You kill it, no you kill it
People tell me stories
Sometimes when I exhibit at craft and vendor fairs, people will relate a story their father or grandfather told, while saying they wished they had recorded it and that he had told them more. Today’s story is courtesy of Sandra Sutter Richards of Texas, a recent subscriber, about her father, Burnie Sutter, front right in the picture; her mom, Rozetta, and David Dux on the left; Paul Morris, back left, and Marion Ray on the Capitol steps in Columbia, South Carolina.
“They were in basic training at Fort Jackson I assume, and any weekend they got off, they all went to Mom’s place; she had followed my dad there,” Sandra wrote in a Facebook message. “The guys came whenever they could for a good home-cooked meal. Their funny story they often told during our many visits was when Mom sent them out to kill a chicken she wanted to cook for their dinner. Dad had not gotten to come that weekend, but they weren’t letting that deter them from Mom’s home-cooked meal. However, the others had never killed a chicken. Apparently the chicken died a terrible death by a hundred hacks as it ran around the back yard and they tried to catch it!!”
Sandra’s father was in the 90th “Texas-Oklahoma” Infantry Division, and she mentioned in a Facebook post about the 90th and the 712th Tank Battalion, which was attached to the 90th, that she got to know Jim Flowers when he came down to live with her family in the Dallas area, I’m guessing later in life, or after his wife passed away. I sent her some material about Jim and his Distinguished Service Cross, which I’ll save for a later Substack, and we then exchanged messages.
“I’ve decided it is time to write my father’s story or it will die with me,” Sandra wrote. “He told me some stories that only I know as all his close buddies passed before him. As far as I know, there are no 358th M Company veterans from his extended group alive yet, so he was the last when he passed of Covid in January of 2022, just two months shy of his 101st birthday. I am not a writer for sure, but will do my best to write what I know, with the help of 90th history books and the stories in my head!! Sandra continued:
I’m so glad I got in contact with you. You have spurred me on! A lady at our church is giving a presentation for interested people on how to write your life story, so I signed up for it. Thanks for the idea of speaking into a tape recorder. I should have had my Dad do that years ago!
Thank you for the Substack! It brought back memories of a book my Dad’s good friend wrote several years ago and sent us a copy of. When my dad went into the Army on March 23rd, 1943, four days after he and my mom got married, he went to train with the 106th [Infantry Division]. He went to England and on to Normandy to land on Utah Beach and was assigned to the 90th Infantry Division. But his best friend, Marion Ray, stayed with the 106th and was taken prisoner during the Battle of the Bulge, and spent several months in various Stalags. After the war and his release, our families visited often, as he lived just a few hours from us in Illinois. I think I even considered him to be my Uncle Marion. When he moved to Maryland, and my husband and I moved to Hershey, Pa., we visited him several times. I really didn’t know anything about his time as a POW until early in the 2000s when he wrote his book, “Damn Cold and Starving.” It really opened my eyes to what the POWs endured. Much like the stories you just told [in an earlier Substack]. That made me think to look to see if his book was still available, and of course I found it on Amazon! [where only two used copies are available].
A chicken story (from my 2010 interview with ex-POW Bob Cash of the 492nd Bomb Group)