The Letters and Photos of Leon and Mary Grayson, 1942
1435 Sheridan Street
Our grandparents Leon and Mary Grayson moved to Washington, DC from their native Savannah, Georgia in 1935 when Leon took a job in the U.S. Department of Justice. Leon and Mary lived in a series of DC boarding houses until moving to an unfurnished apartment in the Brightwood neighborhood in May 1938, then finally settling long-term into an adjacent 3rd floor garden apartment at 1435 Sheridan St. in April 1940.
1940 Military Draft
Leon’s father William L. Grayson, a Spanish-American War era veteran and retired Colonel in the Georgia National Guard, was their most faithful correspondent until his death in March 1941. In a number of his letters Col. Grayson referenced the war in Europe. In August 1939 he wrote, “I hope we will not become involved. The life of one American boy is more precious than the whole of Germany.” In November 1939, “I’m certainly glad we now have a neutrality bill that ought to keep us out of war.” Leon had served in the Georgia state militia as a young man, then participated in ROTC at the University of Georgia (UGA), earning an officers’ commission and promotion to 1st Lieutenant. Both of Leon’s older sisters were married to military officers, and younger sister Edith would marry a Naval Academy graduate in late 1941. A U.S. military draft was enacted on Sept. 16, 1940, requiring all men ages 21-45 to enroll. Mary’s 27 year-old brother Joseph Jr. did so, as did Leon, his 40 year-old married brother Spence, and their unmarried 24 year-old brother William M. Young Bill had been working at a paper mill after struggling academically at a number of institutions including UGA. On October 2, 1940 Bill enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Corps, likely a small disappointment to his officer father. The gentle Col. Grayson would never have said so directly, but he addressed the subject obliquely in an Oct. 24, 1940 to Leon. “I note that you have registered. I would look into re-establishing your former rank in the National Guard. You could serve your country better as an officer than you could as one in the ranks.”
Missing in Action
Col. Grayson’s words about “one American boy” would prove prescient, though he would not live to see it. Bill Grayson was a B-17 crewman serving in the Philippines when his air base was attacked on Dec. 8, 1941 – 10 hours after Pearl Harbor. By the first of January he was fighting the invading Japanese army as an infantryman on Bataan, where he underwent privation and starvation for more than three months. While under siege Bill was able to write a letter dated February 14, 1942. Spence typed out copies for the family. It read in part: “I am O.K…. I wish I could tell you where I am and what I am doing. So far though I have been plenty damned lucky. I have lost everything I own, jewelry, clothes, etc. but I am not doing any too much worrying about that. I really have a lot to tell you all. I sure will be glad when this is all over and I can come back home…. This war really does open my eyes to a lot of things. It is not what it is cracked up to be though and I am going to be as careful as I can be. You never do realize how much you want to get back and how much you really do care!!”
By the time the letter was shared with them, Leon and Mary would have known they were expecting their first child. Their wonderful news was gravely tempered when the family learned that Bill and the entire garrison on Bataan were surrendered on April 9, 1942, though Americans were mercifully in the dark about the ensuing Bataan Death March, POW camps, and Hell Ships which the dwindling number of surviving prisoners were destined to endure or perish in. Whether Bill was alive or dead, no one knew. Events beyond the Philippines were troubling but encouraging, including news of an allied victory near Midway Island in the Pacific, successful bombing raids over Tokyo, and offensive incursions into North Africa.
Leon’s Draft Status
We surmise that Leon was initially classified as 1-A (available for military service) upon his registration in October 1940. By March 1942 Mary’s pregnancy may have led him to appeal for a deferment. By mid-April, perhaps Leon thought it wise to belatedly heed his late father’s advice: “If I were you, should our country get involved, I would make an application to get in the Judge Advocate Department. It is an important branch of the service.” Though unstated, it was understood that an Army lawyer probably wouldn’t see combat. In late April 1942 Leon was notified by his local draft board that his classification was (changed to?) 3-A, a standard hardship deferment for men with small children. It is important to note that the notification card states, “Date of mailing, April 24, 1942.”
