James William "Bill" Harris Jr.
SGT in 3133rd Signal Service Co
Military occupational specialty: 674 (message center chief)
ASN#34711066
Born 1923 in TN, Died 2005
County of residence at enlistment: Shelby County, TN
Other residence(s): Nashville, TN; Lexington, TN
United States Army, European Theatre of Operations
College education after the war: Vanderbilt, Tennessee Tech?
Bill Harris was born on July 28, 1923 in Nashville, TN. His father was a steamboat pilot, and he was an only child. His mother died of tuberculosis when he was only five years old and he was then raised by his maternal grandparents; his grandfather was a Nashville police inspector.
He enlisted on March 6, 1943; interestingly enough he enlisted at Camp Forrest outside of Tullahoma, TN, where the Ghost Army would be activated in January, 1944. Family lore has it that he tried to enlist early and repeatedly in and around Nashville. He’d started with the Navy, hoping to be a pilot, but he wore glasses and was turned away. His granddaughter recalls him saying that he knew “they’d come calling eventually!” He was assigned to the 3133rd Signal Service Company and saw service in Italy with the unit during the war, first with the 3133rd and later with the 88th Mountain Division. He was discharged from the Army on February 16, 1946, and immediately joined the Reserves.
After returning from Europe, he studied engineering at Vanderbilt, and possibly also at Tennessee Tech. His father, who had married again, died in a motor vehicle accident in Indiana in 1949 while Bill was still in college.
The 1950 census reports that Bill was working as a radio repairman with the National Guard; he was still living with his grandparents and several aunts and uncles.
Bill married Robbie Jean Sullivan on June 10, 1952 and they settled in Nashville. (It is likely that they met at Vanderbilt, since she graduated from there with a nursing degree just before their marriage.) At the time he was working for McWhorter & Franklin Engineers in Nashville.
The Harrises became the parents of two sons: James “Jim” Jr. and Edward. Bill went on to serve as an operator for several Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) power plants, and as a plant superintendent for Colorado Utilities. He also owned and retired from Sullivan & Harris Insurance Company in Lexington, TN, where he and his family eventually settled.
Bill was a long-standing member of the First Baptist Church in Lexington, Rotary International, and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW).
He died on February 24, 2005 and is buried at Lexington Cemetery in Lexington, TN.
Sources:
1930 census
1940 census
1943 enlistment record
1946 record of his discharge in The Tennessean (Nashville, TN)
https://www.newspapers.com/image/143273105/?match=7&terms=james%20w.%20harris%20jr
1948-51 Korean War era draft card
1949 article about his father’s death in the Princeton Daily Clarion (IN)
https://www.newspapers.com/image/437726798/?match=8&terms=james%20w.%20harris
1950 census
1952 engagement announcement in The Jackson Sun (TN)
https://www.newspapers.com/image/282537384/?match=1&terms=robbie%20sullivan
1952 marriage announcement in The Jackson Sun (TN)
https://www.newspapers.com/image/282570235/?match=1&terms=robbie%20sullivan
2005 Find a Grave record (includes obituary)
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/193840825/james-william-harris
2005 Social Security applications and claims index
2026 (May 18) email from granddaughter Megan Harris to Catherine Hurst