This Week in Texas Methodist History October 11

 

Methodists Honor War Casualties, Including Chaplain Burton Coleman, October 1942.

 

In October 1942 the United States had been fighting World War II for less than a year, but, sadly to say, there were already casualties among the Methodists of Texas. 

 

On the convocation called to install John Nelson Russell Score as President of Southwestern University in October 1942, former SU students who had already died in the service were honored.  The alumni who had received decorations were also  honored.

 

Here is a list of those honored with decorations:

 

Rodney Ross Wilder (Taylor) who had been part of the Doolittle Raid.  Distinguished Service Cross

Calvin Leonidus Lee honored by the RAF

Rowland Franklin Holbert, Jr., (Granger)  awarded the Purple Heart for wounds received at Pearl Harbor

Ben Freeman Mays (Wharton)  Missing in Action in the RAF

 

The deceased were as follows:

 

Captain Charles Irvin Perrin (Georgetown)

Lt. Hal Browne, Jr. (San Antonio)

Lt. George Womack Foster (Calvert)

Lt. Duncan Spence Hughes (Georgetown)

Lt. Raymond Elmer Miller, Jr. (Temple)

Lt. Melvin John Price (Georgetown)

Lt. Edward Everett Warren (Conroe)

Chaplain Burton Henry Coleman (Maypearl)

 

Chaplain Coleman was one of the first, if not the first, Methodist Chaplain to give his life in World War II.  He had been born in Itasca in 1910.  His family moved to Hillsboro where he grew up.  He attended Southwestern University and then Southern Methodist where he received his B. D.  He was admitted to the Central Texas Conference in 1935 and served circuits at Olney, Britton, and Bardwell.  While at Olney, he met and married his life companion Fay Lucile Smiddy. 

 

He was then appointed to Maypearl in the Waxahachie District, but Coleman then responded to the call for Chaplains and left Maypearl on April 26, 1942 , for his training at Fort Benjamin Harrison in Indiana.  After six week of training, he was commissioned and assigned to Fort Sill, Oklahoma. 

 

While driving to his new post on June 7, he was hit by a train in DeQuoin, Illinois.  Rev. and Mrs. Coleman were both killed.   A double funeral service was held at First Methodist Hillsboro and their bodies were laid to rest in Hillsboro.   

 

In case you were wondering, the 1942 Central Texas Conference Journal shows 14 appointments to the chaplaincy.