Everett Lunsford Sr. was born in 1917 in Fayette County, Georgia and graduated from Berry College in 1939 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Agriculture. He worked for the U.S. Department of Agriculture prior to World War II.
His son, Everett Lunsford Jr., contributed the following photographs and information:
Dad joined the Army Air Corp before WW II (April-December 1941), but was discharged for deficient flying skills at the beginning of December 1941. (Family legend is he was discharged for buzzing workers in cotton fields.) He returned to the Department of Agriculture until recalled as an active reservist in June 1942 and assigned to Ft. McPherson. In January 1943 he was recalled to the regular Army and sent to radio operators school in Kansas City, graduating in July 1943.
Dad is on the left end of the first row.
He spent his active war service on the communications staff of troop transports. In this radio room photo, Dad is on the left in back.
Dad's World War II photos include several typical troop ship scenes like this one.
This San Francisco photo is from the Club Martinique at 171 O'Farrell Street, and probably was made sometime in the second half of 1944. Dad is second from the right.
Dad's wartime service took him from the Gulf coast to Panama to Australia, where he stayed while his ship was repaired. Other trips took him to the New Guinea campaign and the Marianna and Solomon Islands campaigns. U.S. ports of call were the Hawaian Islands and California. After the Pacific fighting ended, his ship ferried troops back from Europe.
Dad was discharged in October 1945 and returned to the Department of Agriculture Farmers Home Administration in December 1945, assigned to Summerville. He worked for Riegel Textiles 1947-48, then rejoined the Department of Agriculture as Summerville's Soil Conservationist, where he remained until retirement from the USDA.
Among Dad's wartime notes is a journal of his first months of active duty, starting with the S.S. Sea Star leaving New Orleans in December 1943 and ending with him on a ship bound for San Francisco in July 1944. The Sea Star was a ship prone to breakdown, and Dad stayed with it while being repaired in Australia. The daily entries show many hot, boring days with little action. It is not our typical picture of wartime service, and in some ways reminds me of the Mr. Roberts movie.
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Everett Lunsford Sr. returned to Summerville after the war and married Dorothy Harlow. The couple had two children, Everett Jr. and Miriam.
Lunsford retired after 32 years of service with the U.S.D.A. in 1973. He continued to work and, as a member of the Summerville Housing Authority, was instrumental in securing funds to build the McGinnis High Rise.
He was given the "Key to the City" by Summerville for his 41 years of service. The Housing Authority office was named for him in 1994.
Everett Lunsford Sr. died in 1997.
Photographs and caption information courtesy of Everett Lunsford Jr.
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2012 Greg W. McCollum. All rights reserved.