April 16, 2010
Looking Back On Oroville's Heroes
By Stu Shaner (533-8147)
Bill Connelly and I are Co-Chair of the Oroville Veterans Memorial Park Honoring All Of Butte County. Please check out our web site, by webmaster Daryl Autrey, at www.orovilleveteransmemorialpark.org, If you have anything you would like to share with me please call my number is 533-8147.
“Some Gave All”
Chico Enterprise March 29, 1943
‘Bob’ Wilcox Victim of Plane Crash
Ensign Robert O. (Bob) Wilcox, 25, graduate of the Chico State college and former Chico newspaper man, was killed Friday night, March 26 in an airplane crash at Corpus Christi, Texas, according to Associated Press dispatches received today. With him in the fatal crash was Lieut. James Thanos, 26, of Oakland, Calif. They were flying a training plane when the accident occurred, the naval air “training center at Corpus Christi announced. Ensign Wilcox was the son of Mr. and Mrs. Fred G. Wilcox of Berkeley, formerly of Chico. He graduated from the Chico high school and received his degree at the Chico State college in January 1940. At the college he was a member of Iota Sigma Fraternity and the Press club. He served as editor of the school weekly and The Record, annual college book. He was active in college athletics, especially in track and basketball. He was employed by the Chico Enterprise for more than a year during which he was sports editor and conducted the column “Bobbles by Bob.” He later became local reporter for the Sacramento Bee.
Story by Stu
The summer of 2008 Bill Fox took me to see Harry Kirk. He
is living back in the hills east of Oroville. My friend,
from grammar school, Alfred Clark went with us. We took so
many side roads I was lost, the roads went up and down in and out
of little Holler’s, I thought I might be in West Virginia next to
where I was born. We went around a bend in the road and there
was Harry’s little trailer in a small clearing by a house.
Any ways Harry is from an Arizona Indian Reservation, his Uncle
George was a Navajo Code Talker in World War II. The Japanese
never did decipher what they were saying. They served as Marines
and did a great service for the USA , their relatively new country,
well it was their country. Harry was from a big family. The Rail
Road and the Armed forces were about the only work opportunities
they had. So when the Korea War came, Harry’s Uncle George
told him to become a Marine, which he did in 1952 at 24 years old
and went on a train to Texas for training then volunteered for Parachute
training and went to Fort Benning, Georgia. He needed a little
push the first time out of the plane. Eight weeks there then
back to Texas. A bus to San Diego, then San Francisco
to Japan then Korea where his outfit took a couple of hills and
fought in some towns. Harry was bayoneted in the back and
would probably have died but his buddy shot the man before he could
stick him again. So, he went back to San Francisco with
a Purple Heart. I left Harry feeling like I was an old friend.
He was so nice to invite me in and tell me this story. The
day was August 2008. On the windy way home, Alfred, of the
Concow Maidu Tribe, who is the Grandson of John Clark, and Great
Grandson of a Maidu Chief., took us to a Maidu Sweat lodge
some where in those Yankee Hills. It was on a Hill overlooking
a valley and over another hill was Feather Falls. So peaceful
and quiet there and I thought thousands of years they lived here
in peace then the white man came for gold. End of Story.
December 9, 1944
Social and Club News
Local Sorority Makes Scrapbooks for USO Member of the Sigma Phi Gama Sorority engaged in the making of scrapbooks for the USO at their meeting Thursday night. The group was guests of Mrs. Charles Fowler Jr. at her home on Bird Street. The rooms were decorated with red, white, and blue flowers, and tiny ships commemorating Pearl Harbor day. Refreshments were served by the hostess. BUY A WAR BOND
Thelma June Vance Is Bride Of Navy Man
Mrs. Floyd Hinton, who until her recent marriage was Miss Thelma June Vance, will return to make her home with her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Floyd E. Vance of Biggs, following a short honeymoon. Her husband will report back to his station for submarine duty with the U. S. Navy. Miss. Vance became the bride of Floyd James Hinton, of the U.S. Navy, son of Mr. and Mrs. George Hinton of Chico on Dec. 2. The double ring ceremony was performed by the Rev. Mr. Harris Pillsbury. The couple stood before a fireplace banked with white chrysanthemums in the Bidwell Presbyterian parsonage in Chico. Miss Arline Vance, sister of the bride was her attendant. Samuel Chase, of the U. S. marines, was the best man. BUY A WAR BOND
Stu’s Notes: What a busy rewarding life “Bob” Ensign Wilcox had in those short 25 years, more than many people have in a life time. No, he never made it to war, but he died, “Not in Vain” and his name will finally be set in stone right here in Oroville, honoring “All of Butte Counties’ Heroes. In some Mercury’s Dan Beebe put “Buy a War Bond at the end of every story.