Thanksgiving at Korner Drug

It was a time of preparation, the week before Thanksgiving in the 1970's when I was a kid. The moms were home, polishing silver, washing and waxing the windows and soaking the good dishes for the big day - Turkey Day! Now a lot of women hold in their hearts memories of helping their mothers with these tasks, but for me, I was at Korner Drug helping dad gear up for the Christmas shopping season. Early in the fall saleswomen from Revlon, Max Factor, and Canon Cameras would start to appear to take our Christmas gift giving order. I believe it was a mix of bravery and insight, so much was at stake! If you by too much cologne that turns out to be stinky, then you're going to have some expensive alcohol. Or if you choose stuffed animals that the kids don't connect with, then you've got dirty, dusty teddy bears come spring. I always helped Ethel unpack the perfume shipments, the gift sets of Jovan Musk and Love's Baby Soft. The expensive bottles of Chanel No. 5 or No. 2, I wasn't allow to touch those. Windsong, Charlie, Jean Nate', Cachet were all so popular. For men I remember Hi Karate, English Leather, Old Spice and Brut. It was a tedious job, counting to make sure the shipment was correct, then using the price gun to affix the price on each bottle. One of my favorite jobs was to wrap all the Russell Stover candy that First Commonwealth Bank would buy for their very best customers. I remember cases stacked upon cases that were just waiting for me to wrap after school in that dusty store room behind the pharmacy. Scissors were always in high demand, and always getting lost. One day after a long search for scissors dad got a piece of twine and tied them to a post in the pharmacy. Satisfied, he walked away firm in the knowledge that his prized scissors would never been taken! Imagine his horror when later he went to look for them and lo and behold; someone had used the scissors to cut the twine. Laughter filled the store as we watched him storm up to Arrowoods to buy a chain! Soon the Ambassador Cards shipment would come in. That was a task! Each different Christmas card type would have it's pre-destined home in the rack, the kid's cards together, the cards for lovers and friends and neighbors, all decorated in reds and greens and vivid blues. All the racks had to be cleaned and dusted before unpacking the boxes in the week before Thanksgiving. It was also time to decorate the windows with tinsel and paper. Dad would give me like 10 bucks and allow me to go "uptown" to purchase tinsel ropes, garland and holly to decorate the tree that we would have in the window. We always had trouble with the sun pulling the color out of the boxes, so we had to be creative to showcase our items for sale. We always used Fostoria for the windows and we would rotate the boxes of perfume and cameras in and out of the window to protect the boxes. The camera department was Hern's domain. He made all the camera decisions and had to keep all the film, batteries and flash bulbs well stocked for Christmas Eve shoppers. Eventually Dad and our pharmacist, Burl Whitt, got involved in the camera purchases, especially for the more expensive Canon cameras. Oh how I wish I had paid attention to all the great photography tips they shared around giant cups of coffee! Everything you wanted and needed, could be had on Court Street, Prestonsburg Kentucky. I imagine that some people have fond memories of shopping trips to bigger cities, but not me. I chose the toys that I wanted from Arrowood's or Ben Franklin's. If dad was getting mom clothes, naturally they came from Francis Stores or BF Casual, jewelry from Wright Brothers or Clyde Burchett's. Our world existed on the two blocks, that was our shopping district. Thanksgiving sure takes me back!

Homecoming; The Story of Dixie and Bob, Installment #2 Dixie

Homecoming: The Story of Dixie and Bob

Part 2: Dixie

In the summer of 1942, Glenn Miller’s “Chattanooga Choo Choo” was one of Bob and Dixie’s favorite songs to dance to after their senior year at Martin High School. That summer after graduation, Bob asked his high school sweetheart to marry him and she happily said yes. But trouble was on the horizon; the war to end all wars, World War II, was heating up. America had been brought into the battle when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor in December of 1941. World events even touched the tiny mountain town of Martin as local boys who had just finished high school, had really just started shaving, felt the calling to join the ranks. Robert Marshall was one of those local boys. His dream always had been to become an aeronautical engineer and Dixie wanted to become a nurse. They spent many nights at sock hops at Martin High School, dancing to Glenn Miller and The Andrews Sisters and planning their future. Bob played on the Purple Flash’s baseball team and he played a mean saxophone and Dixie was a cheerleader and played basketball.

About 3 weeks before Bob had to ship off, the two got married. And they started a family. Bob and Dixie spent the evenings before his deployment in long deep talks about how they would get through the upcoming days and years. On the night before his departure, they walked hand in hand along Main Street in Martin and they went into the little jewelry store, Wright’s Brothers. Once inside Bob picked out a little ID bracelet, often called a “sweetheart bracelet”. The custom of the day was to engrave you and your sweetheart’s name on the bracelet. He also had his social security number etched on the back. He told Dixie that he would leave it on until he returned, at which time he would give it to her.

