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Hans

Grandpa and Grandma Gray

This photo is one of two that I have that shows Paw's dad, William Sargent Gray. In the picture you also have Paw's mother, Missouri Faye Gray. Standing next to Grandpa Gray is Louise. Emmett is squatting down holding Marie. Next to him is Billie and in front of Billie is Larry (left) and Robbie (Robert Charles).

In the short video, Paw mentions that there were ten children, but he only names eight. Two of the children died while still babies and their graves are at Ten Island.

Later, I will get Paw to tell us a little more about Grandpa and Grandma Gray. I know that Grandma Gray’s maiden name was Phillips.

This picture of Grandma Gray was taken in Gadsden in the early ’60. You can date the picture by the car behind her. I think Paw bought that Ford new in 1960.

Click here to launch a short video of Paw telling about Missouri and William Gray.

Larry Joe Nichols

Larry Joe Nichols is my cousin. He is the son of Lois, Paw's sister. He was a year or two older than me. I kind of looked up to him and always enjoyed visiting with him in Anniston.

I remember one time he came to stay with us for a while (for about a week I think) in Rainbow City. He was helping Paw cut pulpwood. Paw would work a shift at the steel plant and then go out and cut and haul pulpwood for the rest of the day.

Behind the house and down the hill from where we lived there were a series of ponds in which I sometimes went fishing. One day while Larry was waiting for Paw to finish work at the steel plant, he caught a lizard, took his fishing pole, and went down to the lake. When I got home from school, I saw the biggest fish (a bass) I had ever seen flopping around in the sink. Paw and Larry had already gone off to cut pulpwood and Mama was getting ready to clean Larry's fish for supper.


I remember Larry was real proud of that ’57 Ford Fairlane he owned. Now this picture is not Larry and this is not his Ford, but this is what it looked like.

I also remember that Larry had a hard time getting into the Army. He had a problem with a kidney if I remember right. He first joined the Navy reserve and then requested a transfer to the regular Army. His first duty station was Hawaii. From there he went to Vietnam. We wrote each other regularly and I kept his letters for many years, but somewhere during my divorce and moving, I lost them.

One story I remember from his letters concerned an incident while on patrol. Larry was a machine gunner on an armored personnel carrier. In the letter he wrote that they were taking a break and were sitting outside the vehicle when a sniper started shooting at them. Larry jumped up and crawled up to the machine gun turret to send some rounds off in the direction of the sniper’s fire. When he pulled the trigger, nothing happened. Larry learned later that his squad leader had unloaded his machine gun for some reason.

Larry was killed in Vietnam. His death and funeral were memorable to me for the following reason. Aunt Lois called Paw one day saying she was worried about Larry because he had not written is several days or weeks. Larry had always been good about writing regularly. Then a few days later, Aunt Lois called again and told Paw to come to Anniston as quickly as he could.

When we got there, she showed us a copy of a Grit Newspaper (Grit was a national paper, somewhat like USA Today. It is still in publication.). On the front page was a color photo of a GI on a stretcher being carried across a rice paddy. Aunt Lois swore that the GI on the stretcher looked like Larry. I think is was the next day, or a couple of days later that the officer from Fort McClellan came to Aunt Lois’s house to tell her that Larry had been killed in action. That was really strange!


The following is from Judy Goode, sister of Larry.

That is pretty much the way I remember it too. Mother was really upset. She said she had dreamed that he was in trouble and she wanted to go over there. She told Benny too. Then we got the news that he was wounded. While the men from the fort were at the house talking to her, Deanie carried Lisa, Tommy, and me out on the back porch. We walked to Jimmy Gallager’s house and Deanie told them what was going on. That was on March 31. Then they came back and said that he had died. I think that was on April 3. We had the copy of the news mag. until the house burned. I think it was lost in the house fire. Do you remember that they had run out of enbalming fluid and that is why his body was swollen and the casket had to be sealed. Someone had to sit with the body while it was at the house because there could not be any jarring. Mother kept the body at home over on Pelham Street until the day of the funeral. The funeral was at Ten Island. Brother Howard and the preacher from Moore Avenue Baptist Church did the funeral. He had a 21 gun salute. That is about all I remember I think he was the first in Calhoun County to be killed in the war. There's a monument on Quintard Ave. and his name is on the Vietnam Wall in the new park on Quintard.