A Poorly-Timed Letter
Leon and Mary eloped in December 1933, and more than eight years later they were still childless at ages 35 and 32 respectively. We needn’t imagine their joy at news of their pregnancy, as numerous subsequent pictures and personal letters speak volumes. Personal letters? If they were cozily settled into the Sheridan Street apartment with a 3-A draft classification why would they need to write letters? It may date back to one poorly-timed letter.
On the day after the 3-A designation was mailed, Leon sent a completed four page “Personnel Placement Questionnaire” (War Department form 0850) to U.S. Army Air Forces Headquarters. Within it asked, “In what fields/capacity do you consider that you could be of special service to the Government?” His cover letter, dated April 25, 1942, summarized his intentions: “At this time I place my services at the disposal of my Country feeling that I am qualified by reason of my past military experience and legal experience consisting of approximately six years practice of law in Savannah, Georgia, and approximately seven years as an attorney in the Department of Justice…. It is my thought that I may render service as a commissioned officer in either the instruction of basic training, or military intelligence.” Did these two communications cross in the mail? Did Leon receive the amended draft status and immediately regret sending the cover letter and questionnaire? For the rest of that spring and summer, there were no repercussions. It is likely Leon felt a mixture of relief and guilt, recognizing that men including his brother (should he even be alive) were undergoing hardships, while his day to day life was unaffected.
A New Baby Girl
Mary Ann Grayson was born August 26, 1942. Cancelled checks indicate that Mary had a day nurse come in to help with the baby while Leon commuted to and from work. There are plenty of photos of baby Mary Ann alone, some with one parent, but we’ve found only one of all three Graysons, taken in front of their apartment building. Leon’s family was Episcopalian, though one relative quipped “whiskeypalian” might better hit the mark in some respects. Mary’s father Joseph Bell, Sr. was devoutly Roman Catholic, and Leon agreed to take sacramental marriage vows in a Washington, D.C. Catholic church (St. Ann’s at Tenley Circle) when Mary joined him in October 1935. “I had your silver marked,” Mary’s mother Julia wrote. “How was the wedding?” We knew our grandmother as a regular Sunday Mass-goer, while our grandfather attended sporadically.
Mary Ann’s Baptism
Nativity Catholic parish, founded in 1900, is five blocks from the Sheridan St. apartment. Mass for parishioners has been celebrated in three different structures over its history, each sequentially more grand, and all still standing. The first is a plain low-rise wooden structure and the second a four-story brick church topped with a stone cross, both on high ground facing Georgia Ave. The newest sanctuary, a stately Romanesque-style structure constructed of multi-hued fieldstone, was dedicated September 26, 1942 and lies behind them, its large wooden entry doors and prominent rose window facing 13th St. toward the Rock Creek valley. Mary Ann was baptized in this brand new parish church on November 7, 1942.
An Indifferent War
The wheels of the Draft Board and War Department both began to move in Leon’s direction almost simultaneously. Our grandfather had been called to report for a U.S. Army physical on November 6, so on the day of the baptism he suspected a call to active duty would likely follow. Perhaps he hoped he could spend Christmas with his wife and daughter, and steeled himself for an upcoming separation. A letter from the draft board dated November 13, which included a supplementary questionnaire and stated “Your case has been reopened,” lessened that expectation, while another from the War Department dated November 20 extinguished it: “By direction of the President you are temporarily appointed and commissioned in the Army of the United States…. This commission will continue… for the duration of the war and six months thereafter unless sooner terminated.” On Sunday, November 22, Leon was sworn into The U.S. Army, not in the Judge Advocate Department but the Coast Artillery Corps. He was immediately dispatched to his first duty station: Camp Stewart, Georgia, a mere 35 miles southwest of the Graysons’ hometown of Savannah. Mary’s mother Julia had visited the base with Mary’s sister and brother-in-law in early 1941: “Margaret and Max took us to Hinesville and we had a look at the new Anti-Aircraft Center, a camp and training center for some sixteen thousand soldiers. We had a picnic lunch in the wood. It was a regular fine winter Sunday in the sunny south.” What the winter of 1942-1943 would have in store for Leon, Mary, baby Ann, and those that loved them lay in the unforeseen future.
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