went down over France. A young man from a neighboring farm recovered his body and removed all identification and papers before the German soldiers could find the American pilot.
Abbot's family later took money it collected from the GI insurance and helped send the young Frenchman to college. Family members also had the brick wall built around the city cemetery in Louisville.
After the war, a serviceman from Louisville named Roy Amerson had been assigned to help move the graves of American soldiers to a military cemetery in France.
He shoveled at one grave site, marked only by a white cross. The loose dirt revealed a chilling discovery.
On the casket was the name of Sonny Abbot, one of his friends from this small east Georgia town which, perhaps with no small irony, was named after King Louis XVI of France.
Two months later, on Sept. 29, Little also died on French soil. An Army colonel, he was a West Point honor graduate and had just been promoted to brigadier general a few weeks before his death. He had married the day after he graduated from West Point in June 1937. He had spent two years overseas in the African and Italian campaigns, and he was an aviation engineer attached to Gen. George Patton's Army.
While accompanying a fellow officer to inspect an airport at Bourget, near Paris, members of his party were hit by sniper fire. The other officer was killed instantly, and Little heroically pulled his driver to safety. The driver survived. Little died a few days later.
'GREAT MISGIVINGS'
Louise Abbot married into the Abbot family several years after the tragedy of losing her older brother. Bobby Hardeman was a popular young man who was extremely patriotic and had a deep faith. His father had been a Marine in World War I, and he begged his parents to let him join the Marines when he was 18. Most of his friends already had enlisted. His mother and father finally consented, with "great misgivings," Louise Abbot said.
Thirteen months later, in the final days of the battle at Saipan in the Pacific's Mariana Islands, he was killed by a sniper's bullet.
The grim news arrived on a Sunday morning, before church, and soon her grandmother's house in Louisville was filled with people.
At the funeral, the Rev. Moffett Plaxco read from Psalms and talked about having a meeting with Hardeman before the young man left for the war. Plaxco recalled him running off the porch, across the yard and jumping the hedges.
Then, he was gone.
In many ways, this town has never stopped grieving.
"The ones old enough to remember all know these four men gave their lives for something very important," said Rosa Green.
Green saw the war from many different sides. She was related to three of the soldiers who were killed. She was Sonny Abbot's first girlfriend. During the war, she enlisted in the military as a Navy WAVE. And her father, James B. Polhill Jr., wrote columns for the local newspaper called "Cracks By a Georgia Cracker." The columns were written in the form of open letters to local servicemen, showing both appreciation for their service and sharing news from Louisville and Jefferson County.
It was a much different war, she said.
"We weren't divided like we are today," she said. "Everybody pulled together because it affected everybody."
The Rev. Ron Southerland is an Episcopal priest with The Church of the Annunciation in Vidalia. Every Thursday, he travels to Louisville to observe a Eucharist with members of the Episcopal Church of St. Mary Magdalene. He has grown to know them, love them and share in their life stories.
Their loyalty to the "sons of Louisville" from World War II reminds him of something he read in Harper Lee's "To Kill a Mockingbird."
"Names are important in a town," he said. "If you were a Morris or a Bennett, people know what to expect of you. In remembering them after they're gone, these stories give a strong sense of community."
Of course, there is always the wonder of what life would be like if they had lived and loved and still walked among others of the "Greatest Generation."
The sentiments grow stronger as their loved ones grow older.
"The memories others share with me become my memories, too," said Abbot, "even if I didn't see them for myself."
Louisville - pronounced "Lewis-ville" by the locals - has several claims to fame. It served as Georgia's state capital from 1796 to 1806. For history buffs, it has the state's only remaining slave-trading site, and there is a cemetery with soldiers from the Revolutionary War on the outskirts of town. And the highest temperature in Georgia - 112 degrees - was recorded on the sidewalks of Louisville on July 24, 1953.
Hardeman kept his hometown in his heart, his sister said. "I think Bobby would have come back to live in this town," said Abbot. "He loved it as much as he loved anything. He wanted to get back to Louisville. That was his goal. But he never did get back, not even on furlough."
Reach Gris at 744-4275 or egrisamore@macontel.com. Visit his Web site at www.grisamore.com.
Ellie