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Showing posts with label WW1. Show all posts
Showing posts with label WW1. Show all posts

March 8, 2008

Last Surviving Doughboy

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Frank Woodruff Buckles was just 15 years old when he joined the U.S. Army. Soon, he was deployed to war and headed overseas on the Carpathia -- the same ship used in the rescue mission of the Titanic.

Click on the title link to read more!

December 21, 2007

James Russell Coffey

I wrote about James Russell Coffey back in April when he decided to join the Coffey DNA project. He was 109 years.
Today, I received the news that James had died.
This is some of the information that appeared on the WTOL-TV 11 website in Toledo, OH:
NORTH BALTIMORE, Ohio (AP) -- One of only three known remaining American World War I veterans has died. The Smith-Crates Funeral Home in North Baltimore, Ohio says J. Russell Coffey died yesterday at the age of 109. He had been living in a nursing home. There's no word on the cause of death.The Veterans Affairs Department says Coffey was the last World War I vet in Ohio. Coffey enlisted in the Army in October 1918 while a student at Ohio State University. It was a month before the Allied powers and Germany signed a cease-fire agreement and Coffey did not see action overseas. He did play semipro baseball and earned a doctorate in education from New York University.  Coffey taught high school and college and raised a family. According to the funeral home, he drove his car until he was 104 and lived on his own until three years ago.
Click on the title link and look for a video link in the upper left corner.
I do not know how long Channel 11 will keep the information on their website.

November 10, 2006

WW1 'doughboys' dwindle to just 12

"J. Russell Coffey was an Army private who never saw battle overseas. He enlisted in Columbus [Ohio] on Oct. 19, 1918."

See the rest of the story in the on-line version of the Toledo Blade, Toledo, OH by clicking on the title link.