James Richard Edwards

NOTE: I am 95% sure this is the right guy. Clairette, Hamilton, and Hico are all pretty close together, the Bell Telephone job matches his enlistment job category and his work in the GA, and the rank of T/5 on his headstone matches his GA records. We know the enlistment record is correct because the ASN matches that in the GA records, and the other records show the same birth year as the enlistment record. We know he had a Dallas mailing address on a Signal Company post-war mailing list, but the address doesn't match any of the addresses I was able to find in Dallas directories. I'm not 100% sure!

James Edwards was born on August 15, 1921 in Clairette, TX His father was a farmer, and he was the fourth of five children.

When he registered for the draft, on February 16, 1942, he said that he was living in Dallas and working at Bell Telephone. This jibes with the information in his enlistment record seven months later—on September 22, 1942—where he says that he had one year of college and that his occupation is "semiskilled linemen and servicemen, telegraph, telephone, and power." At the time he was living in Hamilton, TX.

During the war he served overseas in the Signal Company Special, using his job experience in the areas of installation and maintenance, telephone and wire.

He was discharged from the Army with the rank of T/5 on October 25, 1945 and it's likely he went back to Dallas and his work with the phone company.

He married Peggy Lou Hunter on August 11, 1946 and they were found living in Dallas in the 1950s. Various Dallas city directories says that he is an office worker, a supervisor, or an installer with the telephone company.

James and Peggy divorced on June 27, 1969.

James died on July 15, 2007; his death notice states that he had been a service supply supervisor. At the time he was living at Eden Care Center Nursing Home in Hico, TX. He is buried at Clairette Cemetery.

Sources:

1930 census

https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/64047564:6224?tid=&pid=&queryId=635bdaa1147430dae247c19351cc6546&_phsrc=BhY9&_phstart=successSource

1940 census

https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/155489512:2442?ssrc=pt&tid=14787697&pid=190187731478

1942 draft card

https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/20097275:2238?_phsrc=ijD6&_phstart=successSource&_phtarg=ijD4&gsfn=james+r&gsln=edwards&ml_rpos=15&queryId=e350baf24cbde734e72417eb8c2ebbde

1942 enlistment record

https://search.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?indiv=1&dbid=8939&h=4787392&tid=&pid=&queryId=4cf224b658bb4eefabfa4159e24f5a0d&usePUB=true&_phsrc=meu2&_phstart=successSource

1958 Dallas City Directory

https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/409815847:2469?tid=&pid=&queryId=d01ec44a729ca142e05098b6e3381805&_phsrc=ijD11&_phstart=successSource

1969 Texas divorce index

https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/1969025997:8794?tid=&pid=&queryId=20b96d12c86bb088572295fd9270b81a&_phsrc=BhY5&_phstart=successSource

1976 Texas divorce index

https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/1976072321:8794?tid=&pid=&queryId=68815599a24c40711c13fd7a364b8a7c&_phsrc=BhY6&_phstart=successSource

2007 Find a Grave record

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/28295099/james-richard-edwards

2007 VA death record

https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/12836301:2441?tid=&pid=&queryId=d6d95bf0a258a262cb459c88c2e2b082&_phsrc=VLi3&_phstart=successSource

2007 Social Security death index

https://search.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?indiv=1&dbid=3693&h=80162866&tid=&pid=&queryId=d6d95bf0a258a262cb459c88c2e2b082&usePUB=true&_phsrc=VLi3&_phstart=successSource

2007 death notice in Stephenville Empire-Tribune (TX)

https://www.genealogybank.com/doc/obituaries/obit/1330235947335E58-1330235947335E58?h=2&fname=james&lname=edwards&fullname=&kwinc=&kwexc=&rgfromDate=2007&rgtoDate=2007&formDate=&formDateFlex=exact&dateType=range&processingtime=&addedFrom=&addedTo=&sid=vafvvmokqjiqlbvpsnbhwnamacssslot_wma-gateway010_1627006628420