Such was the alarming news that reached the farmhouse of George and Anna Severance on the evening of March 6, 1918, sent from the training camp in Charlotte, North Carolina, where their son, the newly married Sergeant George Severance, Jr., was a flight instructor. (The newspapers haven't named the camp where George Jr. was stationed, but I'm guessing it was Camp Greene.)
Somehow, George's plane had crashed, and now he was in the army hospital in "very serious" condition.
The Hobart newspapers followed up this story with two months of silence.
Finally, early in May, the Gazette off-handedly mentioned that Alberta Severance (Mrs. George Jr.) had come to Hobart, to live with her parents-in-law west of town. As for George Jr., he had just landed safely somewhere overseas, as he told his wife in a letter dated April 30, and he was "pleased with the singular sights and strange conditions" he found there.
Sources:
♦ "Flyer Seriously Injured." Hobart Gazette 8 Mar. 1918.
♦ "Local Drifts." Hobart Gazette 10 May 1918; 7 June 1918.
Friday, June 24, 2011
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