Born in Onawa, Iowa, on this date in 1892: granduncle Frank Colby Myers. We never met, but my parents knew him, and visited him and his wife at the avocado farm near San Diego where they lived in retirement. That was in the late 1960s, after I was no longer living at home. They took this snapshot of Uncle Frank and his wife, Mildred (nee Dyer).
Frank pursued a dual career, as a Marine Corps officer and an engineer for the city of Oakland, California. He served in WW1 as an enlisted man, around the time the snapshot below was taken, not long before Stephen Myers’ death.
In WW2, Uncle Frank was a full colonel, in overall command of Marine forces at the invasion of Okinawa. At retirement, his rank in the reserves was Brigadier General. Meanwhile, he rose through the civilian ranks to become a top supervising engineer in Oakland. Read more …
For some unknown reason, it seems that family relationships with Frank were not as close as with Uncles Larry, Gene, and Dan (my Grandpa), and Aunt Nora. Frank’s only child, Stephen D. Myers, is still living, but was estranged from his parents somehow. Cousin Gail tells a poignant story of an elderly and terminally ill Uncle Frank, whom he had never met, knocking at Gail’s door, spending the night, and later mailing Gail some family mementos that “no one else was interested in.”
