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He was born in Bangor (I believe) on Jan.
20th 1924. He was exactly 25 days older than me. We first met
in the summer of 1929 when we became next door neighbors in Hartford. My
parents had just moved to Hartford from Detroit to live with my uncle (Doc
Stewart). Birdie’s dad, John Boynton managed the Elevator which was on
the south side of main street immediately east of the railroad tracks. I
can remember the Boynton’s police dog “Prince” riding in back of John
Boynton’s pickup.
We were 5 years old at the time and I
remember that I didn’t believe in Santa Claus any more but Birdie still
did. They didn’t have a fireplace at their house so Birdie always left a
window open for him and a plate of cookies and glass of milk. We started
the first grade together along with Peggy Olds, Jean Hastings and Red
Snodgrass. We both learned to ride a 2 wheel bike about the same time and
we liked to play in Roy Osborne’s barn. We also played cowboys at a
vacant house and barn on South Center St. across the street from Beth
McAlpine’s house. I can’t remember who owned that property but the house
and barn had a lot of broken windows and floors but ideal for stalking the
bad guys.
Another of Birdie’s relatives I got to
know was his uncle Marshall who lived in Benton
Harbor. Both Marshall and brother John always had a cigar in their mouth. I
worked at Clark’s Drug store from the summer of 1938 thru the summer of 1941. Marshall
Boynton worked for the Barensten Candy Co. in
Benton
Harbor and was a regular vendor for our drug store. He kept us supplied in
candy and also punch boards. Do you remember punch boards? I remember
selling them a nickel a punch or 6 for a quarter. I believe that you won
cash prizes if you got the lucky punch. I remember that we sold a pound
box of Whitman’s Sampler for $1.50 but you could also buy a pound box of
chocolate covered cherries for 29 cents. Marshall also supplied Bill Clark with the pin
ball machines that we always had in the drug store. Also in connection
with the drug store, Birdie’s brother Bill had married Betty Jean Quick in
his senior year in high school and they lived in the apartment over the
drug store. Birdie and I and Johnny Spaulding used to like to drop water
balloons from Bill’s place on passers by on the sidewalk below.
Clark’s Drug store was always a gathering place for the high school crowd.
I’m sure many a romance blossomed there. It was always busy after the
basket ball games and school dances. When I started there just after
finishing my freshman year, Eddie Lammon was still working there and also
Gordy Kime. Gordy had quite a temper at times and one time he was mad at
Eddie and thru the 5 pronged ice pick we used for breaking up ice at Eddie
and it stuck in the wooden counter next to Eddie’s leg. Birdie and I and
Johnny also liked to sneak into the State Theater across the street. Pat
Kelly worked at the theater and had to get a ladder from the back room to
change the marquee signs. So that was our chance to sneak in the back
door and crawl up the aisle to sit down and the see the second show.
Birdie and I and Johnny were a three-sum
from the time we first met Johnny, who lived south of town and went to a
country school (North Bell). However Johnny was in town a lot even before he came to high school
because his grandfather Ira Spaulding lived kitty corner from Doc
Stewart’s house. The three of us were crazy about airplanes and built a
lot of models and collected pictures of different planes both civilian and
military. We went to the Benton
Harbor airport a lot
particularly when there was an air show. One time Birdie and I and my
sister Joan took our first airplane ride with a barnstormer who flew a
Travelair biplane from a lot next to the fairgrounds. It cost us 50
cents apiece for about a 10 or l5 minute ride over Hartford. I had a
cheap Univex movie camera and took pictures of Hartford from the air. The
three of us rode in the front cockpit. An interesting episode with the
Barnstormers plane and Birdie took place at night after our ride. Birdie
came down when the pilot wasn’t around, untied the plane, started up the
engine and taxied it around the field. I didn’t know about this until
sometime later when Birdie related it to me.
As you know, all three of us became
military pilots in World War II. Johnny flew Corsairs off the carrier
Midway and was killed in a training flight off the coast of Virginia in
January of 1949. Incidently, the Midway is now permanently berthed in San
Diego as a museum. I had been separated from service by then but was
still flying as a weekend warrior while going to college in Kalamazoo and
Ann Arbor.
I corresponded with Birdie a lot during
the war. Birdie enlisted at 18 in the Army Air Corp in April of 1942 and
was commissioned a 2nd Lt the following October still just 18
years old. He spent most of the war years as an instructor at various
bases in the states so was gaining a lot flying proficiency because when
you teach others you are also becoming a better pilot yourself. He was
flying multiengine most of his later instruction years and so had some
B-17 time in and then the B-29. I believe it was early in 1945 that we
went to the Pacific and flew many B-29 bombing runs over Tokyo from a base
in Tinian. It was in May of 1945 that he was shot down over
Tokyo during the fire bombing of that city
from an altitude of 8,000 feet. He got all of the crew out before he
bailed out. He told me he had to shove the last crew member out before he
could leave. He landed in a field and was quickly apprehended by the
Japanese.