The months of war dragged on for the folks back home. News, in the form of newsreels, told of the horrors of war on a broad scale. But news from your soldier was scant. Sometimes Dixie would get a little postcard the army provided the soldiers on which Bob could write a few lines. Dixie was able to mail a photo of baby Robert taken when he was about 6 months old. She knows he received it because it was returned to her with his personal items. Dixie did her best to make sure that the homefires would remain burning. She worked at the local utility office and cared for the baby and prayed for her husband’s safe return.

That dream went unfulfilled. On a hot summer day, Dixie was sitting at her desk at the utility office when she noticed two men from the military walk by the front window. Instantly nervous, she knew what that signaled, and the men confirmed that Bob Marshall’s plane had been shot down. The officers expressed their condolences and said that they could not confirm where exactly the plane had disappeared. Family and friends gathered around the young family in the weeks and months to give love and support to Dixie and Robert. The military listed Bob and the other 8 souls aboard as “missing in action”. Eventually Bob’s status was changed to “killed in action” and Dixie was awarded a sum of $107 dollars. Personal items of Bob’s were returned to Dixie by the US army. One item was a book that was called a “buddy book” in which Bob had written the names of friends he had made in his platoon and other facts of his life that Bob had recorded in his own personal hand. There were also a few photographs in Bob’s memory book, including that photo of baby Robert. The war raged on for another year and Germany surrendered in May of 1945. Slowly our soldiers began to return home and eventually prisoners of war returned to America. One day the navigator of the plane came to Martin to visit Dixie. He and 5 others had been held as prisoners of war in Germany for 3 years. He confirmed that Sergeant Marshall had died during the flight as had Sergeant Jerome Kiger. And so it was.

Eventually Dixie met and fell in love with Joe Taylor Hyden, who loved Robert as his own son. The couple went on to have 4 other children, each of them understanding Robert’s story and understanding why his last name was different. Joe Taylor always said, “His dad gave his life in service to our country, his son should carry on his name.”

In 2007 a German citizen, Markus Mooser, discovered the remains of a downed American plane in a forest near Starnberg Germany. During the years of excavation, a piece of a bracelet was found. Etched in the bracelet was the name “Dixie” and on the back was a portion of a social security number. In a video that Mr. Mooser forwarded to me, he says, “Dixie, we have your ‘ring”. And so a bracelet purchased in a small jewelry store in Martin Kentucky in 1942, came home in 2013. Dixie and Robert received a great blessing in the knowledge that Bob was home at last. The bracelet, at least a portion of it, returned full circle back to Martin Kentucky. The final installment of the story will center on the investigation of the crash and Sergeant Robert Marshall’s homecoming.

Homecoming: The Story of Dixie and Bob, Installment 3 - Doc Marshall

Homecoming; The Story of Dixie and Bob

Installment #3:  Doc Marshall

“What chances would this happen after 69 years?” My conversation with Dr. Robert Marshall started in this manner. I met with Dr. Marshall in his home office in New Allen and he was so pleased to show me the artifacts that he has collected and to tell me his story. It’s an amazing story!

Bob grew up knowing that his dad, Charles Marshall, had been killed in World War II and that his body had never been found. One day while at work in his office as Floyd County Judge Executive Bob received a puzzling phone call. The year was 2007. His secretary said, “Doc, there’s a man on the phone who wants to talk to you, from Germany!” It was a call that Bob is glad he accepted. The man identified himself as Markus Mooser and he started to ask direct questions to Bob. “Is your mom Dixie Ratliff Marshall? Is your father’s name Charles R. Marshall? Was your father killed during WWII?” The natural instinct, and Bob’s instinct as well, was to believe that someone was trying to pull a scam on him. So he was leery to answer any questions. The man went on to say, “I was climbing the hillside looking for ginseng and mushrooms and I stumbled upon a clearing and I believed something important happened there. I dug around and I found some pieces of metal and some bone fragments. I’ve talked to local villagers and I’ve done my research and I am sure that I have found the wreckage of your dad’s downed airplane. I am calling because I feel that your mother Dixie never got closure. I gave him my email address and he said he would be back in touch. I told my wife that you’re not going to believe this, but a man from Germany has called me and he believes he has found the wreckage of dad’s plane. Soon I started getting some emails from Markus and after about 3 months went by he emailed me to tell me that he was going to send me some of the plane parts. He wanted to prove that he was not trying to scam my family. So a few days later I get the box with 8 plane parts inside. One piece of metal with rivets was very valuable for identification. Markus explained that these rivets were very specific and only used on a B-24 Liberator. Found among the pieces of metal was a 20mm bullet. This bullet could very well be the bullet that injured my dad so he couldn’t put his parachute on. At this point, it’s been several months since this all began and I was starting to almost believe that it was true, I guess I was about 60% sure that there may be something to this. But at this point I had not told my mother, not until I was 100% sure.”

