“Some Gave All”
Chico Enterprise, May 1, 1945
Lt. Frank Cary. Ex-Chican, Killed in Action on Luzon
Word has been received that First Lieutenant Frank L. Cary of
Redwood City, former Chico State College student and son of Mr.
and Mrs. Frank H. Cary of Chico, was killed on Luzon on March 6,
after he had volunteered to accompany a patrol to investigate an
enemy position which was to be taken the next day. He had been overseas
two years. Lt. Cary, husband of Sylveen Cary of Redwood City, entered
the service in 1941 and was stationed in New Guinea before moving
to Luzon, where he encountered his first enemy action. On Christmas
Day, the officers broadcast from Australia in a special service
men’s program. He said that he hoped to spend the next Christmas
at home with his wife and family. Lt. Cary, who was married shortly
after entering the service, attended schools in Fresno and Santa
Rosa and completed two terms at Chico State college. While attending
school here he was employed at the Standard Oil station. Mrs. Cary
received a letter from the commanding officer of her husband’s company.
In the letter expressing his sorrow, Lieutenant M. C. Maniatty also
gave the facts concerning the tragic accident. “Frank had volunteered
to accompany a patrol to reconnoiter an enemy position which was
to be taken the next day. As the patrol reached the vicinity of
the enemy position, they opened fire with rifle, machine gun and
mortar fire. During this action the patrol leader was wounded. After
having found this out, Frank, immediately took command of the patrol.
He went up to the front in order to determine where the enemy fire
was coming from. He had to expose himself to this fire in order
to determine this while doing this he was mortally wounded in the
chest by a sniper. He lived only a few minutes after this. During
this time, he continued to direct and give orders to his patrol
until death occurred.” According to the letter, “Military funeral
services were held by the chaplain and he was interred in the Santa
Barbara cemetery here on Luzon.” Maniatty concluded. Besides his
wife and parents, Cary is survived by two brothers, Robert J., who
is with the U. S. Navy in the South Pacific and William Edward of
Burbank; three sisters, Mrs. Mildred Baehr of Parlie, Mrs. Jessie
Streams of Chico and Mrs. Mary Mosher of El Monte.
Oroville Mercury Register
July 15, 1961
Chance, Intensive Search Reunite 2 After 53 Years
O. E. Karr of Second St., Thermalito, last week was reunited
with a brother he had not seen or heard from for 53 years. The brother,
O. B. (Ben) Karr of Spokane, Wash., came to Oroville with his wife
and her family to visit Mr. and Mrs. Karr of Thermalito. The brothers
lost contact with each other when they left the family home in Oklahoma
in 1908 and neither learned what had happened to the other until
the local couple was able to locate Ben through a chance lead on
his whereabouts. Mrs. O. E. Karr last year as president of the local
chapter of American Gold Star Mothers, attended a conference of
that organization in Oakland. On being introduced there, the president
of the Oakland chapter commented on her name and mentioned having
known an O. B. Karr who had been teaching band in high school at
Rolla, N. D. Mrs. Karr immediately identified the band teacher as
her husband’s brother. He had been her band teacher when she was
in school in Oklahoma. When she told her husband what she had learned,
the search began and through various hometown newspapers in localities
where Ben had lived and taught music, they were able finally to
contact him in Spokane. The Washington man then planned the trip
here with his wife and two daughters, Mary and Diane, his wife’s
mother and a niece, both from Minnesota. The two brothers spent
a week together comparing events that had occurred during more than
half a century of separation. Not the least among surprises learned
by the band teacher was that his brother had married one of his
former pupils.
Stu’s Notes: There is a memorial plaque for WWII at Chico State
University, I know because it took me a while to find it, sadly
Lt. Cary’s name is not on it, maybe because he only went there a
year. He was forgotten. Our Memorial will put his name in stone.
Mrs. O. E. Karr was a Gold Star Mother because she lost her son,
Corporal Everett M. “Cotton” Karr, October 16, 1951 while fighting
in North Korea. He was a member of the 90th
Field Artillery Battalion, 25th Infantry
Division. He was awarded, Posthumously, the Purple Heart, Korean
Service Medal, United Nations Service Medal, National Defense Service
Medal and the Korea War Service Medal. Note that the Korea War Service
Medal, yes it was a War, even if the Government didn’t often say
that. His sister Nancy Karr Wilson and her husband Joe, still lives
in Oroville.