Birdie described his prison time in bits
and pieces to me whenever I could prompt him to talk about it. Every
morning at one of the prisons he had to stand at attention to answer a
roll call by reciting his name and the plane he flew which he had to say
in Japanese. I can say that word for B-29 but I don’t know how to spell
it. The worst prison he was in was in Tokyo and it was a cage about 22
feet long and 8 feet wide with about 50 prisoners crammed in it. They
rolled rice balls in on the floor and gave them very little water because
it would make them pee too much. It is hard to imagine the reality of
this but it was also described quite well in a book by Jim Lehrer a few
years ago. According to his description many pilots were executed and
many died of starvation. Another good book about the Japanese and the air
war in the Pacific is “Fly Boys”. I think Birdie was very lucky that the
atomic bomb came along when it did and no doubt saved his life. He spent
quite a bit of time in Air Force hospitals recovering after being released
from prison in September. I first saw him in October a day or two after
he came home and he still had a protruding starvation belly on him but by
then he was putting on weight and getting his health back.
Then in November of 1945, he met Doris
Jean Colman. She and Jean Hastings worked in the State Hospital in Kalamazoo. DJ was
engaged to a Navy man at the time that Jean introduced her to Birdie.
They hit it off pretty quick and were married in February of 1946. They
would have had their 60th anniversary last February. I
remember that wedding very well. DJ accused me of being on roller skates
to keep returning thru the reception line to kiss her again. I had yet to
meet Irene which didn’t occur until October of ’46. Birdie lived on March
St in Kalamazoo at that time with his mom and his step dad. We
affectionately called them Mom and Pop DeRyke. He and DJ also lived there
until they moved to the Sioux St Marie to manage the airport there. During
the time they lived on March St. we had many a party there which included
Irene after we met. I remember one time when Birdie and I were alone in
his house and telling jokes and laughing a lot. I got into such a
laughing jag and trying to drink some coffee while trying to stop laughing
that the coffee went down the wrong way and I passed out completely. I
made it to the kitchen sink coughing and then folded up like a dish rag as
he described it to me later. The next thing I knew Birdie was holding me
upside down and bouncing my head off the floor until the coffee finally
came up and unchoked me. How do you like those medical terms. Anyway he
saved my life but by the same token I wouldn’t have needed saving if he
hadn’t made me laugh so much.
When the two of them lived at the Sioux,
I got up there to see him on two different occasions. One time Irene and
I drove up and I remember that his younger brother Marshall and his mom
were there at the time. Another time Johnny and I rented a plane in
Kalamazoo and flew up to see them.
Irene and I were married in August of 1948
and Birdie was my best man. Ray Sreboth actually shared the roll of Best
Man with Birdie. Harry Parrett and Red Snodgrass were two of my ushers.
Johnny Spaulding would have been a part of it but he couldn’t get the time
off from his Navy duties.
In 1949 Birdie was called back into the
service to fly C-54’s on the Berlin Airlift. He had left the service at
the end of the war as a captain but when he returned it was as a 1st
Lt. Then later in ’49 he was stationed in Savannah, GA for the next 9
years. Here he flew the B-52 first as a co-pilot and when he left he was
a Lt Col and Wing Deputy Director of Operations. In 1953 I was working
for Pratt Whitney Aircraft and assigned to work at the Convair Fort Worth
plant. Our daughter Linda was 2 years old and we stopped in Savannah to
see the Boyntons. Their son John Gayle was a year older than Linda. They
owned a Cadillac convertible at the time and the four of us had a great
time driving around Savannah.
In 1958 and 59, Birdie
was assigned to Laughlin AFB in Del Rio, TX . He was the Ass’t Director
of Operations there and was flying the U-2. That’s the plane in which
Gary Powers was shot down over Russia. We had moved to San Diego in
1955 and had not visited the Boyntons in Texas.
From 1960 to 1964, he was assigned to SAC
HQ Offut Field in Omaha, NE. While there he went to
night school and earned his BS degree in Engineering. in 1964 We were
only in touch with him there by correspondence.
From 1965 to ’67 he was assigned to Beale
AFB in Marysville, CA. Here he was flying the
SR-71 nicknamed the “Blackbird” This was a Mach 3 plane. He has a plaque
on his wall in Garden Ridge saying he flew at three times the speed of
sound. That’s about 1800 miles per hour at 35,000 ft. Birdie described
that as a pretty rough ride particularly when the afterburners kicked
in. It carried a Pratt & Whitney engine. During the summer of 1967, our
family went to a Presbyterian Family Camp at Lake Tahoe and we stopped
over to visit the Boyntons for a couple of days. Linda was 16 at the
time and John was 17. DJ and Irene kind of arranged that they went on a
bowling date together. They were secretly hoping that something might
work out and that we would eventually be a family in common. However,
there was no chemistry there at all. John tells me now that he was
completely unaware of any complicity on the part of his mother and I don’t
think Linda was aware either. But mothers can be devious at times when it
comes to their children. I also remember the Boynton kids thinking that I
too was a Col. That’s because all the men they knew at that base were Cols. Birdie
was promoted to Bird Col. while at Beale and was Squadron Commander of the
99th Squadron. Later that same year their family visited us in
San Diego for a few days. I
remember our son Johnny and Rick fishing off a pier in
Mission Bay. I do remember that
Birdie was smoking quite regularly at that time. I had given it up in 1964
but couldn’t talk him into doing the same.