So 5 years pass with infrequent emails from Germany and Bob Marshall was still in doubt that anything would ever become from this man’s findings in a German forest. Markus had told him that the next step was convincing the American JPAC group that he had enough evidence to substantiate a formal investigation. Bob explained, “One day I get a letter, and I then I got a phone call from a General who told me that he wanted me to come to Indianapolis to the convention for missing soldiers. At this point I was becoming sure that there was something to this and that maybe we could bring him home. So we went to the convention and we spent two days there discussing our case along with five hundred other families who were looking for the remains of their fallen soldiers. At the final meeting of all the families the General announced that the only excavation that they were going to approve for the year, the only one that had enough evidence to warrant a geological dig was for my dad. The JPAC (Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command) had approved to send personnel to Germany to formally search for remains. On the ride home that day I knew that it was time to tell mom.”

Dixie was gently told one evening and she was shocked and amazed that this was even possible. In 2012 a group of former military members were sent to Starnberg Germany to begin the excavation of the suspected crash site. Working tirelessly, the group found remains that needed to be identified. The family was asked to provide DNA from a member of the family who was from the maternal side of Bob’s family. Luckily, Ray Woody was still alive. At the time he was 97 years old and was Robert’s grandmother’s brother. In the fall of 2012 members of the US military came to the home of Dr. Marshall to formerly inform the family that Sergeant Charles Robert Marshall would be coming home after almost 70 years. The final chapter of this amazing story will be next week when we hear about the homecoming of Sergeant Marshall.

Homecoming; The Story of Dixie and Bob, Rest in Peace

Homecoming; The Story of Dixie and Bob

Installment #4:  Rest In Peace

In July 2012 a detachment from JPAC (Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command) assembled in a German forest to begin excavation work toward identification of remains of Sergeant Charles Marshall and Sergeant Jerome Kiger. The crash site, identified by German citizen Markus Mooser, was located southwest of Munich. During their excavation the team recovered human remains and those remains were sent to Hawaii for identification. Relatives from the families supplied DNA samples which aided in the identification process. A few months later, the families were notified that their loved ones would be returning home.

On a bright, beautiful Wednesday, June 5, 2013, the Marshall family traveled to the Cincinnati airport to participate in a ceremony to receive Bob’s remains and take him home to Martin Kentucky after 69 years. Representatives of the US Army arrived early that morning at Dr. Robert Marshall’s home to escort the family, along with a representative from Hall Funeral Home, to the Northern Kentucky International Airport. The remains were brought from Dover Air Force Base in Delaware with a full military escort aboard on a commercial Delta flight. The passengers in the plane were notified and in a show of respect stayed aboard the plane as the ceremony commenced. After the Bob’s family had assembled on the tarmac, a sharp detail of soldiers in full dress approached the plane to bear the remains of their fallen hero. The flag draped coffin was carried to the hearse for the trip home. As the motorcade neared Prestonsburg members of the Prestonsburg Police Department and Fire Department as well as the Patriot Guard Riders joined in the motorcade and ushered Bob’s remains safely back home in Martin Kentucky. Bob was home at last on June 5, 2013.

The funeral was conducted on June, 8 2013 at Hall Funeral Home in Martin Kentucky with burial that followed at Davidson Memorial Gardens. Fire departments from Betsy Layne and Prestonsburg formed an arch with their ladder trucks and suspended a large American flag over the entrance to the cemetery. Hundreds of cars, trucks and motorcycles lined US Highway 23 as the motorcade approached the cemetery. A full military service was held and at the completion of ceremonies a lone trumpeter sounding “Taps”. It was an emotional ceremony and I left the cemetery that day filled with American pride. I could not imagine how these remains could be found in a German forest after 69 years and be brought home!

This could be the end of the story, but it isn’t. On July 21, 2013, the remains of Sergeant Jerome Kiger were laid to rest in Mannington West Virginia. The date is significant as the date that their Liberator B24 bomber had been shot down over Germany in 1944. Markus Mooser made arrangements to travel to the United States to attend Sergeant Kiger’s funeral service. So Dixie and Robert, as well as other members of the family, drove to Mannington to attend the funeral. The family felt is was important to attend but it also gave them an opportunity to meet Markus and to personally thank him for his unbelievable hard work and dedication to see his hunch in a forest come full circle to completion and closure.

Through my research into this story I have spoken with Markus through Facebook, emails and videos. Markus is an amazing man and I have been blessed to meet him, even if it is a virtual meeting. I was blessed to visit Dixie at her home in Martin as well as Doc Marshall at his home in Allen. Their story is an amazing story and every hand who played a role deserves to feel pride in the job they have done. Our veteran’s all have stories to tell, unfortunately many will not speak about their experiences. If you have a family member who has a story to tell, contact me on Facebook.