The Worthington Times

The official photographer from the U.S. Navy has provided some initial scenes from today's memorial service for Alfred Livingston.

In the first picture, Alfred's only surviving sibling, Louise Hobbs, is escorted to her seat under the Welch & Cornett tent.  In the second picture, the pallbearers move Alfred's casket from the hearse while members of the U.S. Navy Club salute in the background.  In the third picture, Rev. Bill Beckelheimer of the First Baptist Church in Worthington gave the eulogy with Vern Spoor of Welch & Cornett standing to the right and a U.S. Naval Reservist guarding Alfred's casket.  In the last two photos, during the Navy's memorial to Alfred, including a gun salute and the playing of "Taps," the flag draping Alfred's casket was folded and presented to Louise Hobbs "On behalf of a grateful nation and a proud United States Navy."  

Historians say there are lessons to be learned from the past.  If you read through all of the old issues of The Worthington Times during the World War II era, there's a couple of threads running through that can't be missed.  If not lessons, they're at least food for thought.

One is how tightly the community stuck together, like an extended family - the subject of a future post.  The other, the subject of this post, is the trust in God, held by the community as a whole, that Worthington's sons and daughters would come home.

As Worthingtonians faced the tragedy, fear, worry, anxiety and grief of this era, they went to church.  They did this not only during the dark days, but also when the victory was declared.  The churches were where they went to celebrate as well as plead for help.  They sang songs, wrote poems, lit candles and prayed.  These prayers were sent up not only in church but during all of the other meetings and get togethers during this period. 

If one believes in the power of individual prayer, and especially if one believes in the power of many individuals united in prayer, reading the old Times might lead you to also believe that the folks back home had something to do with Worthington's servicemen coming home.  Although we lost at least 15 lives in World War II, considering over 400 had left to serve, it's amazing that was all we lost.

As the war escalated, stories in the Times indicate the prayers also escalated.  On many occasions, with worries about our servicemen and women and their families, the churches determined that it was necessary for every person in town to pray every day in unison.

The Times reports many weeks when this call to prayer was given to the whole town.  During these weeks, all churches rang their bells at exactly 12 noon every day.  This was the signal for everyone everywhere in Worthington to stop whatever they were doing, whether working, cooking, teaching, studying, driving or shopping.  All over town, there was silence as Worthington stood united in quiet prayer to ask God for the safe return of our sons and daughters who were in harm's way.

Reading these reports, then watching the news of today, makes me think we ought not forget how to ring the bell.       

Eldon East was a very special person who worked for the Times during World War II.  He was the "bill passer."  In between issues of the weekly paper, businesses and others could run into the Times office and have a sale bill or announcement or special notice quickly printed up on a flyer.  And then Eldon would spend the next day delivering this flyer to every doorstep in town.

Eldon knew more about everyone in town than anybody else.  And at any one time, Eldon could tell you precisely how many total households there were.  It was Eldon's specialty and his count was more accurate than any official's estimate or the census data.

At one point during WWII, Eldon said there were 479 doorsteps in town and the Times reported over 400 people from Worthington were gone to the war.  The population would have been similar to now - around 1500.

When the smoke cleared, at least 15 servicemen from this small town had lost their life during World War II.  It's hard to give an exact number because lists are sometimes incomplete and the numbers also depend on how far out of town you want to measure.

No matter how many were lost, one thing is clear, WWII deeply touched every heart in every home. 

When doing some research years ago for another story about WWII Worthington, I read through each issue of the Times from 1938 to 1945.  Until then, I didn't realize how extensive the effect of this war was on this small town and on each of its families.  They didn't teach me this in school.

WWII Worthington was a community united for their country and united for their town.  They were eager for news from each one who was gone, rejoiced with each other when one came home, gathered together when one did not, and prayed for the safe return of all.