| ||||||||||
 
Dr. Ronald P. Rogers CHIROPRACTOR Support for your body's natural healing capabilities 270-384-5554 Click here for details 
  
Columbia Gas Dept. GAS LEAK or GAS SMELL Contact Numbers 24 hrs/ 365 days 270-384-2006 or 9-1-1 Call before you dig 
Visit ColumbiaMagazine's Directory of Churches Addresses, times, phone numbers and more for churches in Adair County Find Great Stuff in ColumbiaMagazine's Classified Ads Antiques, Help Wanted, Autos, Real Estate, Legal Notices, More... 
|
The death of Pvt. Alfred Harper: freedom is never free By JIM In memory of native son Alfred Harper, who on this day seventy-five years ago -- November 25, 1944 -- died in a hospital in France of battle wounds received four days earlier in Germany. Mr. Harper, 31 years old and a husband and father, had served as chief clerk of the Adair County Selective Service Board since its inception, but volunteered for military duty himself early in 1944. He was inducted into the US Army on February 27 at Ft. Thomas, KY, and soon thereafter, was sent to the Infantry Replacement Training Center at Ft. McClellan, Alabama, where he was assigned to a machine gun unit. In the forepart of April, his wife Elizabeth , and their son Jimmy, along with Nellie Dean Burr, traveled to Alabama to visit their kinsmen. (Nellie's husband, John, had been inducted at the same time as Alfred and they were assinged to the same IRTC.) Come July, Pvts. Harper and Burr were granted furloughs to visit their families, and on the 21st, they pulled out from Adair County for Ft. Meade, Maryland, Before the end of August, they safely landed in England. Alfred would never again see home or family. In 1944, news traveled slowly, particularly from the war zones, so it wasn't until December 6 that the News referenced a letter from Alfred, recently received by a family member. Stated the paper, in part, "Pvt. Alfred Harper, son of Mr. and Mrs. Bert Harper, writes from Germany where he has been in the thick of the fighting for the past two months, that he is okeh. He is with a machine gun company in the 1st Division of the 1st Army."Not until three days later, on the morning of December 9th, did the family receive notification from the Army that Alfred had been "seriously wounded" on the November 21, and more days elapsed before his parents received the telegram edged in black. The sad news had to be relayed to California, where Elizabeth and Jimmy were at the time. A memorial service was held in Columbia in late December 1944, and almost exactly three years later, the remains of Pvt. Alfred Harper were repatriated for final burial in the Columbia City Cemetery. Freedom is never free. This story was posted on 2019-11-25 10:30:39
Printable: this page is now automatically formatted for printing.
Have comments or corrections for this story? Use our contact form and let us know.
More articles from topic Veterans and Veterans Day:
Flags to half-staff Saturday in honor of KY Serviceman Veterans Day Remember to check the Adair County Veterans List Adair County's forgotten war dead A Veterans Day Tribute VFW seeking deployed and active duty from Adair County Addresses for service men/women LWC Honors Veterans with 17th Veterans Appreciation Luncheon LWC Annual Veteran's Appreciation Luncheon, Fri 8 Nov 2019 County Offices to be closed on Veterans Day View even more articles in topic Veterans and Veterans Day |
 
115 Jamestown St. Columbia, KY. 270-384-2496 
  
   
 Provided by the Adair Co Fiscal Court and the Adair Co. Emergency Mgt. Agency 
|
||||||||
|
| ||||||||||
|
Quick Links to Popular Features
Looking for a story or picture? Try our Photo Archive or our Stories Archive for all the information that's appeared on ColumbiaMagazine.com. | ||||||||||
|
Contact us: Columbia Magazine and columbiamagazine.com are published by Linda Waggener and Pen Waggener, PO Box 906, Columbia, KY 42728. Please use our contact page, or send questions about technical issues with this site to webmaster@columbiamagazine.com. All logos and trademarks used on this site are property of their respective owners. All comments remain the property and responsibility of their posters, all articles and photos remain the property of their creators, and all the rest is copyright 1995-Present by Columbia Magazine. Privacy policy: use of this site requires no sharing of information. Voluntarily shared information may be published and made available to the public on this site and/or stored electronically. Anonymous submissions will be subject to additional verification. Cookies are not required to use our site. However, if you have cookies enabled in your web browser, some of our advertisers may use cookies for interest-based advertising across multiple domains. For more information about third-party advertising, visit the NAI web privacy site.
| ||||||||||
