ROBERT STANLEY, JR

A McDowell County Veteran

United States Navy

August 19, 1945 - August 5, 1946

Robert Stanley Jr (Junior) was the son of Robert Smith Stanley and Goldie May Boling. He was born at Coalwood in McDowell Co on 5 April 1929 and died the day after Thanksgiving, 1985 in Benton Co, WA. He was my only brother.

Junior, as we called him, worked on the railroad from the time he was twelve years old until he joined the Navy at age fifteen for the second time. The first time he joined the Navy he was thirteen. He was accepted in Welch, but when he got to Charleston , it just so happened a family friend recognized him and told the induction personnel that they couldn’t accept him because he was just a boy. He then went back to working on the railroad until he tried again at age fifteen and this time the family friend was not in Charleston to prevent his induction. He spent his sixteenth birthday in training at Great Lakes Illinois.

Junior was a cook in the Navy.  He told stories of throwing food off the train to hungry bystanders as they rolled across the country distributing soldiers and sailors to their points, and ports, of call.   He ultimately was stationed at a Naval Italian Prisoner of War Camp in Pasco , WA where he met and married his lifelong companion Betty Jean Nelson, both sixteen years of age. 

Front

Back

Betty, Junior & Son Linnie 1946

Junior’s decorated picture on my Military Wall of Honour:

Me on Veterans Day 2006 holding the picture I created:

I would love to hear from anyone who remembers my brother Junior or my sister Tiny.

Christine Hayes

gabby362@juno.com

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McDowell County

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Last updated: 2/11/2023