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Nettie was the first daughter
born November 24, 1921 to Grover and Rosa Crow. Nettie met her husband
Hershel Louis Fralick when his sister, Ruby fixed them up on a blind date.
Red was in the Civilian Conservation Corps (C.C.C) at Troy Missouri. They
were married November 23, 1939 by a country preacher, Reverend Edwin P.
Phillips. They lived in a house on her parent’s farm for a year, then
for another year on the Ned Jones place near Dexter. (Red as everyone knew him
by) worked at a defense plant in St. Louis, Missouri in 1941 and enlisted in the
US Marines on December 14, 1942.
Hershel took his military basic training at Fulbrook, California and was shipped overseas to Maui, Hawaii. He saw
combat on Roi and Namur in the Kwajalian Atoll, of the Marshall Islands in
February 1944. He was then shipped to Saipan and Tinian, of the Marianas
Islands where he saw combat in June, July and August of 1944. He was
awarded the Purple Heart when wounded on Tinian, August 1, 1944. During
this time Nettie worked at the Douglas Aircraft Plant in Long Beach, California.
On February 19, 1945 Red landed on Iwo Jima
and fought until March 16th, without changing clothes or benefit of a
hot meal. He received the Presidential Unit Citation on December 11, 1944
for service on Saipan and was wounded there a second time on June 23,
1944. His unit would pull back to Maui to rest between invasions, and
would get a weekend pass to the main island (Oahu) a few times and stay at the
Royal Hawaiian Hotel in Honolulu. He met Netties brother Cleo on Oahu one
time but never saw her brother Paul, even though he could see the LST, which
Paul was assigned to, in the distance during some of his landings.
Hershel was shipped back to the Great Lakes in
Illinois and discharged. A fter his discharge Red and Nettie lived in Bernie for
a year then near Vinson for another year. Hershel then went to Railroad
Telegrapher School in St. Louis and was hired by the Chicago and Eastern
Illinois Railroad in June 1948. Around this time Nettie went to work for
Hasiery Lingerie store in Danville, Illinois and worked there for 8 years.
Later Hershel was transferred to Chester, Illinois. While in
Chester, Nettie took a nursing aide training course and worked for 25
years at Memorial Hospital. She worked in the Drug unit drying out and
bringing kids off of alcohol and hard drugs. When the unit closed she took
care of an elderly woman until she passed away 7 months later.
Hershel was born on January 14, 1922 and
passed away on June 19, 1978. He is buried in section III of the Bernie
Cemetery.
The following are the words Nettie wrote me in a letter:
"I spent the winter of 1996 traveling in the Company of my brother Junior.
and his wife Eva. Eva got me started back to embroidering and since I came
home I’ve been doing pillow cases, scarf’s, and table cloths for my
granddaughter's hope chest, and a few for my own girls that they received for
Christmas gifts." Nettie stated in the same letter that her greatest
accomplishments were "seeing my three daughter’s graduate from
college". |
