1943 and 2012 photos of Tuskegee Airmen Lowell Steward
After his military service, Steward futilely tried to buy a house in Los Angeles for himself and his young family. Rejected in several attempts because of his race, he studied for his real estate license while working as a railway baggage porter and went on to become one of the first black real estate brokers in Los Angeles County. “He wanted to help his fellow brothers when they came back from the war just like him — with money in their pocket but no place to stay,” Steward’s son, Lowell Steward Jr., said Sunday. “That’s what he was really proud of: being instrumental in integrating Los Angeles to whatever degree he could.” Steward, who bought a home in the Crenshaw district, worked as a broker and appraiser for 40 years until retiring and moving to Oxnard, Calif., with his wife, Helen.
Born in Los Angeles on Feb. 25, 1919, Lowell Cedric Steward was the son of a railroad porter and a homemaker. As a high school student, he was channeled into vocational instead of academic courses because of his race, his son said. A track star and basketball standout, Steward attended Los Angeles Junior College before his admission to Santa Barbara State College, the forerunner of the University of California, Santa Barbara. As captain of Santa Barbara’s basketball team, he led the way to an undefeated season in 1941, when the Gauchos made it to the National Association of Intercollegiate Basketball championship in Kansas City. Steward, the only black athlete on the team, was barred from competing at the arena and had to persuade his teammates not to walk out in sympathy. “He had to go across the street and listen to the game on the radio,” his son said. “He told me he didn’t ever get over that.”
Enlisting in 1942 after receiving his B.A. in business, Steward was one of about 1,000 pilots trained at Tuskegee Army Air Field in Alabama, where the nurses, engineers, cooks, clerks and other personnel were also African-American. Designated by government officials at the time as the “Tuskegee Military Experiment,” the effort has since come to be called the “Tuskegee Experience.” Quarters were provided by the Tuskegee Institute, the school founded by educator Booker T. Washington. In a 1984 interview with Studs Terkel Steward said that organizers of the “experiment” were skeptical about its chances. “As one of the officers in charge put it, if it doesn’t work out, it’ll be down South and nobody’ll see ’em fail anyway,” Steward said. “We’ll give‘em a chance. If they succeed, I guess it won’t hurt anything. If they fail, we’ll hush it up and nobody will know about it.”
In Europe, the 450 Tuskegee Airmen sent overseas developed a reputation for their combat skills. The fliers dubbed themselves the “Lonely Eagles” but were known to the Germans as the Schwartze Vogelmenschen — the Black Birdmen. They destroyed 260 German planes and damaged 148, sinking a Nazi destroyer and blowing apart hundreds of military vehicles. Sixty-six of the U.S. pilots were killed. In 1944, Steward was sent to Italy and flew 143 bomber escort and strafing missions. In one encounter over Marseilles, an 18-inch hole was blown through one of his wings. “It was flapping,” he told the Santa Barbara Independent in 2007. “I had to fly slow so the plane wouldn’t catapult.” Steward and other Tuskegee Airmen received a Congressional Gold Medal from President George W. Bush in 2007. In addition to his son, Lowell, Steward’s survivors include daughters Pamela Mills and Shelley Lambert; 11 grandchildren; and 11 great-grandchildren. His wife Helen, whom he met in college, died in 2004. [Source: Los Angeles Times | Steve Chawkins | Dec. 19, 2014 ++]
********************************
OBIT | Clarence Huntley & Joseph Shambrey | WWII ► 5 Jan 2015
Two members of the Tuskegee Airmen — the famed all-black squadron that flew in World War II — died on the same day. The men, lifelong friends who enlisted together, were 91. Clarence E. Huntley Jr. and Joseph Shambrey died on 5 JAN in their Los Angeles homes, relatives said Sunday. Huntley and Shambrey enlisted in 1942. They were shipped overseas to Italy in 1944 with the 100th Fighter Squadron of the Army Air Force's 332nd Fighter Group. As mechanics, they kept the combat planes flying. Huntley serviced P-39, P-47 and P-51 aircraft, and as crew chief was responsible for the plane of the squadron commander, Capt. Andrew D. Turner, said Huntley's nephew, Craig Huntly of Inglewood. "The life of his pilot was in his hands, and he took that very seriously," his nephew said. His concern led Turner to nickname him "Mother," Huntly said.
Clarence E. Huntley Jr Joseph Shambrey
In addition to facing danger, the Tuskegee Airmen faced racism. Shambrey's son, Tim Shambrey of Altadena, said his father recalled getting off a train in Alabama where a hospitality station was welcoming returning white troops with handshakes and free coffee. "When he and his buddies came off, dressed in their uniforms, of course they didn't get any congratulations" and were asked to pay for their coffee, Shambrey said. They did so. "The thing about those men is that they were very proud" and decided not to make a fuss, Shambrey said. "They were already used to so much discrimination." In later life, Shambrey didn't talk much about his war service but he held barbecues that sometimes drew 150 people, including a lot of his old Army buddies, his son said. Huntley also didn't talk much with his family about the war, said his daughter, Shelia McGee of Los Angeles. He told them: "I was doing what I was supposed to do, and that was to serve my country," she said. Shambrey was a National Guard combat engineer during the Korean War and later spent his career with the Los Angeles County Department of Parks and Recreation, his son said. Huntley was a skycap for more than 60 years at airports in Burbank and Los Angeles, his daughter said. [Source: The Associated Press | January 11, 2015 ++]
********************************
OBIT | Bernard Jordan | WWII ► 6 Jan 2015
A veteran of World War II who slipped away from a nursing home in England last year to attend the celebrations of the 70th anniversary of D-Day in France has died at the age of 90. Bernard Jordan, who became known as the Great Escaper after his escapade last June, died peacefully at The Pines, a care home in Hove, East Sussex, the hospital said in a statement. His secret departure from the home to take a cross-Channel ferry to France, wearing his war medals under a gray raincoat, prompted a police search when the staff at the home reported him missing. Mr. Jordan, who served in the Royal Navy, made his own way to Normandy, and his whereabouts was discovered only when a younger veteran telephoned during the night of June 5 to say that he had met Mr. Jordan, who was safe and would return when he was good and ready. Mr. Jordan later said that he had gone to Normandy because “my thoughts were with my mates who had been killed. I was going to pay my respects. I was a bit off course, but I got there.”
Jordan told the nursing home staff he was going out to take a walk, and headed toward Portsmouth to attend D-Day celebrations there. But on the way, he decided instead to take the overnight ferry to Caen. Although he had no accreditation, he was allowed into the ceremonies and ended up about 100 yards from Queen Elizabeth II. He returned home a sort of hero. A former mayor of Hove after the war, he was made an honorary alderman of Brighton and Hove and was said to have received more than 2,500 birthday cards when he turned 90. The current mayor, Brian Fitch, said, “I will remember Bernie as a hard-working politician, as a great mayor of the city.” His escapade showed “a determination to achieve one of the things he believed in,” he added.
Amanda Scott, managing director of Gracewell Healthcare, which runs the home, said in a statement: “Bernie caught the world’s imagination last year when he made his surprise trip to France and brought a huge amount of joy to a lot of people. He will be much missed by everyone here, and our thoughts and prayers go out to his wife.” “Bernie was always insistent that what he did during the war was nothing unusual, and only what many thousands of others did for their country,” she added. Jordan, upon his return from his adventure, said: “There were a lot of other people on the beaches of Normandy that day. This lovely attention is for them, really, not me.” [Source: New York Times | Steven Erlanger | Jan. 06, 2015 ++]
********************************
Share with your friends: |