Wall of Faces – Remembering Vietnam Veterans

 In February of 2017, the History Center received one of its most poignant, and challenging, research requests via a phone call from Hawaii. Janna Hoehn, a volunteer researcher, was helping to find photographs for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund’s (VVMF) Wall of Faces, the online “Virtual Wall” to pair with each name engraved in the Vietnam Wall memorial in Washington D.C. When Ms. Hoehn called us, she had the names of four veterans whose address of record was “Bossier” or “Bossier City” and for whom she had no photo for a proper visual tribute.  

Arthur N. Welch

Dennis Black

 Right after talking to us, Ms. Hoehn was able to   contact a girlfriend of Bossier veteran Alton D.   Kellogg and within minutes the girlfriend scanned   and emailed his military portrait. Within a couple of   days, History Center staffers were able to provide   Ms. Hoehn with photos for two more of the Bossier   names:  yearbook photos of Bossier High School   alums Dennis B. Black and Arthur N. Welch. Arthur   Welch a little bit of detective work by Marisa   Richardson at the History Center. At first, she passed   over the yearbook photo of the student listed as “Buddy Welch”. Once back at her computer, she decided to dig a little. She found through an online memorial tribute by a boyhood friend that Arthur N. Welch was indeed known by the name “Buddy.”  

The last remaining veteran to find was Herbert Walter, who died in September of 1969 at the age of 23. As an African American who would have attended high school around 1960-64 and whose home of record was Bossier City, we figured he likely attended Bossier Colored High (or possibly CH Irion High School in Benton. He is buried at Longview Baptist Church cemetery, northeast of Bellevue).  We did not have a complete run of yearbooks for the schools for black students. The yearbooks we do have or have seen tended to be paperback, less likely to last than hardbound books. Some of the schools were not able to put out a yearbook each year. We also could not locate an obituary for Herbert Walter, so we had to widen our search for Herbert Walter’s photo. I wrote in the Spring 2017 History Center newsletter that we were seeking the public’s help.   

After reading that newsletter, local researcher and genealogist, Isabelle Woods, along with researcher and retired “Shreveport Times” reporter John Andrew Prime, whose reporting included local military history, became determined to find a photograph of Herbert Walter. They were determined that his picture could be added to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund’s Wall of Faces.  

Herbert Walter

Mrs. Woods and Mr. Prime searched for records that could lead to family members. After they found the soldier’s obituary which listed him as Herbert Walters, instead of Walter, Mrs. Woods was then able to get the names of his family members. However, his widow’s name was not given on the obituary, and it did not contain a photograph.  

Mrs. Woods located and contacted a different family member and learned the names of Herbert Walter’s widow and daughter and that they had long ago moved out of the state. Knowing just their names and a general location that they had moved to decades prior, Mrs. Woods continued her search. Incredibly, Isabelle Woods successfully located and contacted Herbert Walter’s widow, who was happy to share photographs of him. 

In summer of 2022, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund made the announcement that at least one photo had finally been found for each of the 58,281 service members listed on The Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall. This effort was completed by volunteers, like Jana Hoehn, from across the country, and by the attendant efforts from local institutions and volunteers who stepped up in cities and small towns and rural areas across the country. 

We remain grateful to Isabelle Woods for her time, her determination and her research expertise. We are thankful for John Andrew Prime, whose assistance was crucial in finding the trail that led to the visual reminders of the short life of Herbert Walter. It is because of their efforts that not one but three photographs of Herbert Walter were added to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund’s “Wall of Faces.” You can virtually visit the wall of faces here: http://www.vvmf.org/Wall-of-Faces/ 

For research requests like Ms. Hoehn’s that we receive from around the country, we are delighted to take donations of yearbooks or to borrow one to carefully scan or photocopy. If you would like to add to or explore our collection of Bossier veterans’ stories or photos, please stop by or contact the History Center. We are located at 2206 Beckett St, Bossier City, LA and are open M-Th 9-8, Fri 9-6, and Sat 9-5. Our phone number is (318) 746-7717 and our email is history-center@bossierlibrary.org

For other fun facts, photos, and videos, be sure to follow us @BPLHistoryCenter on FB, @bplhistorycenter on TikTok

Article by: Pam Carlise

Images: 

Arthur “Buddy” Welch 1950-1969 Bossier High School yearbook 1967, his junior year. He is not in the yearbook his senior year.

