Winston Ray Norris (1926-2007)

Winston Ray Norris (1926- 2007)

H2 Winston Ray Norris, born April 24, 1926 in Richmond, Virginia, died January 6, 2007, buried in Resthaven Memorial Gardens, Trenton, Grundy County, Missouri; married Dorothy Cecelia Marsh. Dorothy died on December 30, 2004. She served in the Army during Korea, and was a life member of American Legion post 31 in Trenton, Missouri. No children.

Ray supplied many of the wonderful 19th century photographs of the Junkin, Norris, and Clutter families.

Ray's Autobiography
Submitted October 29, 2001

I was born Apr 24, 1926, 7:05 PM on a Saturday evening in Richmond, Virginia, to parents Virginia Ruth Norris (nee Spiers) and Deane Clutter Norris. We moved to Atlanta, Georgia in 1932, necessitated by depression conditions (father's finding work).

At age twelve was the first juvenile to build a Saturday Evening Post route through the heart of Atlanta, right up Peachtree Street from Atlanta Av to Forrest Blvd. The income ($2-3.00/Wk) made it possible for my sister and I to have things like roller skates and second hand (police auction) bicycles. I learned to drive by practicing gear shifting in an abandoned truck on the city trash dump a block from our $17.00 a month home which had no hot water, no washing machines (except us), no central heat or airconditioning. An old isenglas potbellied stove for heat and an old table top electric fran for cooling---funny thing, we didn`t know we were poor!!

I graduated from Tech High in 1944 having worked each summer, variously at the King Hardware warehouse, and at Federal Mogul Bearing. Also carried a morning (300) paper route.

I was drafted in 1944 into the US Army Air Corp, was sent to the infantry when the "Battle of the Bulge" began. Reached Europe just in the final month and joined General Patton`s Fourth Armored Division, Combat Command `A` (CCA). For some unexplanable reason, I had a knack for taking a `Jeep` where most `Jeeps` couldn`t go, and never racked one up, resulting in my being given special courier jobs to deliver classified information between units.

It was in this context that in December of 1945, I was enroute from Munich (37th Constabulary Brigade Hq.) to Nuremburg when I passed the accident scene involving General Patton. I won`t put in writing here what I observed; sufficient to say that none of the "Docu-dramas" had it right, and if you want to say it was journalistic license its like comparing a "Snoopy" cartoon to the Mona-Lisa. Anyone interested can contact me by E-mail to arrange a phone conversation.

Returning home in June of 1946, I enrolled at Georgia Tech only to be told by the Registrar to come back in three years--they were all booked up with veterans. After working a short while at Lay Potato chip (pre-frito), I realised that I could retain my Corporal stripes by re-enlisting, and that the income with room and board, clothing and medical would be far better than what I could find in Atlanta, ergo I enlisted for three years. Reporting for duty at Fort McPherson I was told I could have any job I wanted at the Fort (they were terribly short of people at that time). I told the personnel office it was too close to home. This was because there were two young ladies (I`d never even kissed) who had been writing to me and thought they had the inside track to wedding bells (no Names, of course).

On Thanksgiving day 1946, I was in an unheated tent (about 28 degrees) having weak potato soup outside Seoul, Korea. It seems that some kind of epidemic (flu or something had caused the whole division to be quarantined just before we arrived). The boat ride was something else--you`ve never lived if you haven`t been on a crowded troopship (Liberty ship) in a North Pacific Typhoon. I was subsequently assigned to the 754th Tank Bn which turned into a Mechanized Calvary Rcon Troop. Shortly afterward as an Armored Car Commander (promoted to Sgt) and having completed a three month training course at Keio Univ in Japan, the military suddenly discovered they had made a mistake.

It seems that I held certain security clearances which were rare for an enlisted man and in very short supply back home. I was assigned to 4th Army Hq at Fort Sam Houston, San Antonio, Texas. After promotion to Staff Sgt and serving as shift duty noncom in charge of coderoom operations, it was decided that I should acquire added skills needed to install, maintain as well as to operate a coderoom and was sent to Fort Monmouth, NJ and then to classified equipment training at Carlisle Barracks, PA.

In 1951 I was informed there were only four individuals in the service having my training. One was at the Whitehouse, one at the Pentagon, one at McArthurs Hq (Diachi Bldg) in Japan and myself. They needed someone to handle coderoom installations, maintenance, training and oversight of operations at the newly building NATO Hq outside Paris, France. At this time I held AEC, Top Secret and Cosmic security clearances (today these are common--not so for a Sgt at that time). My `wife-to-be` was a Staff Sgt in Signal Supply. We were married March 7, 1953 by the Mayor of Paris (red carpet, etc.) following a six month courtship, during which time I was promoted to Sgt 1st Class (also known as tech-sgt).

Returning home in April 1955 and following graduation from the Fort Hood Advanced Noncommissioned Officer Academy with a `Superior Rating`, I took note of my future possibilities which were (after eleven plus years of service) to accept a direct appointment (commission as a lieutenant for which I was eligible), stay as I was (status quo) or resign (yes, I was on an open ended type of career enlistment from which I could resign and be out within thirty days). For some reason my Officers were quite unhappy about this decision and made a number of efforts to change my mind. My decision was based principally on the fact that at twenty-nine years of age it would be necessary to get both training and work history before age thirtyfive, this being the no return point in whatever decision I made (it should be noted that my wife was with me all the way on this).

Feeling it was necessary to get some professional counciling (as well as having friends there) we moved to San Antonio and I took the five day battery of testing and analysis offered by Saint Mary`s University, San Antonio. It was a great shock when they asked me to come in for a personal interview and informed me that they wanted me to enroll. I told them I didn`t think I had time to go for four years and also get work experience. They said--we think you can make the full four year course in three years going day and night, year round, we will also find you at least 100 hours a month of employment. I was incredulous, they were insistent, I graduated B`BA `cum laude` in the spring of 1959 (they have never regretted it, nor have I).

We moved to St Louis, MO where I joined the local Accounting firm of Peat Marwick. After a concentrated eight months of 54-64 hour weeks and participation in forty two audits, I was offered employment by McDonnell Douglas Aircraft Co in St Louis, starting as a programmer and moving into systems analysis, along the way picking up an MBA from St Louis University (1963) and finally retiring as a Senior Analyst, Financial and Accounting (automated systems) in 1982.

Its been pretty boring since then, but who's complaining??

Winston Ray Norris
October, 2001