Roundtable to shed light on Emporians’ service during World War II
By Bobbi Mlynar (Contact)
Saturday, October 11, 2008
An intimate portrait of Emporians will be drawn during the World War II Roundtable Fall Meeting, planned in conjunction with a host of other Veterans Day programs and activities.
The meeting will begin at 7:30 p.m. Nov. 6, in the Kanza Room of the Memorial Union at Emporia State University. The meeting is free and open to the public.
“Men of Lyon County in World War II” is the title of the roundtable, which will feature not only the history of the well-known Company B of the 137th Infantry Regiment of the Kansas National Guard, but the often-overlooked 161st Field Artillery Band.
The 29-member band was made up primarily of members of the Emporia Municipal Band.
Loren E. Pennington, Emporia State University emeritus professor of history, will present “The Emporia Municipal Band Goes to War.” The history will include the 161st’s time as a band, its subsequent service as military police with Patton’s Third Army, and its regrouping as a band that traveled with comedian Jack Benny’s USO show.
“The Men of Company B in War and Peace: A Last Hurrah” will be presented by Walter Hobson Crockett, professor emeritus of psychology at the University of Kansas.
Crockett, the keynote speaker of the event, is a native Emporian who lied about his age so he could join Company B in 1937 at the age of 16.
He will discuss Company B and its experiences and will talk about some of its members as individuals he served with, including Tom Tholen, Lewis Martin, Jack Snow, George Gibson, Tom Sutton, Howard Hillis and John Eugene “Bull” Cooper.
Cooper was the nephew of Al King, an Emporia shoe repairman who initiated the drive to rename Armistice Day as Veterans Day in honor of Cooper and all of the others who served in the military during the war.
Cooper also will be discussed by Lt. Col. Raymond Rhorr, commander, Department of Kansas, Military Order of the Purple Heart, and Tech. Sgt. Aaron Bura, chaplain of the organization.
Free valet parking will be available at the Market Street entrance to the Memorial Union.
More information may be had by calling Christopher Lovett, 341-5577.
The program is sponsored by the ESU College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, the Department of Social Sciences, Pi Gamma Mu Social Science Honor Sorority, Phi Alpha Theta History Honor Society, and the Lyon County Historical Society and Museum.
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