Dennis Black 1947-1968 Airline High School yearbook 1966

 

Herbert Walter 1946-1969

Printice A. Darnell, a Veteran for Veterans

 In honor of Veterans Day coming up on November 11th, this column is dedicated to Mr. Printice Darnell, whom I had the pleasure of interviewing in June of 2014, about two years before he passed away. Interviewing him was recommended to me by our patron, Lynda Methvin, the daughter of Mr. Darnell’s former roommate at the Northwest Louisiana Veterans Home in Bossier City. Mr. Darnell, a World War II Veteran who served in the U.S. Army from 1944-46 in New Guinea, Philippines and Japan was a passionate advocate for Veterans in Louisiana.

Printice A. Darnell was born Sept 21, 1918 near Arcadia in Bienville Parish. Soon after, his family moved to Bossier City so that his father could work at Louisiana Oil Refining. Printice became Salutatorian of the 1935 graduating class of Bossier High School. While in school he worked for Milady Cleaners with most of his business on Barksdale Airfield (now Barksdale Air Force Base). He was married with one daughter when he was finally drafted, as he had hoped, into the Army in 1944. When his prior work experience was discovered, he made Staff Sergeant from Private Frist Class in three days in order to run the military laundry on the island of Honshu in Japan.

Following a post-War divorce, he married Lois Lynn (to whom he was married for 63 years until her death in 2011) and had two more daughters. He had his own business, Darnell Cleaners in Bossier City, for 20 years. He ran for the office of Bossier City Marshal and for State Representative but lost by just a few votes to be in the runoff for marshal and by only twenty votes for representative, despite refusing to take any money at all in political fundraising, with the exception of $25.00 an acquaintance insisted he take, since he believed so strongly that public office should not be ‘bought.’

He became Post Commander four times at his local Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) and later State Commander and served on national VFW committees. For 15 years he held the position of Bossier Parish Service Officer for the Louisiana Veterans Affairs. Service Officers assisted veterans with their pension applications and other formalities. In 1981, Mr. Darnell urged Governor Roemer to allow the Veterans Affairs Commission to keep the Parish Service Offices when all but a few were slated to be abolished. Governor Roemer responded, ‘You want the job?’ and put Mr. Darnell on the Veterans Affairs Commission.

In 1988-1992 Mr. Darnell was appointed Director (now Secretary) of the Louisiana Division of Veterans Affairs. It’s not something Mr. Darnell, who quipped “I was lucky, I was not smart,” ever imagined he would be but he is proud of his accomplishments in that position. He was able to keep Parish Service Officers in every parish but one (that shared with a neighbor parish) when those positions were again threatened and to get an increase for veterans’ disability pensions.

The accomplishment Mr. Darnell is most proud of was establishing the Louisiana Veterans’ Home in Monroe (the second in the state, after Jackson’s) and establishing an honor guard available for Louisiana veterans’ funerals, not just for those of high-ranking officers, something the military branches said they had no funds to do. Though he described himself as one who ‘goes crazy’ if he’s not working (this was a man who asked for and got a job at Louisiana Downs at age 87), he did enjoy the “exemplary attention” when he became a Veterans Home resident at the Northwest Louisiana Veterans Home in Bossier City.

Mr. Darnell passed away in July of 2016 at the age of 97.

If you would like to see a transcript of his interview, or any other interviews in our oral history collection, please stop by or contact the History Center. We are located at 2206 Beckett St, Bossier City,

LA and are open M-Th 9-8, Fri 9-6, and Sat 9-5. Our phone number is (318) 746-7717 and our email is history-center@bossierlibrary.org

For other fun facts, photos, and videos, be sure to follow us @BPLHistoryCenter on FB, @bplhistorycenter on TikTok

Article by Pam Carlise

Photos: Printince Darnell in 2014

Campaign Card for Printice A. Darnell, Candidate for Marshal, Bossier City, La. And Ward 2