From 1967 to ’71, he went to the Pentagon
as Chief of the Strategic Reconnaissance Branch. In the summer of 1969 we
spent a week with the Boyntons in Fairfax, VA Linda was in Europe that
summer but Johnny and Cindy were with us. Marsh and his wife Esther were
also living in the Washington area at that time. We visited all the well
known sites in the capital which was a good time for our children both to
be with the Boyntons and learning something of our nation’s history. John
Gayle must have graduated from West Point during their time at Fairfax.
And to think he is now a retired Bird Col just like his dad.
From 1971 to 1974, the Boynton family
experienced what I would consider a real high point in Birdie’s career.
He became the Military Defense Attache at the US Embassy in Tehran, Iran. This, of course, was
during the reign of the Shah. Birdie had to learn to speak Farsi before
going there and of course he and the family had plenty of opportunity in 3
years to practice it a lot. Iran, at that time, was a beautiful place to
be and they were able to acquire many pieces of furnishing for their home
in Texas and also pieces for the children.
In 1973, we attended the class of 40
reunion in Kalamazoo. That was Bill Boynton’s graduation class. So we
did see Bill & Betty and many other Hartford people there. They
recognized the football team of 1940 and Bill was one of them. That same
year in June, we visited Pop DeRyke on March St and it happened to be on
his 80th birthday. He was very pleased to see Irene and me.
From 1974 to ’77, he was assigned to March
AFB as Director of Intelligence for the 15th Air Force. We
visited him there a couple of times. They had a nice large house on the
base. At that time, they were planning the house they wanted to build in
Texas when he retired. They showed us the house plans which they were
quite excited about. I remember one visit there when my sister Joan and
husband Don and also Jim Byers and Dick Walling were all there. This was
a mini Hartford reunion and fun was had by all. I remember that Chris was
of high school age then and in to horseback riding. Then in 1977, Birdie
did retire and they moved to Garden Ridge Texas to build their new home.
In the 1980’s, there were lots of HHS
reunions. On the odd years there was the All Class reunion in Michigan
and in the even years there was the West Coast reunions at different
cities west of the Mississippi. Birdie and DJ attended quite a few of
these as follows
1981 Class of 41, 40th
reunion in Coloma, MI
1982 the first West Coast Reunion in
San Diego
1984 the 2nd West Coast Reunion also in
San Diego
1989 All Class reunion in
Benton Harbor.
1990 the 5th West Coast Reunion in
San Diego, but preceded by a
cruise to Alaska
that ended in San Diego. That was a fun time with Birdie
and DJ.
1993 West Coast Reunion in Las Vegas
1996 West Coast Reunion in Tucson
2000 West Coast Reunion in Phoenix
In 1991, a bunch of us descended on San
Antonio for a surprise 45th Wedding anniversary for them They
really were surprised. It was well organized by their kids. From HHS,
besides Irene and I, there were the Snodgrasses (Red & Helene), Joan
Scouller, and the Johnsons (Jean & Don). And of course there were a raft
of Boynton relatives. Then in 1996, Irene and I joined them for their 50th
wedding anniversary which was supposed to be in the BOQ at Randolph but
didn’t happen because the place was being remodeled. We had a good time
in spite of the inconvenience. And again for their 55th
anniversary in 2001, we joined the Boynton crowd for a very wonderful
time. We remember the church choir putting on a spoof for D.J. that was
quite clever. But then came the sad time in November of that same year,
we lost DJ to cancer. I was privileged to be at her service to support
Birdie. The church choir sang a special anthem and left an empty seat
where DJ normally sat. What a woman!
We did get to visit Birdie one more time
in 2004 when we drove to Texas and spent a few days with him. He still
loved to cook his breakfast burritos which Irene and I always enjoyed. We
also stopped in Tyler and visited Mark & Suzanne. Didn’t get to see Tim
& Chrissy or Rick but John did visit us in San Diego that same year.
Birdie amazed us how well he got along alone and always having to take
such special precautions about his medications. I know that Chris came
down from Fredericksburg quite often and made sure things were going
right. I had called him on the phone several times after DJ died and he
always recognized by voice right away and seemed quite upbeat considering
his circumstances. He never forgot our birthdays and wedding anniversary.
So we were close friends for 77 years and
he leaves me with a richer life because I knew him.
Stu Elder
HHS 1941
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