July 21, 2006

Oroville Mercury Register 1943

HAROLD WILLIAMS ACCEPTED BY ARMY AIR CORPS
Pvt. Harold S. Williams of Oroville has been accepted by the army air corps as an aviation cadet and will start training upon his return to active duty after a 15-day furlough. He is visiting his mother Mrs. W. O. Nichols of Oroville. Upon completion of his aviation course he will be commissioned a second lieutenant. Williams has been stationed at Sunnyvale. He entered the army seven months ago. Another son of Mrs. Nichols, Herbert, recently was promoted from sergeant to staff sergeant in the army. He is with an infantry band at Camp Adair, Ore., and is in charge of the dance orchestra at the camp. He visited in Oroville for three days last week, accompanied by his wife.

MARINE SENDS ATTRACTIVE PICTURE FROM SOMEWHERE
Private Jerry J. Walker of the United States Marine Corps doesn’t say where he is in his letters home but if the above picture is any indication he probably is not anxious to leave. At the time he sent the picture, Walker wrote that the “California dew” was making everything pretty sloppy but the climate looks all right in the tropical scene. Walker is the son of Mr. and Mrs. Jimmie Walker. He has been to the service for about fifteen months. At the time he joined the Marines he was employed in the composing room of the Mercury register. He also tells in his letter of receiving packages from home. He writes, “I guess grandma (Mrs. Ed McCoy) is O. K. because the cakes she sent me were better than ever. We really go for them.”

ROBERT HOPPER NOW AT CAMP SPECIALIZING ON WORK WITH RIFLE CAMP WOLTERS, TEXAS
Pvt. Robert Luther Hopper, 19, son of Myrtle Hopper of Palermo, California, has arrived at this infantry replacement training center to begin his basic training as an infantryman. He has been assigned to a battalion stressing rifle.

MORROW STEADMAN A SECOND LIEUTENANT
Lt. Morrow Steadman and Mrs. Steadman visited relatives in Oroville last week en route to Vancouver, Wash., where Steadman will be stationed. Entering the service as a private in September, 1942, Steadman was admitted to the officer training school in the infantry. He completed base training at Camp Robinson, Ark., and received his second lieutenant’s commission March 19, 1943, at Fort Benning, Ga. Steadman is a graduate of the University of California and is a member of the California bar. Mr. and Mrs. Steadman have been residing in Berkeley. Steadman is the son of Mr. and Mrs. Ed Steadman of Oroville. Mr. and Mrs. Ed Steadman also have five nephews in the U. S. service they are the sons of Mr. and Mrs. Fred S. Reed of Canadiagua, New York.

HOCKING STUDYING AT NORTHWESTERN COLLEGE
Flying Cadet Donald R. Hocking is studying at Northwestern State College, in Alva, Okla. Hocking, who received a civilian pilot’s license while attending Chico State College, enlisted in the air corps reserve last September. He was called into service last January and was sent to Sheppard Field Tex., for classification before being assigned to Northwestern. He was working in the shipyard in Richmond when he received a call to active duty. He was graduated from Oroville high school in 1939. Hocking is the son of City Clerk and Mrs. R. E. Hocking of Pomona avenue.

Stu’s notes; I decided not to submit Jerry Walker's picture that was printed in the Mercury in 1942, I’m surprised that it got by Dan Beebe, as it was of a beautiful topless native girl, rare for our local paper. I have written about Jerry before, he was in the war a long time, fighting many places. In 1944 he was on Tarawa. Do any of my readers know what he did after the war. He was an Oroville High School graduate Class of 1941. I think Donald Hocking is the man I knew that owned gas stations in Thermalito, at the Palms and later on Grand Avenue. He was a very good man as I remember. Soon, in about a week, many of the High School Graduates of Oroville High School District will receive a 4 page packet. It will give you information on the All School Class Reunion on October 14th, 2006. Fred Daley has finished our sign, it is a real work of art. It will soon go up on our vacant lot on Montgomery Street.